Two critical mistakes every runner makes.
We are smack in the middle of run season; the Runaway Sydney Half is behind us, City 2 Surf is coming up quickly, and the Sydney Marathon (previously known as Sydney Running Festival) will be here before we know it.
So, it’s a fair bet a fair few of us are running more than we usually do – and with that comes these two common mistakes that pretty much every runner will make at some point. I have!
- Too much too quickly – we all do it. Start training for an event which will either look like starting to run at all, or increasing from our baseline. And its been a couple of weeks, we’re feeling good, seeing some great progress so we chuck in a bit more… Nek Minit… this is where I end up seeing you – usually 6-8 weeks in when the volume increase has been a little too steep and we have ended up with tissue breakdown instead of build up resulting in pain and inflammation.
- Lack of adequate recovery. Which is really just the flip side of the above in some senses. We actually need time for our tissues to adapt to the increased loading we are asking them to do. Fr example tendons need up to 72 hours post loading to return to a state of net tissue building rather than degradation. Which starts to become tricky if you are running 3+ times per week…
The problem is there is no single recipe that works for every person, and factors such as previous training load, sleep,nutrition, other training load and stressors etc will all play a role. But make a plan that takes your current level into consideration, don’t throw in extra sessions just because you are feeling good, and pay attention to recovery! If you need help getting on track with your running, or are already starting to feel a few training related niggles let us know and we’ll get you right back on track.
Article by Jessica Ackad | Director & Physiotherapist