Wounded Warriors

Savvy Runners Avoid Repeating Injuries— and If They Do Get Injured, They Come Back Stronger Than Ever.

BY DAVE KROMER

UNNING INJURIES. Nearly everyone gets them, but some get them

more often than others. From my interaction with running friends and my exposure to a wide range of runners at the Bill Rodgers Running Center in Boston, I am constantly reminded of the enormous impact injuries can have on your success in the running game.

From lower back problems, sciatica, runner’s knee, and iliotibial band syndrome to stress fractures, bone spurs, plantar fasciitis, and overpronation problems, runners must dodge an assortment of bullets over the course of their running lives. In what follows I’ll relay some tips I’ ve learned about runners and their efforts to avoid and recover from serious injuries. Since most of us can use reminders, I’ll start with the basics, such as…

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

We hear it over and over again, and yet many runners continue to ignore this simple tenet. Learning to listen to and read your body can have an enormous impact on your running success and your injury prevention—this is particularly true for competitive runners. For some, listening to their body can be achallenging concept they take quite seriously; others choose not to listen and let fate run its course. One reason it’s hard for some runners to listen to their body is that improvement and success in running often depend upon a certain capacity for self-denial. A fine line separates hard training sufficient to attain an optimal level of fitness and the sometimes single step into overtraining that results in injury. Those who learn to skate the edge of that fine line without getting hurt

90 @ MARATHON & BEYOND January/February 2000

can find themselves in the best shape of their lives. But if one day they forget themselves and take things a little too far, they may find themselves wide open to the risk of injury. To keep running healthy, it’s essential that you try to be conscious of when the fatigue or pain you’re feeling is doing damage to your body. When your body says stop, don’t keep going.

EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED

Remember that all of the many physiological components it takes to get you up and running are connected. Let’s say you’ re favoring your right foot and altering your foot strike because of pain in your arch. The additional stress on your right leg may result in pain in your calf, shin, knee, or other parts of that side of your body. The increased workload that your left leg has to take on to compensate for this imbalance may result in problems on that side of your body as well. If you choose to ignore these “compensation injuries” and continue to train, they may become serious problems themselves. Identifying and resolving injuries become much more complicated and time-consuming if you’ ve got aches and pains all over the place. Recognize your injury and pull the plug before additional damage is done.

FIRST, GET THE FACTS FROM THE RIGHT SOURCE

Become an educated consumer before choosing your treatment plan. Once a running injury has made itself known, you may choose to seek help from the medical establishment. Let’s just say, for example, that you’re having problems with your foot and have a few other aches and pains from attempting to run through it. An orthopedic doctor may very well take an X ray, send you for physical therapy, and, if positive results are slow, recommend surgery. A podiatrist may take a cast of your foot and recommend orthotics. A chiropractor might say you’ ve got a misalignment in your spine that’s throwing everything off and recommend three office visits a week for a few months.

Choosing the best direction to take regarding treatment is critical, as your decision directly affects how long it takes to get you back out there on the roads. Whatever you do, if you seek professional care, make sure the person you’re working with knows something about running and runners. If you’re not sure, ask. If the answer is no, ask him or her to recommend someone who has worked with runners before. (For help finding sports medicine specialists, see an article in the September/October 1999 issue of M&B called “Specialist Specific.”)

SSS Dave Kromer WOUNDED WARRIORS ® 91

VISIT YOUR LOCAL SPECIALTY RUNNING STORE

As an employee of a specialty running store for many years, I can tell you that we see a repetition of many of the same problems day after day. We’re familiar with the steps taken to resolve common running-related injuries. For example, we handle the orthotics that doctors have made for mheir patients and provide runners with the shoes doctors have recommended.

Running stores serve as a grapevine. Walk in and ask an employee which local medical professionals have the highest rate of success for solving running-related problems. There’s a good chance that the information you get from arunning specialty shop is more valuable than the shoes you buy there.

IT’S THE SHOES

Don’t underestimate the importance of choosing the right shoe. With a high percentage of running-related injuries originating with the foot, proper shoe selection is extremely important. No, there’s no guarantee that your selection of shoes will make you injury free, but training in the wrong shoes certainly may have a significant negative impact on your condition.

As you know, running shoes are designed for several different foot types, with varying degrees of weight, cushioning, heel lift, stability, and support. If you’ re looking for advice on changing your current shoes, or would like to get some information on the latest models, try your nearest running specialty shop. After spending all kinds of time and money on finding the solution to your problem, you may discover it was partially a matter of getting yourself into the correct shoes, putting arch supports in them, and doing a little stretching.

BE PATIENT

Avoid the risk of reinjury by not doing too much too soon. Don’t try to regain your former self all at once. When you’re healthy and fit, the smoothness of your stride offers a measure of protection from the wear and tear of the daily pounding on the roads. But when you’ve taken time off with an injury, your running-related muscles will be weaker; your body may have to go through quite a progression before you reach the point where you’re strong enough to run efficiently and comfortably again. It’s easy to get banged up when you’re struggling from loss of cardiovascular fitness—often you’ re back on your heels with your formall over the place. Take it easy and listen to your body’s response to the resumption of running. You’ Il know when it’s time to move up to the next rung of the ladder.

ee 92 ™ MARATHON & BEYOND January/February 2000

The process your brain goes through as you wind your way along the road to recovery can be an equally challenging experience. Although your tolerance level may be so low that a few hits of those high-quality endorphins provide you witha massive runner’s high, the reality of your fitness level will be staring you in the face. You’re running pitifully slowly, but it feels like you’ re running fast. Nine-minute miles may feel like eights, eights like sevens, and sevens like sixes. You may even learn the hard way that there’s nothing wrong with doing a little walking along the way until you come all the way back. At your peak level of fitness you may have had no fear of surviving long, hilly, out-and-back courses. But at this point there’s a good chance your course selection will be cut way back. Stick to those short, flat, looping, close-to-home courses until you get your legs back under you.

RUN WITH FRIENDS

Reap the benefits of running with others. Provided that you’re committed to progressing at your own pace, big pluses exist in finding running mates to help you along the way. There’s nothing like a good dose of moral support. If you’ ve been out of action for some time, your level of confidence may not be quite what it used to be. You may wonder if you still have the desire and determination necessary to get yourself back into top form. Memories of days when you were in your prime can be powerful motivators. Perhaps your running mates can even help you transform those memories into reality by letting you draft off them and detach yourself from the effort necessary to reach each new threshold of strength along your road back.

TURN YOUR INJURY INTO A SUCCESS STORY

When you’re on the comeback trail, there will be days when you question if all the work is really worth it. On such days, focus on the satisfaction gained through overcoming your current fitness level and regaining the high level of fitness you once enjoyed. You did it once; you can do it again. And there’s some truth to what you always hear: the day-by-day process of working to achieve a goal, the challenge of striving to overcome adversity, can be just as iy

fulfilling as attaining the goal. Try it—you’ll see that it’s true. i

SS Dave Kromer WOUNDED WARRIORS ® 93

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VOLUME II: 1998

* Volume 2.1—Comrades—The Ulitmate Ultra. Featuring: Shoeing Away Winter by Sally Edwards and The Comrades Marathon by Mike Lambert.

Volume 2.2—Masters Running. Featuring: Masters of the Marathon by Roger Robinson and Masters of the Ultra by Jeff Hagen.

© Volume 2.3—25 Years at the Western States 100. Featuring: Inventing 100-Mile Trail Racing by Gordy Ainsleigh and The History of Western States by Norman Klein.

© Volume 2.4—Top 26 Marathons in North America. Featuring: Getting Past the Pain of Performance and a rating of the top 26 North American marathons.

¢ Volume 2.5—TAKING ORDERS. The Three Stages of the Marathon. Featuring: The Belgrade Marathon by Michael Sandrock.

° Volume 2.6—Sports Medicine. Featuring: The Ergogenic Answer by Mel Williams and The Painful Heel by Dr. Perry Julien.

VOLUME III: 1999

° Volume 3.1—Minnesota Mafia. Featuring: A Finnish Inferno by Jim Hage and Maximize Your VO,max by Frank Horwill.

© Volume 3.2—Top 10 Marathoners of All Time. Featuring: The 24-Hour Track Race by Jeff Hagen and The Boston Experience by George Sheehan III.

Volume 3.3—Prague Marathon. Featuring: All About Achilles by Dr. Perry Julien and Sydney 2000: A Virtual Tour by Julia Emmons.

© Volume 3.4—The Essential Marathon Encyclopedia. Featuring: The Inca Way by Mike Duncan and Fifty Years on the Run by Joe Oakes.

* Volume 3.5—Running in Paradise. Featuring: New England’s Secret Marathon and The “Greening” of a Marathon.

* Volume 3.6—Run the Bottom of the World. Featuring: Marathon des Sables by Barry Lewis and Everest Marathon by Jurgen Ankenbrand.

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nee Ss Cy JULY 4, 2000

Peachtree “ear ye Road Race 10K Fanoer eg ered . and ee The PRRO xy Race of Champions

How to Get a Peachtree Entry Form

Ifyou live outside metro Atlanta, send a self-addressed stamped envelope, before March Ist, to: Peachtree 2000, Atlanta Track Club, 3097 E. Shadowlawn Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30305. You will receive an entry form in March (by March 19th). RARE eC If you live in the metro Atlanta area, take the entry form from the Sunday, March 19, 2000, issue of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

The race is limited to a total of 55,000. The first 45,000 Peachtree entry forms will be accepted on a first-come first-in basis. The final 10,000 will be picked from all entries postmarked on or before March 31, 2000. Peachtree is a Fourth of July tradition in Atlanta, Georgia.

miss The Peachtree 2000 entry form —p~— <> # may be photocopied. wD CIRCUIT TRACK CLUB