I plays soccer twice a week at night - best to do a workout the morning of a game or the day before?

With soccer and running, are you able to do any strength training or injury prevention exercises?

I've known several guys with twisted ankles and knee problems from the lateral and herky-jerky movements in soccer.

I'd say injury prevention should be in there as a priority.

Sunday -long and/or harder

Monday- easy + strength

Tuesday- soccer

Wednesday- Off

Thursday -alternate by week: tempo run, mile repeats, long hills

Friday strength training + soccer

Saturday-easy

Wejo, I know that you care more about soccer than running, but you better be careful. Just this weekend my running partner jumped into a parents v. kids soccer game at his son's practice and - sure enough - tore his ACL. 39 years old, fit as hell and still running 75 mpw, now he is out of commission. Not worth it. Granted, he wasn't prepared for soccer and you probably have more lateral stability.

My buddies are always harping on me to pickup basketball with them. At least one of my friends injures himself every winter. No thanks.

Running From The Law wrote:

Wejo, I know that you care more about soccer than running, but you better be careful. Just this weekend my running partner jumped into a parents v. kids soccer game at his son's practice and - sure enough - tore his ACL. 39 years old, fit as hell and still running 75 mpw, now he is out of commission. Not worth it. Granted, he wasn't prepared for soccer and you probably have more lateral stability.

My buddies are always harping on me to pickup basketball with them. At least one of my friends injures himself every winter. No thanks.

I concur! I can not even remember all the soccer athletes at my kid's high school who had to quit soccer because of any number of gruesome injuries. Some of them were able to then run track and/or CC, and some stopped sports altogether.

If you want to stop running completely, then do that and go ahead and play soccer. If you have ANY goals with running left (even if it's just to run a marathon under X), then I suggest you get rid of soccer.

Soccer -- keeping Orthopedic Surgeons in BMWs since the dawn of time.

No, that is not what I am saying. Kids playing soccer is fine. I am talking about old guys who just play for social reasons. If you care about running at all, consider limiting the exposure to young men's games.

Kids, on the other hand, ought to play sports of all kinds. Just because your kids are made of glass doesn't mean all kids are that way.

When I was doing both, I had a couple of calf pull/Achilles problems that I attribute to residual stiffness from running. If soccer is the priority, I'd try to arrange the schedule such that you're pretty fresh going into soccer matches and be ready to bail or adjust intense running workouts if your not feeling loose.

letsfutsal.com?

I vote play harder during the game. Don't shy away from intensity. Plus your team should appreciate it. As the former track guy on my team, my job is to track down all the fast strikers on the opposing team, and back up all the other defenders if they get beat.

If you really need volume, do a long cool down. Other wise play fast, run hard in the game and dominate.

There's an 80% chance he'll be fine and soccer is probably a good addition to just running at a non-peak level.

I would do the hard workouts on Sunday when freshest, and do a long run on a day when fatigued or sore from a game.

Wejo, I ran in the Olympic Marathon Trials awhile back. Now, I play soccer and run. Soccer is my main priority. Running is for fun and fitness. I do my workouts the day before a night game. I think Thursday would be good for you. I never worry about injuries - just about good, serious competitive fun. I'm sure you know what its all about.

Ha! Actually, I wasn't referring to my kids having soccer injuries. Both played soccer early on but just didn't like it much, and neither had soccer injuries, and both are now very good runners, and my son is outstandingly good (super tough too with decent mileage and never an injury or even any soreness). I was referring to the MANY kids I have seen at the high school level just in my kids' HS alone who left soccer due to injury to run CC and track.

BUT, I also think that kids playing soccer if they want is fine too. The point is that if teenagers can get so injured playing soccer that a dude the age of Wejo has an even greater chance...and if he has running goals still, he should abandon soccer.

I know. I was just trying to bait you into bragging about your kids... again.

Wednesday? Doesn't Jack Daniels say something about preferring athletes to get in workouts on back-to-back days in weeks when they have a race? Same kind of thinking here. Since soccer is more important, play fresh on Tuesday and run a workout Wednesday. You'd still have 36-48 hours to recover for your next soccer game.

Ex-runner gone soccer wrote:

Wejo, I ran in the Olympic Marathon Trials awhile back. Now, I play soccer and run. Soccer is my main priority. Running is for fun and fitness. I do my workouts the day before a night game. I think Thursday would be good for you. I never worry about injuries - just about good, serious competitive fun. I'm sure you know what its all about.

Cool. Good thing you chimed in.

Soccer?

Do you identify as a woman now?

You will get injured if you do both on the same day -might work for a 21 year old

Either way you do it you will likely be stuffed though so don't do more than one workout per wk