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newbz

2010-03-29 8:49 PM

Champion

7233

Subject: Running injury free

So before you read on, this is all based on my thoughts, research, experience, coaching, and personal racing. It is no way is law, and simply my semi-educated opinion on a few things.

We’ve all known one at some point, that runner that no matter how much they train, they seemingly just do not get hurt. It’s a low blow to most newer runners struggling with shin or other common running issues, but the fix and subsequent path to running injury free is actually quite simple as long as a few basics are understood and followed.
One of my largest issues I see with newer (and many times experienced) runners is simply doing too much too soon; either distance, intensity, or both. Many times the runner actually does a good job for the first few weeks/months of running before issues spring up. Many times with this the problem comes from the runners aerobic ability progressing much faster than the harder tissues/joints/tendons etc can build up to the distances. Because of this many runners tend to dive into speeds and efforts that are actually beyond what their bodies can handle even though they don’t feel as though they are running that fast.
The next big issue comes from an inappropriate training load, sometimes from too much mileage but more often than not from simply running harder than the body is able to handle day after day. Many runners putting in too fast of runs complain about not being to run more than a few times a week because they need time off after each run, when slowing down a bit would often solve this issues completely.
The question this brings up is don’t you need to run faster in training to race faster? To a point, no, you don’t. While running at/around/faster than race pace (depending on race distance) does have its place in training, most runners do not reach the place where it should be used. If we take out faster running, the only other way to up the training load is to run a bit slower and run more. It is worth noting that when runners or coaches talk about slowing down runs, this is the main reason. It is not for the sake of running slower, or that running slower has more of a benefit, but rather that slightly slower training will allow you to run more, more often, and THIS will lead to improved fitness. Because of the lower impact/damage done at a slightly slower pace, you can continue building mileage and frequency, and from this fitness, with MUCH less risk of injury.
Your training load is a combination of volume and intensity, and because of this you can accomplish a LOT through simply running more at a lower intensity. While some faster running is a good thing, most runners need to have more mileage under their belt than they do before starting to add it in. I think for most, that slowly upping mileages until time/practical returns hit a wall before adding in speed work is a good rule of thumb and likely to keep most runners from A- adding in faster work before its safe, and B-, improving at a steady rate for much longer than they thought possible.
Lastly, I wanted to touch base with shoe choice. I very strongly believe that while running in the correct shoes is important, the proper build up and execution of a run program is WILDLY more important to staying injury free. Personally I think that the recent jump in popularity of vibrams, flats, and running barefoot actually helps to show this in that is forces runners to basically rebuild from the ground up their run training, both in terms of how much, how often, and how hard. EVERY single person I have seen re-start like this, regardless of shoes, has done well running, and I think goes a long way to point out how proper, slow, purposeful building helps in a healthy run program.

Running injury free

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