How do you avoid injuries?

Don't push as hard on runs. If you run 9 minute miles in races, do most of your runs around 10 minute miles. I'm sure there are more detailed and expert opinions on this but this is the one constant theme I hear about running.

You should not be trying to set a PB on every run. Occasionally push it for all you got but that's just it, occasionally.

The A-#1 thing is managing effort.

Most people go too hard on easy days, too easy on hard days, and try to cram all kinds of hard efforts into the available time.

If you are consistently dealing with injuries, the first thing you should do is take a critical look at your training. Look at where the injuries happen, then start walking backwards through it. What changed? Were you hitting the same efforts for greater distances? If so, chances are your body wasn't ready for that much mileage at that effort level.

It ain't the mileage that usually breaks a person, it's how hard they train those miles.

1. Make sure all your equipment is appropriate for you, properly fit, and in good working order (shoes, bike, etc etc etc).

2. Don't do too much/too soon, follow smart training procedures, get good recovery, etc.

3. Know the difference between being tired/fatigued/sore and actually injured.

The first two should go a long way in making sure an injury doesn't happen. The third helps guide your actions.

train smart.
use the right gear.

Careful management of training load and listening to my body.  A gradual build up of effort and volume is very important if you're new to endurance sports.  Base your training distances and paces on your current fitness, not on your desired fitness.

Build your training load gradually.  Most especially in running (since it's a load-bearing activity), use intensity in training very sparingly.  Try to maintain consistency and frequency (ie, don't run 4x/wk for a month then 1x/wk for a month and try to go back to 4x/wk for a month).

Almost all overuse injuries (the ones most triathletes suffer from--excluding things like, say, bike accidents) are a direct result of doing too much (volume and or intensity), too soon.

When I feel something "nagging", I will generally try to back off any intensity first and then maybe some volume.  Other times, I may just try to pay extra attention to whatever it is that was bothering me as I try to continue with my routine.  Often those nags simply go away without much/any disruption to my training schedule.

I'm one of those oft injured people.  One of the issues is when you first break down, you compensate elswhere and screw up your mechanics, which causes an endless cycle of bad form and injuries.   Its not necessarily that the injured train different than those that don't get hurt, but an injury is like crack, its hard to get off that cycle.

So far, weight training, massage, and stretching have served me well.

The big thing is training within your means and being smart; which is the polar opposite of what is stressed in the sport.  You have to learn that just because the fast guys train 17 hours a week, doesn't mean that you should.  That was the biggest lesson for me, and I still struggle with the fact that I dont have to make certain milestones in training (i.e. 100 mpw on the bike, etc.).

The other thing is intensity; most of my injuries are not overtraining via time, but intensity.

Edited by furiousferret 2010-10-22 10:28 AM

Couple other thoughts on this subject:

1) Don't be afraid of injury. Most people seem to think that getting injured is a life-crushing event. Some injuries are. Most, however, are not. If your goal is to try to see how fast you can get, to maximize your performance, accept the fact that chances are very high that you will suffer setbacks in the form of injuries. Pros get injured; they deal with it and move on. Yeah, it's frustrating, but take it as a learning experience. I've seen just as many people miss out on possibly improving out of fear of injury. Your legs will most likely not fall off.

2) Patience. People get overuse injuries because they want to rush into everything. It's a cultural thing. Wanna know why top runners are so good at running? They've been doing it forever, and they didn't start out with marathon training from day one. Look, Lance Armstrong got a stress fracture from running the marathon, because he didn't train properly. Yes, he ran a good time, but at what cost? More miles, longer training cycle, he probably wouldn't have had the issue.

3) Like I said before, and others have as well, you absolutely have to pay attention to your body. This takes time, practice, and patience (surprise). But the payoff is tremendous. Once you can interpret what those different sensations are, you become so much better at adapting your training to what works for YOU.

So far not injured........ knock on wood..... and I attribute that to 2 things.

Proper warm up.  Dynamic stretching, easy jog, etc.

and weight lifting.

I have found that taking a recovery week every five or six weeks tends to let me heal the nagging issues that creep up inevitably.  For me I've come to realize that rest and recovery is the fourth sport of triathlons, often my least favorite, but maybe one of the most important.

If ya get any good answers to this thread I'd like to know   Currently sidelined with a torn gastrocs.  I do believe it is related to the not so lovely levaquin I had taken earlier this year when my athma flared up and then I got bronchitis. 

My goal for 2011 is to enter it in one piece and stay that way.

Strength training - if I look at all the nagging injuries I've had, they always occured when I gave up lifting weights.

I like Friel's advice on the subject.  Basically in the Bible he writes that if you think you have one more interval in you - you're done.  If you think you're barely good for one more mile - you're done. Etc., etc.


Edited by sand101 2010-10-22 12:02 PM

It took me overtraining last year and not making my 1st marathon, to learn the hard way what all of the above posts on this thread are talking about.  I think I'm beggining to understand and am going at it much slower this time... but still probably not enough.

then again- if I didn't get injured running, I never would have bought myself a bicycle and never would have done triathlons this year.  So, the result has been a hoot!


someday I won't be able to run.
today is not that day.

I read an article online about running injuries and it recommended running very consistently (like every day, even if just for very short distances.) The idea was that you would gain the training benefits without risking injury. I was dealing with achilles issues at the time; it would flare up, I'd rest it, it would feel better so I'd run a few days a week then the same thing would happen. So I followed the advice in the article. I've been running nearly every day for a month now, been able to build up some volume, and the achilles feels better than it has in a long time. I have, however, completely given up swimming and biking for the time being, as I just don't have it in me to do two a days right now. So I may wind up being "just a runner" again, which would be ironic, as one of the main reasons I started triathlon was that I thought the cross-training would be safer from an injury perspective than plain running.

I'm basically just going to echo what others have said here. The best way to avoid injury, IMO is to do very minimal, if any, speedwork (ESPECIALLY for running) until you have taken the time to build a solid base of easy aerobic training. By that I mean several months of gradually building volume at an easy effort. I think most people can handle higher intensity training on the bike and in the pool a little sooner, but it's still wise to build up slowly and allow your body to adapt to the strains you're putting on it. One of the problems I think many new to endurance training (including triathlon) get into is blindly following training plans they find on the internet. Many plans, even beginner plans, include what (in MY opinion) may be too much higher intensity training than many beginners are ready for. I learned this the hard way my first few years, trying to do those interval workouts without really understanding the real need for building that base. Since then, I have slowed down the majority of my training efforts, and gradually built volume at an easy pace. Now I can handle those higher intensity training efforts with much less risk of injury. If I ever begin to feel minor aches and pains then the higher intensity efforts are the first to get scaled back. Actually, I don't do a whole lot of high intensity training (for running anyway) until I get pretty close to my target races (maybe 8 - 12 weeks out).

Of course, studies have failed to show any correlation at all in reducing overuse injuries through practicing either of those activities. 

Besides the obvious: proper training load management, gradual increase, adequate rest, etc. IMO there is something to be said about your tendency to get injured in spite of managing careful the stuff above.

I can't tell you for sure how or why some people seem to be more prone to injuries (or even if it is a valid argument) just because I haven't done the research to find out what the current evidence suggests (which might be a new project for 2011), but as my n=1 experience and that of other people I've coached, colleagues and friends, it just seems some people get injured no matter how careful and proactive they are at taking care of the training load and the details.

For those that seem to battle injuries constantly and who are certain that training load is not the root of the problem, then my advice would be to look else where for clues (i.e. bike fit, imbalances, gear,etc.) Maybe get a bio-mechanical and functional strength analysis that might provide clues. In some particualr cases an imbalance on our kinetic chain my cause other parts to be prone to injuries but it is hardly ever linked as the root of the problem because the injuries occur in other parts.

you dont.  you will get injured at some point. the key is a minimizing the chance of serious injury with proper training (as has been said), Rest, diet, strength training and treatment (ie massages, chiro, streching, etc).  once injured, you need to focus on rehab and not rush back.  you also understand the difference between pain and injury. 

I've always been an injury prone guy.  I've found the biggest help for me has been strength training.  I'm currently following Matt Dixon's TRX program (http://home.trainingpeaks.com/affiliates/trx-training.aspx) designed for functional strength.  

I also like to mix in some heavier sets that focus on your prime muscles.  Things like squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull ups etc.  

Hope that helps,

There appears to be some good advice in this thread, and Scout7 hit some really good points.

I want to throw in something that maybe considered - how much time have you put in prior to the injury occurring?  Is age a factor?  (I say the latter since I'm 45 and have issues with some kind of "-itis" in the joints through the last 10 years due to aging).