re: ******OT Health & Fitness Thread******

Several years ago an exercise physiologist friend wrote about his experience training for a marathon off of a 3-4 run a week schedule, if I remember correctly. It was the rage of the moment. Some would argue that my version of "off days" contains junk miles. I subscribe to the easy day philosophy. My body responds well to slow pace as an off day. Some runners need an actual day off for muscle recovery. I suggest experimenting to see how your body responds. If I was racing, my off days would be days with both reduced pace and reduced distance.

In short if 5 days a week works for you, do it. But, be very disciplined so as to not allow "life" to interfere with your training.

I have a good friend, 2:24 Boston PR guy, who has feet of iron. If we wore the same size shoes, I suspect he would run in my discards. I swear he will run in a pair of shoes that makes me cringe. I can put on a pair of shoes and immediately tell if they are worn out. Shoes are cheap relative to the expense of other sports, golf fees for example. Why risk stress fractures and the like? I had a stress fracture in my mid twenties that was caused either by running on a treadmill or running in shoes with too many miles. I travelled for work that year and also worked downtown in a large city. I ran on a treadmill 5+ days a week for a few months. The shoes looked good because the tread didn't wear like you see from road running. Never again. I rotate shoes religiously.

If you live near a university treat yourself to a trip to the physiology department for a mechanical assessment and bmi/VO2 report. Also, you may run across a grad student willing to "coach" you for a small fee. I've had a multitude of coaches over the decades. It is nice to have someone monitor your training. You will also benefit from a professional preparing your workout schedule. Just a thought. Again, running is a cheap sport and a coach will not be very expensive.