Too Much of a Good Thing
Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 5:20PM Just a quick post today as this week has been a bit hectic and I haven't been able to keep up the regular posts.
One thing that every runner, and other athletes, encounter many times throughout the years is injury. While there are many causes of injury there is no doubt that runners are at high risk of overuse injuries due to the endless pounding. But what is an injury, what is a niggle and what is just normal wear and tear?
We have all experienced soreness during hard training blocks or the days after a tough race. So lets not get this confused with injury. You will recover quickly from this soreness and it shouldn't restrict you are several easy training days.
But when the pain continues to hang around, even when it isn't severe, that is when it becomes a concern. While it might only be classified as a niggle at this point, and may not be limiting your ability to train, this is the key phase for sorting the issue out. Left as it is, if you continue to train hard, the odds are it will only get worse. Despite what we all hope, injuries rarely just go away by themselves.
It is at this point where something needs to be done, but what?
None of us like to stop running, but in some cases, easing back the load can have a big impact. This doesn't mean you need to stop training, but instead it might be a good idea to reduce the overall volume and intensity of sessions. Doing this for a week may be enough to get on top of the injury, but in many cases the injury simply returns when full training resumes.
Therefore, my general rule of thumb is to see a physio (or similar) if the injury is still there after a week. At this stage, if it goes untreated, it is likely to get worse and start impacting on training even further.
So to conclude this short post, the steps after experiencing a niggle are:
- Reduce training volume and intensity and see if you can shake the niggle.
- If it continues to persist and is still evident a week later, see a physiotherapist or the like to get some treatment and/or rehab exercises. A good physio will also be able to provide you with a rehab plan that includes training recommendations while you manage the injury.
- If the injury continues to linger for many weeks, get a second opinion, and consider visiting a sports physician.
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