distance running injuries

It’s widely accepted that a large number of distance running injuries occur during training. So getting everything right before competition therefore takes on greater importance if you’re aiming to compete on a consistent level.

Running injuries when training are generally associated with high volumes and rapid changes in intensity. Too many athletes fall into the trap of overtraining and not taking sufficient rest. As a direct result of this, the bones, joints and muscles in the legs and lower back are stressed and this causes damage. Thus a recovery period must follow the training. During the recovery, the damage is repaired. In time, regular training combined with adequate rest results in what is called 'supercompensation'.

With supercompensation, the body responds to the stress by growing stronger. This happens to all the bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Once stronger, the bones and joints can handle greater stress, absorb more shock, and the muscles can act more efficiently. However, if you continue with high mileage training day after day, there is never sufficient recovery. In time, instead of growing stronger, your body becomes permanently weakened and running injuries occur as a result.

Slow and steady wins the race

The crucial underlying principle in correct planning is for slow and steady progression. The starting point is to work out what level of mileage you can currently train at without picking up unnecessary running injuries.

Then you must plan a slow progression over a period of months up to the mileage level you would like to be training at. As well as being the correct practice for injury prevention, this long, slow progression of training is also the key to improved performance.

Prolonged high mileage and sudden increases in mileage are not the only kinds of training errors. In fact, just about any rapid change in any aspect of training could be classed as a training error and likely to cause injury.

A sudden addition of high-intensity training is another common training error that can lead to significant running injuries. This could be the situation when, say, you have spent months on steady mileage training and then decide to include fast anaerobic interval sessions. Again, the same principle applies.

Another example of a training error is a sudden change in running surface. Hard surfaces, such as roads, require high impact forces to be absorbed. Obviously you must be able to cope with this. However, at the same time hard surfaces are true and do not dampen the propulsive forces. Conversely, soft, off-road terrains attenuate impact forces, thus lessening the need to absorb shock, but dampen the propulsive forces. This means you may have to change your neuromuscular coordination to adapt.

If you train regularly on hard surfaces and then switch to training on soft surfaces, or you do a one-off cross-country race, problems may occur due to the different stress on the muscles. And vice versa: if you regularly train on soft terrain and then switch to hard surfaces, you will suffer because you cannot cope with the high impact forces.

Artificial surfaces also have unique properties that you must be used to coping with. If athletes are to train or race on different surfaces then they must plan in advance the switch in surface and build up the training on the new surface slowly.

Compounding the problem

The worst kinds of training errors that cause running injuries are compound rapid changes. The classic compound change that runners make is to spend all winter doing steady running on the road in trainers and then switch to fast training on the track, in spikes, for the summer season. Here there are three variables that have suddenly been changes: the intensity of the running sessions, the surface and the shoe. With spikes there is lower heel lift and less support. This means there is greater dorsi flexion and potentially more pronation. This will place greater stress on the muscles in the lower leg.

This change in biomechanics caused by the shoes, along with the higher impact forces from the fast speeds and different muscle recruitment required for the spongy nature of the track is often too much for the athlete and injury will result. However, if you include some speed training on the track, in spikes, throughout the whole training year, you will drastically reduce injury risks in the spring when you want to increases intensities for track racing. As long as you are used to, and can cope with, a variety of surfaces or shoes then that is fine. Remember, it is rapid changes that have to be eliminated, not necessarily variety.

Clearly, then, it is very important for injury prevention to avoid training errors. With careful planning and slow progressions, athletes should be able to avoid the kinds of errors I've discussed.

But a word of warning: because elite performance requires high mileage and high-intensity training, athletes are still at risk simply from hard training. Some may be able to withstand it; others may need to reduce their training to remain injury-free. Only then will they reap the benefits of uninterrupted training.

Raphael Brandon