We talk about the five most common causes of injury for runners and how to avoid them.
Most runners are faced with an injury at some point in their running lives. Hopefully, if it happens to you it will be a small niggle that soon heals. Whatever the severity of the injury it’s best to avoid it in the first place so we look at the causes and show you how to avoid them.
Building up your running too quickly
Doing too much running too soon before your body has adapted is the main cause of injury.
Not giving yourself enough recovery time
In order to get fitter the body adapts during the recovery time. You give your body the stimulus of a slightly longer run so it adapts and prepares you for the next time to do the same run. It is in the recovery time that you get the training effect. Listen to your body and it will tell you when you have recovered. We talk about how to know you are recovered here.
Running at a fast a pace too often
If you put in two or three faster runs every week or run at ‘breathy’ pace on every run you will need extra recovery time. A day or so in between runs won’t be enough, especially if you run anaerobically or ‘huffy puffy’. Running this fast produces acidity and stress in the body. It is when you put your body under stress that injury and illness are more likely to occur.
Suddenly doing an unaccustomed running activity
If you suddenly change the terrain you run on or the speed you run at then you are at more risk of injury. For example if you do all your running at Chatty pace and you go and do a fast track session or if you normally run on the road and one day do a long run on grass and tracks. Treat your body gently and make the transition to different terrain or running speeds a gradual one.
Not warming up properly
It is important to warm up to the level of activity that you are going to do. So a Chatty run will only need a five minute walk warm up and a few minutes at Superchatty pace, whereas a track session involving 5km pace repetitions will require a good twenty minute warm up gradually increasing your pace. We talk about how to warm up here.
How to avoid injury?
Once you know how injuries are caused you can do your best to avoid them. Here are the five ways to avoid injury.
Build up your running gradually.
Give yourself enough time after runs. Listen to your body and maintain your vitality.
Run Chatty most of the time and reserve faster running for particular sessions.
Prepare your body for unaccustomed activity whether it is faster running or a change of terrain.
Warm up to the level of the run you are about to do.
We have described what we consider the five most common causes of injury for runners. There may be other causes of injury including a lack of flexibility, or poor running form but these effect fewer people than the ones we have talked about. Focus on our five pointers to avoid injury and keep training.
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