Injured, now what?

Most of you have already had to adjust your training and race preparation because of an injury. Often you feel completely disappointed, frustrated and lost. You do not know how to go on, and often feel misunderstood.

Here are a few tips to help you quickly get “solid ground under your feet” again and still stay fit, even while running training is not possible for the moment. In the acute stage of an injury the rule is rest and recovery: enough fluids, an alkaline diet, alkaline baths and physical therapies such as massage, osteopathy, electrotherapy, and so on. Personally I am not much of a fan of painkillers, since pain can be a good “helper”: most of the time pain shows us the maximum load limit, and that exact line between too little and too much load is often the tricky part. As an ambitious runner, of course you want to get back into training as soon as possible. There are some very good alternative training options for this. I recommend aqua jogging, combined with swim training, a cross trainer and a bike or home trainer.

You can also use this phase to build up core stability, mobility and coordination or balance. You should also correct any muscular imbalances with targeted strengthening exercises.

And this is exactly where pain sets the limit. Never train through pain. You can start with shorter loads and then increase them slowly. Here too: if the pain is, or becomes, worse after training, the session was too much. That means making the next session less intense.

At the start of an injury I recommend light loads. If that is possible without pain, you can also start more intense training. Interval training in the water, on the bike or on a cross trainer works very well too. You will notice you can really push yourself here as well, training the cardiovascular system optimally.

A possible cross trainer session: 15-20 min warm-up, then 2min fast, 1min recovery, repeated for 30min to 50min, 15min cool-down.

When and how do I start running training again?

Once you are pain free you can start light running training again. That means starting with small loads. Depending on how long the injury break lasted, I recommend starting with 10min, maybe even 2min jogging, 1min walking, 2min jogging, 2min walking, and so on…

Do this every 2nd day, and once you are pain free, increase the load slowly. Intense sessions on foot only once you have enough training and confidence behind you.

The psychological side of an injury should not be forgotten either. It can be worth getting help from a mental coach here, or using techniques yourself that support you through the mental strain. I personally have had very good experience with NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and working with imagery and breathing technique. Positive thoughts, and setting new goals, help enormously…