The St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend is around the corner, so if you’re running in it, you’re most likely a few weeks into your long runs. While training for marathons, it’s important to take care of and listen to your body, as injuries can increase as your mileage does.

Here are a few tips to stay healthy as you get ready for the big race:

Warm Up, Cool Down and Stretch:

• Warm up: This will help to get your blood flowing and start to warm up your muscles, helping to decrease the risk of injury and prepare your body for your workout.
• Cool down: Cooling down allows your body time to recover from your exercise and return your heart rate back to normal.
• Stretch: Stretching is important both before and after any activity, during the warm up and cool down. It’s too often neglected by athletes, and not stretching can lower the effectiveness of your workout, since better flexibility leads to better fitness. Also, more flexibility results in less muscle tension and therefore reduces injury.
• Click here to view common stretching exercises.

Cross training: Running causes wear and tear on your joints, leading to higher risk of injury and the potential need for joint replacement. Incorporating different types of exercise into your training is key. Benefits of cross training:

• Improve overall fitness: Allows you to work out different muscles, which you would not get if you focused solely on one activity.
• Prevent injury: Since you will be using a variety of muscles in numerous ways, you will not wear down certain muscles or joints as quickly.
• Entertaining: Doing the same exercise every day can get boring, so switching it up will help you to look forward to your workout and make it more exciting.

Hydrate

• According to this article, you can lose around six to 12 ounces of fluid for every 20 minutes of running. It’s recommended that you drink 10 to 15 fluid ounces of liquid before your run and every 20 to 30 minutes during your run.

So, whether you’re training for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend or just getting in your daily exercise, be sure to follow these tips to help prevent injury and keep your body healthy.