Lessons Learned: Running Injuries

The worse thing for an athlete is being injured. What separates those who return stronger than ever, and those that don't, comes down to one single idea: Did they learned from their mistakes? This article will explore some of my own lessons learned, that could help others from making the same mistakes.

We have all witnessed the frustrating perpetual cycle of someone who continues to make the same mistakes, yet fails to make the changes to prevent them from happening again.

Mistakes are a key element of the growth process, as long as you are willing to learn from them.

Six months of being immobile with my worse injury to date, countless trips to the hospital to determine what the issue was, and many sleepless nights, provided me with ample time to self-reflect.

I concluded that much of what lead to my knee injury was entirely preventable. The only thing that needed to change to stop this from happening again was... ME!

I recognised that I had an unhealthy relationship with regard to my mindset around fitness and wellness, overall.

If I wanted to recover and return to the thing that I love most, running, I knew that I need to make some big changes to my approach.

I needed to incorporate healthier habits, that would help to prevent a repeat occurrence later down the line.

Hopefully, some of my new principles will help you to implement preventative measures in your own training schedule... Because.. I have learned firsthand that being injured is not fun!

Commitment To The Session Output, Not The Time

Before I got injured I believed that logging the miles early in the morning was the best way to attack the day. To some extent I do still believe this, especially with busy lives and commitments that prevent us from training properly.

However, irrespective of the type of session or the weather forecast outside, I would be up at day break logging miles. Often fasted. Speed sessions. Tempo. Longer sessions etc. Sun, Rain or Snow.

When it comes to fatigue management all of these factors come in to play.

If I want to give my best, and get the most from the session, I learned to be committed to the session output, not the time.

For me, I learned it is more efficient to perform speed/tempo sessions later in the day, once I have had time to fuel/hydrate sufficiently.

Likewise, if its raining or cold in the morning, but the forecast promises brighter weather later in the day, it is more beneficial to wait until then.

Unless of course its forecast to be wet and cold all day, then I am more than happy to get wet!

Simple stuff. But its often the simple things that get overlooked. It did for me anyway.

Mobility Is Ritual

I have always been an advocate of having a robust, regular strength programme to coincide with your training.

I have lost count of the conversations I have had with people who moan about persistent niggles, but then explain how they haven't got time to do strength work, still logging 40-50 miles per week.

For these people, swap 6-7 of those miles for one hour in the gym per week and you will see significant results!

However, an element of strength that I neglected was mobility.

Given the choice to do squats, deadlifts or calf raises in the gym, I would have taken this every time. Ask me to commit 15 minutes to stretching key movements that will help with my overall fatigue/soreness, no thanks.

As part of my recent training to gain qualification as a personal trainer, I researched the anatomy of the human body. This sent me down a rabbit hole of understanding how our joint mobility impacts other areas of our body.

The range of motion of our hips, the strength of our glutes, have a high correlation to many of the common running issues people experience: hamstrings tightness, knee pain, calf and Achilles, plantar fasciitis issues etc.

By incorporating a short routine of hip and joint mobility weekly, coupled with focused emphasis on strengthening my glutes, I have been pain free for the 12 weeks since my return to training. Even after ramping up my weekly volume/elevation.

Mobility exercises and stretching post run have become as much a part of my strength programme as squats and deadlifts. Mobility has become my ritual.

Periodisation Vs Logging Empty Miles

Before I got injured my mindset was logging the miles will get you in the best shape possible. For that reason I decided to run everyday, accumulating a run streak of 213 days before I got injured.

Irrespective of whether I raced hard the day before, I would be sure to be out the next day logging miles. Until of course, my body said no more, scratching off 6 months from my training schedule.

I ignored niggles that evolved into an injury by hitting each session with the intensity I had from strong momentum and my resilient toughness..

The best principle I have learned in 2024 is the principle of 'periodisation'.

If I understood this concept before, I would almost certainly of not got injured.. It is defined:

A systematic approach to organising and planning a training program. It involves dividing the training process into specific periods or cycles, each with distinct goals and focus areas. The purpose of periodisation is to optimise performance, manage fatigue, and reduce the risk of injury by varying the intensity, volume, and type of exercise over time.

The old adage says, 'The hunter who chases two rabbits catches none'.

I learned that If I wanted to get the best out of my performance, I had to stop chasing everything all at once, and focus on specific elements that will help me work toward my goals.

My goals determine my training plan, intensity, and even the terrain I focus on. Everything is designed with the goal in mind. Quality over quantity!

Invest In Intelligent Mentors

I decided that if quality was my overall focus, the best way to achieve that was to invest in the knowledge of someone with much more experience than myself.

Therefore, I decided to carefully recruit a coach. More importantly, I wanted to find a mentor.

As someone who reads and listens to a lot of information, I am acutely aware of the notion of 'conscious incompetence' and 'unconscious incompetence' with regard to my understanding/knowledge around training methods.

You simply don't know, what you don't know.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing - Socrates

In life, you can wing it or you can become a student. As a student you are open to the input of a teacher.

A proficient teacher will capture your blind spots, and offer guidance to help you develop.

The mentor-protégé relationship is the most efficient and productive form of learning. By choosing the right mentor, you can gain shortcuts to acquiring the knowledge necessary to achieve mastery. - Robert Greene

If I want to add intelligence to my training, I needed to find an intelligent mentor.

Easy Means Easy, Hard Means Hard

The biggest buzz word in running is the conversation around 'easy running' or 'zone 2 training'.

Until recently, and before my injury, I would go for an 'easy' run that in hindsight was closer to a tempo effort. The trouble is I was running 80% of my week at this 'perceived' easy pace, and wondering why my legs were always fatigued.

The first thing my coach pulled me up on was for running my easy sessions too hard! He instructed me to slow it down, almost painfully slow.

Since reducing my easy pace considerably I haven't had a single issue with DOM's following my sessions, including after hard/longer sessions in the mountains. I have seen noticeable improvements with this, almost immediately.

Scott Johnston explains how the fitter/more efficient you become as an athlete, the greater the stimulus you place on your body, that compounds your overall volume. What does this mean?

An elite marathon runner's 'easy' zone 2 pace will still be around 5.00min/mile, with a predominantly low Heart Rate.. If 80% of their weekly volume is trained at this pace, although it is easy, the compounding effect on the muscles will be considerable.

Which is why an elite runner will spend a great deal of their time in zone 1 - i.e. super easy pace.

The purpose of an easy session is to flush lactate, reduce stimulus on muscular fatigue, and build your aerobic capacity.

I have learned, with the help and guidance of my coach, that most of the 'easy' runs you see logged on Strava are far from easy.

If it is not easy enough you will likely generate additional lactate and increase muscular fatigue, so that when your hard sessions come back round, you are unlikely to be fully recovered. Hence the never ending niggles..

If you want to run fast, you need to learn how to run easy, properly. I'm still working on this!

Strava Isn't Your Friend

This why Strava is not your friend!!

In fact, it is often out to derail you if you are not careful of its influence.

During my research when I was immobile I noticed a key theme in the training of the best in the world.

Many elite athletes don't monitor weekly mileage, they monitor training hours!

The issue with measuring mileage is that it doesn't account for perceived levels of fatigue, terrain, intensity or even weather. It leans toward the quantity end of the spectrum, as opposed to quality.

Moreover, focusing on hitting weekly mileage targets, at the expense of important mediating variables, can lead to a lot of 'junk miles'.

'By focusing on training hours, athletes can better manage the intensity, quality, and recovery of their training. This approach promotes a more balanced and personalised training program, leading to more sustainable improvements in performance and reducing the risk of injury' - Seiler, S. (2010).

When it comes to training outputs, not all miles are created equal!

40 miles with 2000m of elevation is not the same as 60 miles on the road.

If you are being influenced by the training sessions of your friends on Strava, you can very quickly find yourself drift toward quantity as opposed to quality in your training.

This is a mistake that lead me to my injury, that I will be forever careful not to repeat!

Strava is a great tool to encourage and motivate you in your training. It is good to see your friends hitting PB's and hitting their training hard.

However, my relationship with it is much different today than it was 6 months ago.

I use it to now to monitor my own data, review with my coach, and glance to see how my friend are getting on with their training. I no longer view it to replicate what anyone else is doing!

Its never the most intelligent decision to get pulled along by the crowd.

Summary

A year that started with the prospects of being the best to date in my running journey, turned out to be my most hardest and frustrating yet.

However, in hindsight it has been my most formative year so far. I have learned so much about the sport of running from a wide range of angles, that will help me to become a better athlete than before.

In reflection, some of these principles are central to what will help propel me to the next level.

I hope that they can be helpful to you, hopefully providing some preventative measures to reduce the chances of your training being derailed, like mine.

Its a frustrating endeavor rebuilding everything you have lost. If you have any questions feel free to reach out!

Mistakes are a key element of the growth process, as long as you are willing to learn from them!

The best is yet to come!

Much love,

Rossi