Warts ’n’ Hall
A pologiesin advance. I’m about to say one of the most jarring things a runner can say. It’s not, ‘I’ve just signed an amazing new sponsorship deal meaning free daps for life.’ And it’s definitely not, ‘Despite being 47, I just seem to be getting faster and faster.’ Rather, I recently reached my six-year anniversary of running injury-free (sorry).
Before you hurl this magazine in the bin, redirect your physiotherapist bills to my address in the Wiltshire Alps, or (gasp) unfollow me, I’ll clarify what I mean by injury. When I was 180 miles into 2022’s 268-mile Montane Winter Spine Race, I retired. Not for the first time, my groin let me down. A dull ache became a sharp pain. You could say it was an overuse injury, but to me it was a trauma injury. (To quit a race with a four-hour lead is kind of traumatic.) It’s different from a training injury.
Indeed, post-race, I’m effectively injured for a week or so, with acute micro-tears/epic DOMS often being the least of my issues. I’m injured. But that’s an expected, calculated injury. When this happens, I just sleep and eat cake. There’s also a key difference between an injury and a niggle.
Occasionally in that six-year period, I’ve decided not to run for a day or two because of a niggle. I’ve had most of the classics: achilles, plantar fasciitis and knee issues. But backing off quickly, sleeping properly, eating more deliberately, doing strength work, perhaps temporarily switching shoes and/or surfaces – and the injury quickly goes. To me, a niggle has to cause a week off running before it’s officially upgraded to being treated as an injury.
Other than post-race, I’ve not taken more than three days off running since early 2017, and my injury dodging seems something of a mystery. I run 60 to 100 miles a week, my races are usually mountainous/boggy and between 50 and 268 miles. So my not-especiallyyoung body should, in theory, be quick to strain, sprain or snap.
I do several things to avoid injury, but because I do a few, I can’t be sure which are the most effective. A training plan that has structured
