The topic of this edition of the blog is inspired by two things, firstly the Virgin London Marathon is fast approaching and there are 14 weeks until runners both experienced and new to the sport will be nervously standing on the startline Sunday the 25th of April. Secondly, my good friend Tom has started a new podcast about marathon running last week which can be found at www.marathontalk.com and is also available from iTunes. So I thought this would be an interesting topic to share with you.
Now, to be able to stand on the startline of any run and especially the marathon, it is essential to get good consistent training in your legs. The biggest obstacle to achieving this is to get injured and every year thousands, yes thousands of runners, get injured to degree that it stops them from participating in their chosen events. It often starts with a niggle and develops into something more serious such as runners knee (IT Band syndrome), plantarfasciitis (foot pain), shin splints and even stress fractures. Here I am going to share 9 simple things that can be done to eliminated some of the risks involved with running. But first let me give you the bad news, injuries are not an act of divine intervention and are caused by one person and one person alone, you! And you are the only one who can do something about it too!
1.Get your running style analysed and select the right shoes. Go to a reputable running shop where you can be filmed to assess your running style (or running gait) and get the correct running shoes for your style should you be an overpronator or should you require more cushioning then now is the time to sort this out, you are about to spend a lot of time running in these and using the wrong shoes can cause more problems than it is worth. This is often the number one cause why people come to see me in the clinic with running related injuries. In our local area you can go to Up and Running in Leeds, Sweatshop in York or Sportshoes in Bradford where they offer this service for free.
2. Change your shoes regularly. The cushioning in a normal running shoe will wear out after 300-500 miles, in general, in a male, a shoe is made for an average runner at around 11 ½ Stone, so adjust the amount o f milage according to your body weight closer to either end of the scale. Now this is not an absolute number as it varies from person to person, but over the years I have found it to be near enough for the purpose of injury prevention. Quite often you will feel this happen as you start with little niggles in the foot, shin or your calves are getting tight. In a club runner running 30-40 miles a week this will only be 10 weeks before the shoe is worn out, it will still look new but don’t let that fool you, the cushioning will be worn out.
Similarly, if you run on consecutive days it is a good idea to have two pairs of trainers as the midsole which offers the cushioning takes up to 48 hours to regenerate itself and won’t be fully recovered.
3. Do not stand on the startline in new shoes, make sure you have worn them in with a few runs so that they will not give you blisters and discomfort. A good idea would be to run approximately 50 miles or so in them prior to race week, then not to wear them until race morning.
4. Warm up. By ensuring that your bodytemperature gradually increases before you start any intervals or hill work, you will allow the muscles to become warm, more elastic and much less likely to tear. Start off easy and progress into movements required for the upcoming session.
5. Build a general lower limb stretching regime into your workout plan. Although stretching has in recent years become a controversial topic and should we or shouldn’t we stretch, should we stretch before or after our workouts etc. I would suggest that stretching before workouts should be limited to dynamic movements and dynamic stretches, as long static stretches will inhibit your muscles and leave them weak for the work they are about to undergo. It is however very important to incorporate flexibility training into your regime. Sstretching maintains an optimal muscle length which will maintain optimal function for your lower limb which will lead to a better running economy through an effcient power transfer and can improve your performance. Who doesn’t want that! This does not need to happen imediately after a workout but can be achieved at home whilst watching tv or more formally in a gym based stretching class or in a yoga session
6. Gradually increase the amount you run and monitor how fast you run. Injuries indicate a breakdown point for your body, and it is important to not overstretch your bodys capability of absorbing the workouts. It is commonly quoted that increasing your total training load by 10% is safe but if you are not accustomed to running you may need to do this slower. It is commonly mentioned in coaching litterature that your training runs should be done at a slower pace than your marathon target pace. Likewise it is important to be progressive about how much speed work you do in a week beit intervals and tempo runs. Slowly increase the amount of repetitions and speed for these session. The body will gradually adapt to these workloads and you will arrive on the big day in tip top condition and injury free.
7. Make sure you vary your running routes and surfaces. Therea re a few things that can influence your likelyhood of getting injured. The running surface can be too hard, too soft, uphill and downhill or they can be cambered. All these things can lead to injury if too much time is spent running on any of these surfaces, the trick is to vary them a little. For instance if you have a route near your home and you run it 3-4 times a week and always in the same direction, roads in this country are usually cambered due to the amount of rain that falls and as such this will lead to increased muscle activation in the leg which is facing the side of the road and is one of the risk factors in developing ITBS (iliotibila band syndrome). So vary your routes and try to go off road if you can. But dont forget to train on similar terrain to your target race too, if it is a road race you need to do some of your training on road and if its a lot of hills then you need to practice running up and down hills as this places additional stress on your body.
8. Have an assessment with a physiotherapist who is used to treating endurance athletes to check biomechanics, flexibility and core stability. A lot of biomechanical problems can be addressed such as overpronating feet or leg length discrepencies, and these problems usually brings with them associated muscle problems such as underactive and shortened muscles. Having someone assess wether there is a need for insoles and to prescribe you a flexibility and core stability program to address these problems will increase your chance of running in a more optimal pattern using the correct muscles and this will reduce your wisk of getting injured. To read more about how core stability influences your performance read my previous article which you can access by clicking here. Prevention is always better than the cure!
9. Recognise when you are getting injured and deal with it sooner rather than later. There are four phases of injury:
Phase 1. Pain after exercise but settles after a few hours
Phase 2. Pain causes discomfort but there is no reduction in your training or performance
Phase 3. Severe discomfort and pain which limits your training and influences your performance
Phase 4. Pain is so severe you are unable to run
These phases are progressive and the further you progress the more treatment and more time will be needed to fix the problem. The earlier you deal with you problem the quicker you will be back running. Never get past phase two without seeking advice from a chartered physiotherapist. It’s a false economy to save two sessions early on only to need ten sessions further down the line.
I hope you have found this interesting and if there are any points you wish to discuss with me then please either contact me in the clinic or throught the website and I will be more than happy to talk to you about them.
Happy Training,
Ove Indergaard
[...] additional stress on your body. The whole article is here which was quite interesting to read How to avoid running injuries in 9 easy steps | Physiotherapy and Sports Injuries Clinic Thanks for the advice on stretching Susan & Sara. Dont think I will bother with the stretches [...]