Welcome to my first in a series of blogs about training errors to avoid!
Running is great for health, well-being and all-that but the bottom line is that most of us run because we love it. It makes us feel great, alive, and it gives us a ‘buzz’…..until injury forces us to stop.
Running injuries are very common and if we believe the ‘stats’, up to 79% of runners will be injured on a yearly basis. Previous injury is the most significant predictor of future injury. For some, it may seem like injury is almost inevitable. The good news is, we can do a good deal to reduce our risk of injury if we train with a little know-how.
From my clinical practice working with runners of all abilities, I think it’s really important to avoid falling into the trap of Too much, too soon.
If this is an expression you’ve heard before, I make no apology. This particular training error is still the top of my list!
The body is great at adapting to the stress of exercise and physical activity that we throw at it, and most of the time if we introduce exercise gradually, it’ll keep ticking along nicely.
Problems occur when we don’t factor in the additional strain or ‘training load’ when we increase our running mileage or introduce a new track, hill or tempo session. Equally important, we mustn’t forget to include other new ‘non-running’ exercise , such as that new, twice a week High Intensity ‘HIT’ class you signed up to.
So if you want to start to introduce different or additional running sessions, it needs to be done gradually. It’s more than worth your while to consider getting some professional advice from a UK Athletics Qualified Run Coach or joining a Running Club to help give you some structure & guidance. That way you can train effectively and make sure you make it to the start of that 10K or marathon in great condition.
