Running Like Grandma

So I woke up Sunday morning with a pain along the inner side of my foot—it hurt just walking. I was planning on running five miles, but wondered if I should just take the day off. That would be the reasonable thing to do. After all, why risk an injury just to fit in a few more easy miles?

But that isn’t what I did. I decided to run, but with a difference. I call it “grandma” running. “Grandma” running is when you run slow and with a shortened stride. You’ve probably seen some older people running like this, thus the source of the name. And no, I am not trying to insult grandmas or slow runners—I actually find great wisdom in the way they run. You see, sometimes it is better to run slowly than to not run at all. And if you really have a problem with running this slow, just think of it as a faster alternative to walking, which is what you might be doing if you have an injury and want to get some exercise.

What are the advantages of “grandma” running as opposed to total rest or some form of cross training?

First, running at any speed is more specific to the sport of running than any other exercise. As we all know, the principle of training known as “specificity” states that the best way to train for a given sport is by practicing the actual sport or using movements that are close to the movements used in that sport. Therefore, it is better to run than to cycle, swim, or lift weights. Yes, a bout of hard cycling will do more for your aerobic system and weight lifting builds muscle, but neither help train the specific muscles used for running. Better to run slow.

Second, and probably an elaboration on the first principle, is that by running at any speed, you are continuing to put stress on your connective tissues and to build up the strength of these connective tissues. The thing that causes most injuries is not the stresses placed on the body by running, but the excessive stresses placed on the body by running too fast or too far too soon. Total rest might make the symptoms of an injury go away, but rest does not get to the root cause of most injuries. And often these root causes are weak bones, tendons, and ligaments. How do you correct these weaknesses? By running.

Third, running can actually loosen up tight muscles and work the kinks out of the legs. That is what happened with my run on Sunday. I started with a pain in the side of my foot—that was actually a cramp—and by the end of the run the pain was gone. If I hadn’t gone for those easy five miles, I might have been limping around for a week!