I thought it would be appropriate for me to post a blog about injuries.
I started running a couple of years ago now, and have gone through quite a few injuries, some preventable and some just silly. So not to scare any new runners, but I just thought I would share a few pointers on what I did wrong and how you could prevent some very common injuries.
Here are a few tips I picked-up along the way:
#1 piece of advice - Never run through any pain. Typically if you are feeling pain, your body is trying to tell you something.
The next rule of thumb is - try to avoid increasing your speed, incline or distance more than 10% per week.
I have also been told never to stretch cold muscles....so I now always run 1-2 km before stretching and always stretch after my runs. (Hold your stretch for a min of 20 seconds.)
Here are a couple of injuries that I suffered from #1 being inactive for close to 5 years, and also taking on a bit more than I could chew (I tend to push myself a little to far from time to time)
- Stress fracture (right shin) - increased distance and incline (HFX 10K) too rapidly
- Bursitis right foot - not enough calf stretching after or before my runs
- 2nd stint of bursitis (After PEI 1/2 marathon) - who knew PEI would have such huge hills...probably the only ones on the island!
These injuries were not too serious, and pretty common, but they could have all been prevented.
Here are a couple of good sites that have some good injury prevention articles etc:
Runner's World
Sports Injury Clinic
Please share any advice or injuries you might have gone through.
I wish everyone a very safe and injury free training!
Addie
Everything hurts by the time I reach the end of the street - what am I supposed to do! LOL
ReplyDeleteGreat post Addie. So far I have been able to avoid running related injuries, partly due to mostly smart training and partly due to good genes I think but I did want to add to your post for those new runners who may be experiencing shin splints -because this is so common - buy new shoes!! Back to my feet first blog... Old shoes are very often the culprit!
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