The best way to avoid running injuries
as you get older is...
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If you're a runner over the age of 35
and even more so if you're older than 40,
you'll have probably noticed that your running
and how you train has changed
from what you were doing in your twenties.
It certainly has for me,
and I know I'm not alone.
Let me tell you about a 46 year old runner
I've coached for a couple of years now, Stuart.
Actually, Stuart isn't his real name
and this isn't what he looks like.
Stuart got in touch in January, 2020
and we only managed two in person coaching sessions
before the whole world changed
and we were stuck talking to each other through Zoom.
Anyway, Stuart had been running on and off
since his mid twenties and usually runs
three to four half marathons every year.
But in recent years, he'd noticed that
despite not really changing his
four runs per week training routine,
he was picking up more running injuries
and his progress had stalled completely.
In his words, it felt like he was taking
one step forward with his fitness, then two steps backwards.
His frustration was really clear to see.
The main problem was his left achilles tendon.
He had a reactive and easily aggravated case
of achilles tendinopathy which,
for the best part of the previous year,
would flare up after a run
and stop him running for days on end.
At the point where I met him,
partly due to the injury itself,
and partly the frustration of the whole situation,
he'd reached the point where he'd lost the motivation
to keep going on this treadmill of perpetual injury,
and had all but stopped running.
His health and fitness paying the price.
Why am I telling you about Stuart?
Well, I know that for so many runners of around his age,
this story, and the feeling of being stuck
on a treadmill of perpetual injury, is very familiar.
Before I tell you what we did to get Stuart
out of this horrible injury cycle,
back to full training and running pain free.
Tell me, does this story sound familiar to you?
Let me know about the biggest challenge you are facing
in your own running journey down in the comments,
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Okay, back to, well Stuart, but also a story
that could belong to so many of us.
When it comes to running injuries
like achilles tendinopathy,
but also pretty much any overuse injury,
factors like your individual biomechanics, how you run,
and changes in your footwear certainly will play a role.
But the biggest factor is the balancing act
between training load, both acute,
so how hard you push in a given session or week,
and chronic, the effect of your training intensity
over weeks and months, and your ability to recover,
repair and adapt along the way.
That's the essence of training right there.
You can think about that, even on a more systemic level,
asking, how hard am I pushing myself?
Or on a more micro level, taking specific tissues
into account, like in Stuart's case, his achilles tendon.
Think about it like this,
in such a physically demanding activity, like running,
there are two big factors,
one, a given tissues capacity for loading,
in Stuart's case the tissue being the achilles tendon,
and two, the load you are placing
on the tissue through running.
As long as Stuart's training loads stayed
within his achilles tendons capacity for loading,
we were able to manage his symptoms
as he continued to successfully rehab the tendon
at home with exercises and self massage techniques.
So what exactly did we do?
How did we adjust his training plan?
Well, as we began working together
and Stuart told me about his training,
one thing was abundantly clear, like so many of us runners
he loves to run and loves it a whole lot more
than doing strength exercises and mobility work.
He admitted that, given the choice
between squeezing another run into the training week
and doing a home workout,
the run would always win.
Sound familiar?
I know for a lot of us, it will.
And you know what, for most of us
that's no problem, until it is.
I've had so many conversations over the years with runners
who've had to learn the hard way, that as they get older,
they can no longer take the, a just run,
approach to their training.
The fact is that as runners, as we hit our mid-thirties
and enter our forties, we start to gradually lose some
of the strength we used to have,
and along with that, some of the capacity
for loading that I was talking about earlier.
The big thing that Stuart says he learned
from our work together, is that now he's in his forties
he can't just rely on his inherent strength
for many years of simply being active.
Instead he has to now actively work on staying strong
and fighting back against that natural loss of strength.
And it's totally doable.
I now have him running three times per week and making time
for a minimum of three, 30 minute strength and mobility
workouts each week to support his running.
Here are some examples of the short,
but effective run specific strength and mobility routines
that I've got him doing.
The simple rule that I've asked him to follow,
is to view two strength and mobility
workouts per week as maintenance,
and three, as the standard he needs to hit
to consistently see progress.
Honestly, I'd suggest the same approach
for any runner over 40, especially if you know
that you are now feeling aches and pains
in your training that never used to be there
in your twenties and thirties.
Obviously the most effective strength routine
will be the one that targets
your own individual weak links.
You probably already know where these are
if you've ever had a running injury.
If you've ever been to the physio
with a running injury and been given rehab exercises to do,
but you've stopped doing them
now that the injury's healed,
a great place for you to start building
an injury prevention program for yourself,
is to revisit those exercises,
as they address weak links
your body is already prone to.
Failing that, I've put a link in the description
to where you can find some example
running strength and mobility workouts
you might want to follow.
So strength work helps improve your body's capacity
for work or loading.
How about the training load itself?
Well, that was the other side of the equation
for how we managed Stuart's ability to get back
to running more consistently.
Setting his aim at three runs per week,
rather than his previous four runs per week schedule,
made time for proper recovery between running workouts,
allowing for his achilles to react, if it was going to,
then settle before running on it again,
and it fit perfectly with his
three strength workouts per week.
He's now running three days per week,
doing strength, mobility and rehab, or preventative work
three days per week, and resting fully one day per week.
The achilles rehab was a little more intensive
to begin with, but as it healed properly
the rehab exercises have become preventative work.
Most importantly, his running is now pain free,
which is allowing him to be consistent with his training.
And the key was following that essential rule
about the importance of strength training
as we all get older.
What I didn't talk about here was the specific kind of
running workouts that I've got Stuart doing
to stay injury free, whilst get race ready.
So make sure you watch the video
shown on screen right now,
to learn what type of speed workouts
are best for runners over 40
and which you really have to avoid.
I'll see you in the next one.