5 WAYS TO AVOID INJURY WHEN INCREASING YOUR RUNNING

This topic is unfortunately one where I can speak from experience and where I have made some preventable mistakes, which has lead to injury. Like many times in our lives, we often learn from the mistakes we make once we have made them, and this can be true of running injuries. Hopefully anyone reading this can follow these tips before getting an injury rather than doing what I and many others do, and find out once injured.

Back in 2020, I sudenly decided to up my mileage from 40 miles per week to 50 miles per week. This increase was too big in such a short space of time and I was unable to run for a couple of weeks, suffering with pain for over a month as a result. I was actually lucky that this disruption was only for a relatively short amount of time, as I could have been out of action for longer. Frustratingly though, the initial injury I picked up had a knock on effect on other areas of my body and it meant that my 800m track season suffered and I had to cut it short.

Below are my best tips for avoiding injury when increasing your running:

1: DON'T INCREASE MILEAGE TOO MUCH TOO SOON

It can be a big temptation to want to increase your training and assume you will be OK with the increased miles that you run. However, you should be sensible about how much you increase your weekly mileage by. A good rule of thumb is to increase it by 10% each week until you reach your optimal mileage for the training target you have set yourself. It’s also worth monitoring how your body feels each week after increasing the miles.

2: DON'T DO TOO MUCH RUNNING ON HARD, UNFORGIVING SURFACES

This is one that has caused me a lot of trouble in the past. When increasing mileage I needed to run further on each individual run to achieve my total weekly mileage, but a key mistake I made was doing so much of it on the road/pavements.

Some surfaces can be unforgiving and can cause areas like your feet, shins and knees big problems. I developed an issue with the arch of my foot from running too much on the road, and I would suggest finding an alternative surface to do some runs on, such as grass. This will give your legs some relief.

Below: Training on grass rather than the pavement

Further tip: If you don't want to risk aggrevating your legs on one day and have access to fitness equipment like at the gym, then you could also use a crosstrainer, exercise gym bike, rowing machine or even do a swim.

3: DON'T TRAIN TOO MANY DAYS IN A ROW

Another common cause of overtraining injuries is when people train on too many consecutive days and don’t allow their body to rest adequately. A few years ago when I had an injury I was guilty of this as I added a time trial on my usual day off meaning I ran about 5 days in a row rather than 4. On top of the extra mileage I was doing, and the running on hard surfaces, this will have contributed to the issues I developed as I didn’t allow my body to get the required rest.

4: STRETCH AND LOOK AFTER YOUR LEGS POST RUN

Below: Picture of me doing a Quad Stretch

Stretching can often feel like extra effort and a bit of an inconvenience. That is how I have often viewed it, but it can be an important factor in injury prevention. One of the areas of my body that I have often neglected, and I have later paid for it, is my calves. I have found that calf raises on the stairs have been a good way of keeping my achilles stronger, but even now I still get issues with my achilles when I am in a solid block of training.

Everyone will have their own areas of their body that causes them repeated issues and stretching is one of the best ways to minimise any problems. Strengthening exercises are also valuable.

5: WEAR APPROPRIATE FOOTWEAR

About a year before I started running properly, I decided I was going to do a 10K race, and to see what fitness level I was at, I picked a 10K route and went out wearing a plimsoll type shoe. Later that day and for the next week, I could barely walk! That was my first experience of realising how important appropriate running shoes are. There are many brands that specialise in running shoes with Saucony, Asics, Nike, Adidas and Hoka being among the best.

Wearing good running shoes can be helpful in many ways, but they provide cushioning and support that you just won’t get in a normal more fashionable shoe and have obviously been designed specifically for running.

Below: A pair of Nike Pegasus 40 Running Shoes

Some people may be reluctant to want to spend much money on them, but whilst certain shoes are excessively expensive like the Nike Vaporfly, I do personally think it is worth spending extra if the shoe is going to benefit you in the short and long term.  It’s often said that runners should change after 400 miles so unless you are a really high mileage runner, you are going to get a good amount of time out of the trainers you purchase and it is worth it to avoid injury.