Nicole Coffey, one of the owners of Ladner Village Physiotherapy, is a life long runner with several half marathons under her belt. This blog is the first instalment in a three part series on common running injuries and how to prevent them. Enjoy!
I’m really glad I am finally writing about this as I’m sure all of you know, the injury rate when running is extremely high. As a matter of fact, 54% of people training for a marathon will report a lower extremity injury during their training or their race (1). Another source says the reported injury rate can be up to 79.3% (2). And, if you’re curious, about half of those injuries will be knee injuries.
To me those statistics are very scary, but also completely accurate. I cannot think of a single runner that I know personally who has never suffered from a running related injury (myself included). Because of this, runners take prevention of future injuries quite seriously. So today I would like to begin to go over some errors in training that can increase your risk of injury. In future blogs I am also going to discuss misconceptions that people have about reducing injury and shed some light on some beliefs that runners hold that are actually not true at all. If you’re spending the time training and trying to prevent injury the last thing I want is you unintentionally wasting your time, especially if that effort could be redirected to something else that actually might help you stay injury-free. So without further ado, let’s jump right in shall we?
The most important factor in avoiding injury is to avoid overloading yourself. You must increase your volume slowly.
When used in terms of running, volume refers to the total amount of work you are doing (including the distance you are running and the intensity of that run). The first and most common mistake that I see is people increasing their volume too quickly.
Maybe they were on vacation and missed a few weeks of training so they decide to “cram” in a couple of extra runs to get back onto their training schedule, or maybe they want to run with a friend who runs 12km every weekend even though they haven’t done more than 5km in months but decide to go for it anyways. This time of year is so common for running injuries because people have renewed enthusiasm for fitness in the new year and suddenly decide they are going to run five times per week in order to shed a few pounds or get back into shape even though they have never run a day in their life.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that people love running. I love running too, but unfortunately all of the situations I listed above seem to end the same way. And that usually involves a client in my office feeling defeated and discouraged because of a running injury.
So here is the take home message for week 1: Slow and steady wins the race.
Running volume should not increase by more than 10% per week.
If you increase your volume too quickly (considered more than 15% per week), YOU CAN QUADRUPLE YOUR LIKELIHOOD OF INJURY (3). So I repeat, slow and steady wins the race. Give yourself enough time in your training that you won’t feel rushed and still be able to achieve your goal.
If you’re looking for some guidance for how to increase your volume without overdoing it, check out these resources:
For a straight forward list of what to do week by week, take a look at the SportMedBC InTraining program.
Interested in joining a local group? The Run Inn in Tsawwassen runs several fabulous groups aimed at all running abilities!
There are tonnes of apps for both iOS and Android. Two great ones are Couch to 5k and Couch to 10k, depending on your goal distance.
So there you go. Tip #1 is to avoid overloading. Gradual increases in speed and intensity will get you where you need to go. Be patient and trust the process. Happy running everybody!
Looking for the other instalments? Find Part 2 - Running Cadence and Foot Strike and Part 3 - Strength Training here!
Resource Links: