Long Term Training Principle #4 of 6: Don’t get injured
Here at South Bank Runners we want all our members to keep doing what they love and make running part of their life’s. To help ensure all our members stay running head coach Chris Hand has laid out his long term training principles to keep you running injury free.
Follow along for the whole Six part series on successful training.
Missed the other principles? Read those first here:
LTTP #1: Consistency
LTTP #2: Be Patient
LTTP #3: warm up and cool down
Well done, you have made it to the principle #4 - only a few more to go. This one it simpler said than done. Running injuries are a way too common among recreational runners that even I am much too familiar with. Follow this principle to the letter however and you might just make it to the start line of your next big event in one piece!
Principle #4: Don’t get injured.
Running injuries are an epidemic in the world of recreational runners. There is a good chance that you could be reading this injured right now! One week you are feeling great, smashing PBs, high fiving friends over the finish line and then the next you are hobbling around the office barely able to walk down stairs. What an athlete! Luckily, almost all overuse running injuries are preventable with a few basic principles:
Run slower
Some of the best runners in the world still jog their easy runs at a conversational pace. If Sub 2 Marathoner Kipchoge runs his easy runs at 5:00min/km pace, then a 4 hour marathoner definitely shouldn’t be running their easy run at anything less than 6min/km pace. Running “fast” all the time puts undue pressure on your muscles and causes overuse injuries. Slow the fuck down and you will be able to run for days, weeks, years without injury.
Don’t worry about weekly mileage
Think of your running in time, don’t think of your weekly mileage and certainly don’t compare your mileage to others or worse compare your mileage to that of an elite runner. Brett Robinson, an elite Australian Distance Runner, may be running a 10km tempo in 30 minutes. It might take you 50 minutes to cover the same distance. Let’s say he runs 100km in total for this week (he runs a lot more but I need this to be easy maths). He covers this distance at varying speeds by doing fast intervals, medium tempos and easy long runs. Let’s say at the end of the week he has been running for a total of 7 hours at around 4:00min/km average pace. Not a big ask for a guy who trots along at 3:05min/km for a Marathon. Now if we take an average recreational runner who shuffled along at 6:00min/km and they run 100kms they are have to be out there for a much longer 10 hours. That’s 3 more hours than the old mate Brett - what a slack elite athlete he is! As a rule of thumb, for a recreational runner you should be running anywhere from 1 hour to a maximum of 7 hours a week. Any more and you risk serious injury. It's better to run week after week of 7 hours than it is to run 9 hours one week, then no hours for 4 weeks after due to injury. There are of course always exceptions to this rule, some runners bodies can take the higher kms, and obviously a recreational runner training for a 100 mile trail run might need a few more hours training.
Don’t kill yourself every training session.
When you do a hard training session, you need to keep something in the tank. Remember it’s meant to be training, not straining. A good rule of thumb to follow is always finish a workout feeling like you could have done two more reps. If you get to the end of the session and feel like you gave it 100%, you are doing it completely wrong. Go 90% effort in training, save 100% for race day.
Add more running slowly
We have all done it. You start running and loving it. Next thing you know you have signed up for a half marathon. You go from sitting on the couch sinking beers every night, to waking up at 6am to drive to a race in the middle of nowhere, sipping on Pure Energy gels and already thinking of the next race before you have finished the one your in. I would never curb a newbies enthusiasm to their face, but settle the fuck down. We get it. You like running, but we want you to keep enjoying your new found passion without getting injured. Build your running up slowly to ensure you don’t get injured. A good rule of thumb is to build by 20% every week. This means for a 10km long run on the weekend, you might build that to 12 the following. Simples!
Rest and then rest some more
Rest is more than taking a rest day or two. It means getting a good night's sleep. It means if you get a niggle, take the session off and ease back your running immediately - even if you only have just one 1 more rep to get through in your workout. Your body will always give you signs before an injury. Listen to your body, if you feel a niggle take it easy for a few days. If it persists, get it treated by a professional immediately - don’t self diagnose on YouTube or worse try run through it.
I hope you are enjoying these principles and found them somewhat helpful - stay tuned for tomorrow’s principle on eating well from a Burger lover
Chris Hand,