Ouchies: Why They Happen, and How to Avoid Them

OK. Injuries and recovery. We've had a spate of injuries recently, and it's interesting to look at what the likely causes are.

Lisa - left knee. Laura - calf and tendon. Lounell - knee pain. Amber - knee pain. Susan - pain in left knee and both hips.

I'll take the first hit - I run you somewhat aggressively. I feel like I throw a lot of hills at you, though I'm always very conscious and deliberate about it. Our mileage, both in weekly totals and the long runs, is properly incremented, and while I try to balance them out, some of the long runs are obviously difficult. I can say with good certainty that you get a little bit more hill work, but it's not far out of line with what other groups do. Still, I haven't made it very easy on you, and I should be harder on some of you about doing the right things for recovery, and making sure you're aware of some pitfalls that can injure you. Let's look at a few of those:

1. Shoes. When I first started running, and would see advice about shoes, the basketball sneaker pimp in me understood and believed, but I was still sure RunTex was driving it all somehow. I've learned better. Several of our runners last year had pains in their calves, even their knees, and they had readily apparent shoe issues - either the wrong shoes altogether, or shoes whose support had deteriorated beyond any physiological usefulness. Amber is a fairly severe overpronator. She went to a reputable local store, and was put in a pair of very neutral shoes from a company that also has a reputation for short-lived cushioning and support. Did this play a role in her knee injury? Maybe. Probably even, though since her problem is assymetrical, something else probably also came into play, maybe...

2. Road camber. I once heard someone talk about road camber with the qualifier, "Austin streets". I don't know if ours are any worse than elsewhere, but you all should realize by now that all our streets slope sharply off to the sides. IT band problems and assymetrical knee issues are common in Austin, because a lot of people only run on the left side of the street (as they should), in the gutter all the time. Think about it - there's often a difference of several inches between the length of travel in your left leg from your right. The muscles in your left leg are having to work harder, through a longer range of motion, and is even suffering a little more impact. The right leg's natural range of motion is compressed, on the other hand. It's a recipe for getting messed up, and it's a wonder more of us don't have more problems.

The solution here is tricky. Running on sidewalks opens you up to more impact, because concrete is appreciably harder than asphalt, and often, it's cambered, too, if not riddled with cracks and major continental rifts and faultlines. I try to stay on the street, but, as safety will allow, I'll run on the more level part of the road, and will even change sides, occasionally, though then you're kind of just balancing bad against mirror-image-bad.

A good solution is to run your solo runs on the hike and bike trail. It's soft, it's flat, it's relatively safe, it's got water. Control the camber and surface where you can.

3. Over-aggressiveness/Being dumb - OK, just kidding, no one's been seriously dumb yet. They've tried to be, but have held back. But some of us have been wonderfully gung-ho about our running, and unwilling to compromise or blink in the face of miles and hills. In Lisa's case, she quite understandably wanted to jump right back in at 10 miles. She was reasonable about it, and could have been deterred, but I got selfish and didn't tell her no. So, she ran seven on October 17, got freakin' typhus (fleas, not poo), was bed-ridden for several weeks, ran a couple of times in mid-November, then ran 10 on November 22. I've gotta take all the blame for this one.

December is the time when injuries really start cropping up, and people's hopes of running a half marathon or marathon either become questionable, or are dashed completely. Many times, they're just questionable, a little nagging pain here or there. But people are busy at the end of the year, and not wanting to miss the long runs, and they put off going to see the doctor. Sometimes, they simply doubt that a doctor will do anything useful, and might even tell them they have to stop running.

In fact, most often, it seems, a doctor and sometimes a physical therapist can pinpoint the cause of the problem, and give you a way to attack it. Maybe you have to lay off a couple of weeks, but doing it now is a lot better than two to three weeks from now. And if you ignore that little niggling pain or discomfort, it could very well grow into something that will peak at a more critical time, and could put a complete end to your training season, and your hopes of running your goal race. No bueno.

Injuries aside, the miles are getting long, the workouts are getting hard, and, depending on your individual level of athleticism and resilience, how hard you push, and how well you take care of yourself in other ways, the training could very well take a noticable toll on you. Some people just feel a bit beat up all the time. Most find they need more rest, more sleep. I'll sometimes get sore enough that I can't sleep well.

So, you have a responsibility to do everything you can to minimize the toll on your body and mind. You can't just go out there and barrel through all or some of the runs, and expect to be OK. You have to stretch. You have to eat right. You have to get your nutrition for long runs down. You have to get your sleep. You have to get all your runs in. You have to consider massage and other things - foam rollers, Trigger Point massage - for your body. You have to consider ice baths after the long runs. You have to recover properly. And, you have to maintain a focused, but healthy and positive attitude towards your training and your goal.

None of these things are negotiable. If you feel OK now, you have to consider yourself lucky, and be proactive in keeping luck on your side. If you're hurting, you need to not give up, and you need to investigate and take proper measures.

I'm going to be more aggressive in pushing information on these things to you. First off, please read this article by local physical therapist Allan Besselink. For some of you people who don't believe that you need a day off... there you go.

We also have a great sports nutritionist willing to come talk to us. I need to make sure it's in our budget, and that there's interest - please let me know if you'd be interested in coming out on a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday for about an hour talk from her.