I’m not a huge podcast listener but I had to drive to Weymouth recently and fancied listening to something other than music. You may or may not know that I’ve been struggling with Achilles tendinopathy for about 4 months – it’s a typical runner’s injury – and although I’ve already done extensive research (Googling!) and sought medical advice – I wanted to get some more information about it and running injuries in general (and possibly find someone who said what I wanted to hear!).
The disclaimer here is that I am not medically trained, and I am sharing this with you purely as information about how I cope with injury and the views here are my own – do your own research etc and listen to your own body!
Injuries can be the bane of a runner’s life but they needn’t necessarily stop us from running, nor keep recurring. It’s about managing the injury and then strengthening the body to cope with / prevent future injuries. I find as I get older, I can’t just rely on my body to hang together and deal with all the running I do, let alone the long distances – I have to do core exercises (I can thoroughly recommend Charlie Babb’s online Core & Legs, Bums & Tums classes – primemotion.co.uk) and specific running exercises too, in addition to dedicated run training sessions.
Not running is not an option for me, so when injured (fortunately not often!) I have to adapt temporarily and learn from the experience. I really try not to miss my run sessions as it’s important for me to keep to my running schedule, it’s really important for my headspace and it’s so easy to get out of the habit – perhaps I’ll work at a lower intensity or not push myself so hard up hills. On that note, please do mention to me any injury you may be suffering from when you come to a run session – I’m not going to give you advice on how to treat it, but I can give you a lighter session so you can enjoy the run but work within your pain threshold.
Of course an appointment with the physio / osteo etc is a natural starting point to ascertain the extent of the injury so you know what you’re dealing with, but they really shouldn’t (again, in my opinion!) be telling you not to run. Listen to what Dr Christopher Siegler has to say on this subject and I hope you can appreciate where he’s coming from and what you could possibly take from it (you can probably skip the first 10 minutes or so as the intro does go on a bit!).
By the way, my Achilles is improving, it’s a slow injury to come back from but I’m doing my exercises regularly, am slowly increasing my distances again and hoping to have it cured soon…