Running injuries are never nice, but a lot of us deal with them. I’m recovering from one right now and thought, it would be good to write about my experiences. Maybe it can even help you, if you are struggling with an injury.
First things first: I’m not a medical professional and I will write about my own experience. If you have an injury, running related or other, you should consult a professional. But more about that topic a bit later.
It all started about 40 days ago. I was in my second week of my marathon build and had a longrun on my training plan for that day. Did my normal pre run warmup routine and after just 3 minutes of running my lower back shut down. The muscles totally stiff. I stopped, tried to stretch out my back and waited for a few minutes. Nothing changed, so I walked slowly back home.
I could look up the internet about lower back injuries. Probably I would find quite a lot of advice. But I waited until Monday morning and contacted my physiotherapist. The same day, later in the afternoon I went so see her and my recovery began.
Let’s step away for a bit from my injury and talk about injuries in general. Please consult a licensed physiotherapist. I know, there is a lot of advice on the internet today, but still. A medical professional works with injuries and as far as I know physiotherapists, they try to get behind the cause of the injury and then start working on it.
That’s the main difference between generic advice and a physiotherapist you visit. Some exercises you get from your physiotherapist might be the same as the one you will find on the internet, some might be totally different. Most important is to fight the cause of the injury.
Let’s take shin splints for example. A lot of us had them. But not all of them have the same cause, therefore the therapy is a bit different. That’s why it’s important to seek advice from a medical professional.
On to my running injury. As it turned out, the cause of the injury was not running alone. A lot of us, me included sit behind a computer for 8 hours a day, or even more. This sedentary lifestyle, combined with running and not much mobility work caused my injury.
For the first 10 days of my, let’s say, running related injury, I only did mobility work. Twice each day. I know that running injuries take time and don’t just evaporate over night. I trusted my therapist and did exactly what she said. After about 10 days, my back was more mobile and I could do movements, that were not possible a few days ago.
From there on we started with mobility and strength exercises. Another topic that is talked about, but a lot of us neglect it. What I found out is, that despite all the running, my muscles are actually week. Today, a month later, I still do all the mobility and strength work twice each day. It takes time but the only way back to running.
After about one months, a few sessions with my physiotherapist, a lot of mobility and strength work, I finally reached the point to run again. That’s another part we can get wrong. Starting to run again after running injuries. I tried to stay super smart and started with walking first.
After I was able to walk for 30 minutes pain free and without any discomfort, I did my first “test run”. First 15 minutes of mobility, after that 10 minutes of brisk walking to warm up, followed by 5 times 1 minute of super easy running with 1 minute walking and a 10 minute walk to cool down.
Over the last weeks I slowly build up the running part again and right now I’m able to run 30 minutes easy.
Getting back from running injuries takes patience. You will not be able to run the same paces and distances as before the injury. Your heart rate will be higher and you will need more time to recover. If you are training for a race, you will probably need to adjust your plans or at least the expectations. Please don’t stress about it. There are always other marathons and it’s better to recover first. Running injuries can lead to serious health issues if we don’t treat them and that’s the last thing we want.
There are a few things I learned from my lower back injury:
- Always consult a physiotherapist or medical professional if you have running injuries.
- Follow the plan that you get and don’t rush back into running.
- Don’t stress about the injury. There’s always another race you can train for.
- Start slow and slowly get back into it.
- Don’t do any faster runs when getting back to running. You need to build your base back first.
- Do your mobility and strength work. It can prevent running injuries.
I know, some things are easier said than done. I was super excited about the marathon I have booked for later this year. But guess what, I’m not running it. I will just follow the plan I have and if all goes well, I’ll maybe run a half marathon by end of year.
One more thing I just remembered and need to mention. Recovery from an injury is not linear. There will be days, when it will feel better but maybe just a day or two later it can get worse. What’s important is, that the general direction of the recovery process goes in the right direction.
