Training Tip 5: Warming up and Stretching

You're now getting into your longer mileage weekends, and you may be noticing that your body and your muscles are awfully tight.

Are you remembering to stretch after your running or your walking? To warm-up before your run, you would want to either walk or run at a slower pace than what you're going to be doing the rest of your mileage at.

You don't want to over stretch cold muscles. After you get finished is when you're going to do the more intense stretch where you just hold them for four or five seconds, or even up to
thirty and give those warm muscles a chance to stretch out.

One of the other things that's going to be helping you out that you need to really think about is getting enough rest. We all tend to burn the candle at both ends, but your body is really working hard to keep up with the extra demands you're putting on you, so be sure that you're getting enough sleep during the week and after your long mileages. A nap is a really good thing on a Saturday afternoon.