Injuries happen - training for the Comrades Marathon

Injuries happen!

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Unfortunately, injuries do plague us from time to time and it does cause havoc with our training. I have been fortunate in my years of running that the injuries I have had, have not been too serious as to prevent me from starting and finishing a race. This is mainly thanks to my incredible ‘support team’ at the Sport Injuries Clinic at the University of Cape Town headed up by Helene Simpson.

I consider injuries to fall into one of 4 categories namely:

Environmental injuries: Injuries related to running surfaces and conditions eg. Camber, downhill running, trail running

Shoes: Injuries caused by wearing the incorrect shoes. See my page on good shoes
Stupidity: Over doing it on a run when there is no need to!
Bad luck: A totally unrelated injury ie. slipping on a floor, stepping into a pot hole

Some basic injury advice:

You can't run an injury away! They don't just get better.
Have niggles seen to when they are just that, niggles
When do I apply HEAT and when do I apply ICE? The simple rule of thumb is this. Apply heat before (that is, literally warming up the muscle before use) and ICE after exercise.
When dealing with an injury, remember the RICE acronym.
R = Rest
I = Ice
C = Compression
E = Elevation
To prevent injury, warm up or stretch before training

I will share my injury experiences with you in the hope that you will learn something from them. So here goes . . .

My hamstring injuries
Ankle injuries
A Bust gut (hernia)
Quad injuries
Physiotherapy (or manage the damage)

I asked my friend Gail Mclellan, a fellow alsoran runner, to put pen to paper and write about her injuries and how she has managed to overcome them. What follows is a very interesting perspective to managing and dealing with injuries.

Running Injuries: my coping mechanism

Key words: running, hamstring, ankle, quad, injuries, hernia
Internal links: good shoes, stretch,
External links: Official Comrades Marathon website

alsoran@webafrica.org.za