Catch up with Kevin’s progress in his 8-week training towards achieving his exercise goals in 2022
Hi everyone I’ve completed week 5 of my 8-week training block! It’s been a good week and I’ve managed to get 45 miles of running in, running 5 days out of 7. I’ve done 2 x track sessions this week and the rest of my training has been easy running, with a 13 miler as my longer run.
No niggles and I’m feeling good. I benefited from those 2 days off last week. The moral of that story is, if you do feel tired and don’t feel up to it, it’s better to take a day or two off, you won’t lose anything. When you’re tired, tight etc, you’re most vulnerable to injury:
As promised, here’s some running injury management advice. So if you do pick up an injury:
Don’t run or work through any pain.
If your injury isn’t swollen try applying heat, if it is swollen try applying cold – for 10-15 minutes every hour or when you can.
If you see bruising you have created some bleeding, and/or swelling. Dependent on the extent of swelling and bruising, this would be classed as a possible ‘trauma’ sign, so we might grade the injury at a 3 or 4. This may take up to 6 to 8 weeks to heal with ‘controlled’ activity to build things back up, before any extensive running training can resume.
If you feel pain after your run, give it up for 24 hours before trying to run again. See how it feels through the night and the next morning, if it’s sore I would recommend hot or cold – and importantly, don’t aggravate it or be tempted to ‘test it’ out. Before you consider running again, I would recommend being able to walk symptom free for up to 20 minutes and to be able to carry normal functional activities around the house, stairs etc.
Once you do consider running again, be controlled, don’t search for your pain or create pain after your run, if you do, you must reduce. I would advise ‘controlled’ loading, so you have a return to running plan. I tend to recommend basing this on a 20-minute running session, this can be a combination of walk & run (5 min walk, 5min run, 5 min walk, 5 min run), on alternate days for the first week. If you aggravate your injury, give it 24 hours and go again but reduce your ‘loading’, by reducing the running element of your 20-minute session until you find your base, pain free activity. You should be aiming for pain free during and after exercise.
And introduce some strengthening activity, such as heel raising or squats to load the hip, knee or ankle but reduce, not stop, if you aggravate your symptoms during or after.
Always stretch afterwards, modify if sore.
Always be consistent with any increase in activity.
If your injury is not settling, seek help and advice – maybe from a Specialist Running Injury Physiotherapist
Catch up with Kevin’s video updates over on Facebook
