How to deal with injuries!

So last weeks post was a chance to give a bit of background on me and how I got into running and coaching. Moving forward I would like to use this blog to delve into certain topics each week. Any suggestions on topics you would like to hear let me know!

This week I’m going to talk about every runner’s worst nightmare, INJURIES! Unfortunately, most runners will have encountered injuries at some stage of their running life. When I get injured the main question I always ask is; how long before I’m back running? I’ve definitely got better over the years at dealing with compartmentalising injuries and drilling down on what I need to do to ensure I return not only as quick as possible but also how I prevent this injury from returning. At the moment I’m currently returning to proper training having dealt with a combination of shin splints and tibialis posterior tendinopathy (tibialis posterior is located just under the ankle bone on the inside of your foot). This injury developed for the same reasons most injuries do, through an increase in volume and intensity. Throughout lockdown I kept my training simple and consistent with tempo sessions, hills, long runs and easy recovery runs each week. I ran a 5k at the end of July based off this training and surprised myself to run 15 mins 12 secs equalling a 10 year old personal best. With the runners I coach I always preach don’t increase too much or too fast too quickly, however, I tend to sometimes not always follow my own advice ☹ With races coming back I had targeted a 10k track race and a half marathon. What I should have done is realised the training I had done in the previous 6 months had got me to Personal Best shape and continued with this type of training. I got greedy though in the pursuit of faster times and increased the speed of my sessions and started doing more faster track work and developed the injuries mentioned above.

The last few weeks once the injuries started to heal the trick for me was to develop slowly back to normal training. I strictly stuck to the prescribed exercises from my physio (which I am still doing every day) I took 2 weeks off training completely which I needed. I then built my fitness back up with cycling every day before moving to running every second day and then last week I was able to manage 5 days of running 1 day of cycling and 1 complete rest day. I have found surprisingly enough my fitness hasn’t really disappeared which is positive and goes to show runners obsess too much about what will happen if I miss a few days of running, fitness won’t disappear and maybe your body actually needs a break. One thing I need to be conscious of over the next few weeks is not to increase mileage too quickly. I intend to increase by 5 miles each week so as not to increase my training load too quickly and spike another injury and allow my body to adapt to the volume and intensity.

With injuries it’s not the physical element I struggle most with, it’s the mental aspect. If you are used to doing something every day and it gets taken away its incredibly frustrating and stressful. Positive mindset is very important when dealing with or recovering from an injury. You need to look at the injury rationally and an opportunity to learn and improve. When you are lining up for your next race you can think back to how you worked so hard to get back to the start line during challenging circumstances and use that as an added motivation but also an example of your resilience.

Most injuries tend to be caused by a weakness in certain area. I used to develop hamstring injuries due to weak glutes and lack of general strength. I need to then not only rehab this injury but also put together a programme of exercises to ensure to address these areas and make me as an athlete more durable. I have been lucky to work with some great physios over the years and have incorporated many of their exercises and drills into my own training. Before each run I do a series of band work and activation exercises. A lot of people state they do not have the time to do this but its 5 mins out of your day and these simple 5 mins exercises can make all the difference further down the line.

So, this week I’m going to continue in the same vein as last week slightly increasing my mileage and continue to work on areas that need to be improved. Added motivation after watching the London Marathon yesterday and the great performances by Stephen Scullion and Sinead Diver. These results didn’t happen overnight and didn’t occur without setbacks along the way.

Thanks so much for all the kind message over the last few days since launching this venture, very much appreciated. Have a great weeks training!

Noel