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*Courtesy of Fix.com
Most injuries are caused by training mistakes, particularly the Terrible Too’s: too much, too soon, too fast. The best injury-prevention strategy is a training plan that follows the rules mentioned above, and includes as much rest and recovery as possible. Forty years ago, the great running doctor-philosopher George Sheehan, M.D. preached: “Listen to your body.” This sounds easy, but can prove difficult for the highly-motivated marathon trainer. You’re afraid to miss a workout or two, so you ignore your body’s clear messages, such as “Sore calf muscles!” or “Pain in the knees!”
Don’t ignore. Listen. And take two to three days off from your plan’s scheduled workouts whenever you notice an unusual soreness. Remember this training truism: You don’t have to do every workout in your plan. No one’s perfect; no one ever hits all their workouts, not even the Olympians. If you finish about 80 percent of the runs in your training plan, particularly the long runs, you’ll achieve about 98 percent of the plan’s benefits. On “off” days, trying walking, swimming or bicycling if they don’t aggravate your injury.
