Is it important to run sometimes the track the opposite direction?

I recommend varying the direction you sprint on the track, as well as switching the sides of the street you run on if there's any hint of a slope, because anecdotally I slowly developed an inside/leading hip issue in my earlier years when I failed to mix it up. It's my belief that changing the terrain, surface, and direction of travel on runs leads to better muscle balance and a lower incidence of overuse or injury as compared to assiduously exercising in precisely the same manner over time. You may slightly lower your specificity of training value through the turns on the track, however

do you sometimes run the opposite way...

some tracks used to be marked out so that races were run clockwise. on the front cover of Athletics Weekly, Vol 4 No. 26 dated 1 July 1950 there is a photograph of Les Laing and Nick Stacey finishing the 220 yards in a match between AAA vs Oxford & Cambridge at Cambridge on 6 June that year and it is pretty obvious they are running the "wrong" way round the track.

Les Laing is also running on the line but it's probably a bit late to mention that.

cheers.

Hgffv wrote:

While training on track, do you sometimes run the opposite way in order to create symmetry on the working muscles? Is it important?

I mean quality sessions not just jogging the opposite way

Fartlek in lane 8 clockwise when I want to run it on the flat...

Yep! Very important. I try and do at least 1/3 or 1/4 of my repeats going clockwise to get my muscles used to going the other way

Sometimes I run backwards in the opposite direction

No, that is the silliest thing I’ve heard all year

GrowaPair wrote:

No, that is the silliest thing I’ve heard all year

It’s actually not.... if you do lots of training on the track, then you can get serious imbalances not running the other way. Just because you don’t want to consider all factors in training doesn’t mean other, better people are willing to take the same approach.

Yah Buddy wrote:

GrowaPair wrote:

No, that is the silliest thing I’ve heard all year

It’s actually not.... if you do lots of training on the track, then you can get serious imbalances not running the other way. Just because you don’t want to consider all factors in training doesn’t mean other, better people are willing to take the same approach.

Can you name one elite runner that switches directions on the track to avoid imbalances?

Track sessions counter clockwise, non-track clockwise

Yah Buddy wrote:

GrowaPair wrote:

No, that is the silliest thing I’ve heard all year

It’s actually not.... if you do lots of training on the track, then you can get serious imbalances not running the other way. Just because you don’t want to consider all factors in training doesn’t mean other, better people are willing to take the same approach.

Do you brush your tooth with the other hand sometimes for to avoid muscular imbalance?

However, on the one hand a major principle in running is variety. Try to run on various surfaces and at various different paces. So the amount of monotonous counter-clockwise track work is just a small part of overall volume and does not really cause a problem.

On the other hand, another major principle in running is specifity. If you want to be good at counter-clockwise track running, do exactly this. If you like to excel in clockwise track running, try to add that to your training program.

You see, both principles contradict each other a bit, but both show you that it is not necessary to switch directions in track running.

turn left

If I'm the only one on the track or if there's only another guy who says he doesn't mind, I'll reverse direction half way through a workout. If the track is busy, though, the slight injury-related benefit from muscular balance isn't worth the much greater risk of injury due to a collision.

I try to switch up whenever I can, switching direction halfway through a session, or doing a session entirely clockwise or counterclockwise. Starting doing that when I noticed that my right leg kicked harder. It's not an issue anymore.

The one thing that Letsrun can actually agree on apparently

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Yah Buddy wrote:

It’s actually not.... if you do lots of training on the track, then you can get serious imbalances not running the other way. Just because you don’t want to consider all factors in training doesn’t mean other, better people are willing to take the same approach.

Can you name one elite runner that switches directions on the track to avoid imbalances?

Look up video of Rupp doing indoor workout with Al standing right there. Mile or 2k repeats, 1,3,5 one way; 2,4,6 the other. Now school teams of course are purely counter-clockwise but Salazar knows better. You eliminate one possible cause of injury. Anyway, with Rupp I named one!

If you’re a distance runner, you’re probably doing 90%+ of your mileage somewhere other than a track. I don’t think 5-10 miles with only left turns in the context of 70-100 total miles per week will create any kind of imbalance.

I run around the cans, man. Around the cans.

https://youtu.be/POSNS199fp8?t=178

Probably more important to run on the other side of the road because it's angled at a tilt for drainage. Over time if you're running on a crooked road like that it may causes problems.

Assuming you run on roads or a wide, man made trail

Roads are canted like crazy any more. I don't recall it like this 15-20 years ago, but I also didn't ache like this 15-20 years ago.

It seems like most places were relatively flat concrete or whatever back in the day. Now it's all 17 layers of asphalt, like a pyramic in the middle of the road. It's an off-camber world now.