Today we’re going to talk about that dark topic of injuries. Injuries are a part of nearly every long distance runner’s history or their future. A quick Google search indicates that anywhere from 40-70% of runners are injured at some point during their running career. Does that make you want to stop running? Well, it shouldn’t. Injuries might be common, but they are a) avoidable and b) surmountable.

I’ve been injured a lot. A lot. I’m a bit overweight, have a family history of weak knees, and overall, I’m not shaped like a runner. I’m short, kind of squat, and curvy. So what can you do to minimize injuries and recover from them faster? Here are a few tips.

Increase Distance and Intensity Slowly

Conventional running wisdom is to add mileage at a rate of 10% per week. When you start running, this may be as little as a quarter of a mile each week. As you build distance of course, you can add more each week, but don’t fall prey to the temptation to eek out just a couple of extra miles when you’re just starting out.

The same rules apply for intensity. After your first successful 5 mile flat run, don’t go out the very next week and throw eight or nine hills into the mix. Start with one or two smaller hills instead. If you’re comfortable at running five miles at a 12 minute mile pace, don’t go out on your very next run and try to do five miles at 10 minute miles. Add a few quarter or half mile speed sessions to your next five mile run after you’ve warmed up sufficiently.

Don’t Run Through the Pain

We’ve al been there. You’re out on a run and something starts to hurt. Badly. Sure, it might just be temporary. But it might not be. If something starts to hurt, STOP. Walk for a few minutes. Stretch a little bit. Then try to run again. Better? Ok then, keep going. No? Then stop. This is one of the main reasons why I always bring a cell phone and a couple of dollars with me on my runs.

I know very well the temptation of just continuing on. I have a little game I play with myself that’s so far kept me from injuring myself too badly (though as I’ll tell you about next week, I did dislocate my cuboid bone two months ago). If something hurts, I do the stop and stretch game. After that I start running again. I give myself 20 steps. If I’m still hurting (and it’s not just muscle soreness from a hard run) after 20 steps, then it’s time to stop and either walk home, call for a ride, or get on a bus.

Assess and Treat Quickly

If you’ve hurt something on a run, it’s important to treat the injury as quickly as possible. Keeping an ice cup in your freezer is a great idea. You can buy a freezable ice cup (usually with carrying case) from most running stores. Ice massage is a great way of treating an injury. Just seven minutes of ice massage can do as much or more as 15 minutes with an ice pack. Practice good RICE techniques (REST-ICE-COMPRESSION-ELEVATION). If you wake up the next day and the pain is gone, then it probably wasn’t anything major and you can continue on with your training program. However, if you wake up and the pain’s still there, then keep practicing RICE and don’t run for one week. If the pain is still there after three days, it’s time to call a professional.

Know When to Call In the Professionals

If you’ve been hurting for a couple of days and don’t seem to be getting any better, it’s time to call a professional. If you have the ability, pick a physical therapist or a sports medicine doctor over a general practitioner. Why? Because in my experience, general practitioners are much more likely to tell you to stop running than to actually treat the root cause of the problem. Sports medicine doctors are better, but my money has always been on physical therapists. A physical therapist’s job is to get you back doing what you were doing before. If there’s a way to get you back running, a good PT is going to find it. Not only that, but a good PT will help you figure out why you hurt yourself in the first place. When I dislocated my cuboid, the PT was able to not only guide it back into place, but also to give me tips and exercises to fix the issue that caused the dislocation (weak hips and balance issues). Had I just gone to a general practitioner, he or she probably would have just relocated the bone and sent me on my way.

Next Week: Supporting minimalist running with cross training and strength training