Stephen Covey‘s The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, first published in 1990, is now a classic book in the world of business and self-help. The seven habits are:

• Be Proactive
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Put First Things First
• Think Win/Win
• Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the Saw

These habits are worthy of consideration for your life as a runner or walker, too. Here are my examples of how to apply these seven habits to your workouts and races.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

• If you are going on a group training run or walk, do not assume that the coaches will have the directions. Print and carry your own directions and map.
• If you see a hazard along your group’s training route, let someone such as a coach know about it. Or protect your fellow trainees from the hazard until everyone has passed.
• If you discover in a training schedule that you should complete a particular kind of workout, then take time to learn why and how you should complete it.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

• Know the chip-time that you want to get when you cross the finish line in an upcoming race.
• Know your flexibility goals for the coming year.
• Know your strength goals for the coming year.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

• Take care of injuries before you take care of improving your performance.
• Take care of form before you take care of improving your performance.
• Take care of your flexibility and core strength before you take care of improving your performance.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

• Encourage fellow runners and walkers as much as you encourage yourself.
• Train to improve others’ running or walking performances in your group training program as much as you train to improve your own performance.
• Race with others as much as you race against yourself.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

• Listen emphatically to others during a training run or walk before sharing your own challenges.
• Make a friend with someone struggling during each race by asking how he or she is doing and inviting him or her to run or walk with you.
• Focus on others’ running or walking challenges posted online before posting your own.

Habit 6: Synergize

• Ask fellow runners or walkers what running or walking tricks they use during workouts.
• Ask fellow racers what they say to themselves to make it to the next intersection or mile marker.
• Share your own tricks with other trainees or racers.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

• Cross-train.
• Have heavy and light running or walking days.
• Focus as much on the mental aspects of running or walking as on the physical aspects.

What would you list under each of these habits? Leave a comment. Thanks!

There are some 800 marathons held annually around the world, with some 250 marathons held annually in the USA alone. And only some 1 to 2% of the population has ever run a marathon.

If you have decided to run a marathon but do not know where to begin, then here are seven marathon running tips for you.

Tip #1 – Expect to train for several months for your first marathon.

Here is a secret unknown to most non-marathoners: The marathon is not the marathon. In other words, the true marathon is the months and months of training that go into preparing for a single morning of running. If you have never run the distance of a marathon, you must build your endurance, and you do this through several months of training.

Tip #2 – Join a group training program.

There is nothing like a group training program to teach you how to train for a marathon, to give you opportunities for long training runs with hydration and nutrition support beyond what your hydration belt can hold, and to stimulate a sense of accountability to others that will motivate you to persist through months of training.

Tip #3 – Register as soon as possible for your marathon.

Many marathon websites make it look as if you have a several-month time window during which to register. The reality is that many marathons now fill so quickly that you should register as soon as possible for yours. To be sure, plan to register within a couple of hours of the opening of online registration. Yes, registration can be that competitive!

Tip #4 – Follow advice from experienced marathoners.

Listen to experienced marathoners for advice. One of the best pieces of advice is simple: Do not change anything on race day from what you were doing, using, wearing, or eating in the weeks leading up to race day.

Tip #5 – Take care of yourself.

Be good to yourself. If a pain persists, then get medical attention. If advised to rest, then rest. Watch your weight so that you know that you are staying hydrated. Find foods that nourish you — both on the road and after long runs.

Tip #6 – Get inspiration.

Read books such as 50/50, which was written by ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes about his completing 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Watch DVDs about marathons and ultramarathons. Ask coaches what inspires them to run marathon after marathon.

Tip #7 – Expect that your first marathon will be a success.

The word “success” is very subjective. No matter what success means to you, daily visualize the end-result that you desire. For example, if success to you means a 5:30:00 chip-time, then take a few minutes daily to visualize yourself crossing the finish line with 5:30:00 displayed on your chronograph.

What tips do you have? Please leave a comment here. Thanks!

Runner stretching for shin splints is important for recovery from this painful condition.

What is a shin splint?

“Medial tibial stress syndrome” is the medical term for shin splints.

The tibia, also known as the shankbone or the shinbone, is the stronger and larger of the two bones in the lower leg (below the knee).

The adjective “medial” refers in anatomy to the midline of an animal.

So a shin splint is a syndrome of pain related to stress on the midline side of the tibia.

People can get shin splints because of any of these conditions:

1. Overused muscle: Running or walking, especially on concrete, can lead to muscle overuse that puts too much stress on the tibia. Because bones are constantly repairing and remodeling themselves, this stress can be so severe that it overtakes the tibia’s capacity to remodel itself. The result is a stress fracture that manifests itself with weight-bearing pain that increases as a run progresses.
2. Chronic compartment syndrome: Also known as CCS, chronic compartment syndrome refers to a chronic compression of muscle, blood vessels, and nerves inside a closed space — known as a “compartment” — within the body. CCS as it pertains to shin splints can come from a tibial fracture that leads to a small amount of bleeding into the compartment, which does not stretch because the connective tissue that defines the compartment does not stretch. Or CCS-driven shin splints can come from swelling of muscles in the compartment. No matter the cause of CCS, the result can be an ischemia-driven positive feedback loop of rising pressure and dropping circulation in the compartment that can cause temporary or permanent damage to nearby muscles and nerves.
3. Pes planus: Known commonly as flat feet, pes planus causes muscles of the medial shin to become overstretched. This overstretching leads to weakening, which leads to inflammation. This in turn leads to more overstretching of the medial tibial muscles, resulting in a positive feedback loop of increasing inflammation and pain.

How can runner stretching alleviate shin splints due to pes planus?

Because a tight calf can overstretch and thereby inflame the anterior tibialis (muscle), one solution to alleviate medial tibial stress syndrome is to stretch the calf so that it stops putting permanent stress on the anterior tibialis.

What are some stretches to loosen the calf muscles?

1. Lie down on your back, and flex your ankles so that your toes point toward your head for five minutes.
2. Sit down on the floor, pull your knees slightly toward your chest so that your feet are off the floor, and “draw” circles in the air — clockwise and counterclockwise — with your toes.
3. Stand one arm’s length away from a wall, put your hands on the wall at shoulder level, step back with both feet by another foot or so, and keep your legs straight as you lower your heels to the ground and keep them there for a minute. To get a deeper stretch in a calf, move the foot of the other leg forward, place it flat on the floor almost at the wall, and lean slightly into that other leg.

Remember to warm up before beginning any stretching.

How do you stretch for shin splints? Please leave a comment here. Thanks!

If you have run or walked a marathon, are preparing for one, or have ever thought about completing one, then I want to introduce you to some folks to whom marathons look easy.

Let me tell you a little more about them.

1. Their preparation is intense.
2. Their whole family usually gets involved.
3. They often spend a lot of money to get better.
4. Every one of them is determined to win.
5. Losses are very personal.

Now let me tell you something about an organization in Houston, Texas, that supports these folks at no charge to them.

1. It has trained a record 113 volunteers this year — more than any other year in the organization’s history.
2. The number of folks whom this organization has matched to its volunteers for one-on-one support has increased 38% since last year (2008) and 77% since 2007.
3. This organization is on track to meet this year’s goal of making 9,000 one-on-one contacts with these folks, a 41% increase over two years.
4. This organization has made a profound difference for thousands.
5. In spite of the financial necessity to decrease its staff by three positions in 2009, this organization’s support of these folks continued to grow.

It sounds like a great organization, right? It is.

And it sounds like a determined group of folks, right? They are.

But, no matter how tough you think you are, you would not want to be one of them.

And, no matter how strong this organization seems now, it needs your support.

You see, the folks about whom I am writing are cancer patients, and the organization is CanCare.

I am completing the 2010 Houston Marathon to raise money for CanCare, just as I did for the 2009 Houston Marathon and back in 2003.

In other words, CanCare is my “Run for a Reason” organization again.

If you are participating in the 2010 Houston Marathon and are running for a reason, then thank you. There are many worthy “Run for a Reason” organizations.

If you are participating but are not running for a reason, then please consider running for CanCare.

Finally, if you are not participating in the 2010 Houston Marathon but want to support CanCare, then I invite you to do the following:

1. Learn more about CanCare at www.cancare.org.
2. Make a tax-deductible contribution at my donations page, if it makes sense to you.

Supporting CanCare makes a lot of sense to me, so I encourage and welcome your support. My goal is to raise $524 — the equivalent of the some 26.2 miles in a marathon times $20 per mile. If I get 200 people to each donate $2.62 — a penny for every tenth of a mile that I complete — then that will mean as much to me as getting twenty people to each donate $26.20 — a dollar for every mile that I complete.

The combination of contributions and the size of any individual contribution does not matter to me.

What will matter when I am out there on that 2010 Houston Marathon course is knowing that you are behind me with your support of CanCare.

By the way: If you go to my donations page and see that the $524 goal has already been reached, then please still consider contributing. Your help in surpassing that goal would mean a lot.

On behalf of all the patients and families served by CanCare, thanks in advance for your support.

How coincidental is this?

An article at MedGadget.com that referenced Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” music video appeared yesterday, the same day that Jackson died.

The article discussed an IEEE “Presidents’ Change the World” competition award-winner — an electronics-tiled floor that lights up its squares (hence the music-video reference) based on a person’s movements and a rehabilitation algorithm.

The initial target for the device is handicapped children who are learning to walk or to walk better.

I could see a device like this being used to help seniors and orthopedic patients, too.

What walking-rehab devices fascinate you? Please leave your comment here. Thanks!

Would you pay $55,000 for a treadmill?

What if the treadmill maker were to claim that the treadmill enables “people to improve mobility and health, recover from injury and surgery more effectively, overcome medical challenges that limit movement, and enhance physical performance”?

That is the claim made by AlterG, Inc., the maker of the $55,000 “G-Trainer” and $75,000 “G-Trainer Pro” treadmills.

What is the simplest way to describe what is special about these treadmills?

According to Claudia Zapata writing for MySanAntonio.com, “It’s like running on air.”

You pay $20,000 extra for the “Pro” version because it will go up to 18 MPH in the forward direction (vs. 10 MPH), will go up to 10 MPH in the reverse direction (vs. 3 MPH), and will incline up to 15% (vs. 5%).

So you sub-6-minute-milers will need the “Pro” version.

We slower runners and walkers can get by with the standard version.

Either version works by having you slip into special compression-shorts (over your regular apparel), zipping yourself into the treadmill’s enclosure system, selecting a fraction of body weight that you want to experience, and waiting for the treadmill to inflate the enclosure system so that you can walk or run with less than your full body weight.

This reminds me of the AquaJogger but without the water and with a variable degree of weightlessness.

How much would you pay for this? Please leave a comment here. Thanks!

Taking a break from exercise some days makes a lot sense.

We are one week away from the summer solstice, and that means “hot, hot, hot” where I live.

So your off-time might be driven by crazy-hot — or crazy-cold — weather.

Or you might just need a break from over-exerting yourself.

But a lot of runners and walkers need an official excuse to take a break.

Here is an official excuse for U.S. readers: Today is Flag Day, so take a break!

You can hit the trail, the track, or the treadmill tomorrow.

If you are going to be outside today, be sure to use sun protection.

Sun Friendly Products is a retailer that claims to have more than sixty-five sun-protection products.

If you buy from this retailer, please leave a comment here. Thanks!