Do you have teammates who are always "injured"?

Every team (Well I guess not EVERY team) but all the teams that aren't REALLY good at whatever level probably have these runners.

Reasons:

-Out of shape coming into season but they lie about it and jump right in

-Are new to XC/Track and mistake being sore from running as an injury because being sore from sports like soccer bball and football feels different

-Poor Diet and/or doesn't eat enough

-Other health issue that is most likely undiagnosed preventing them from absorbing certain vitamins and/or minerals

One of my teammates and best friends is always at the trainers because of reasons 2, 3 and 4 (Used to play football, Slips into a poor diet too often), and a member of the women's team is the same way (she is always out of shape and used to play soccer.) What you described sounds EXACTLY like each of them. It's always so called "vague" injuries as well, with no real diagnosis such as "knee pain" or my hamstring hurts or something.

Hit the nail on the head- I coached for 20 years. Kids who's parents insisted they be on the team or the kids just wanted to social aspect and something to put on their high school resume.

We had one girl who was a long jumper who could barely reach the pit rarely competed because if her "injuries" . Her mother worked for the school guidance department and fenangled an interview with the newspaper where they talked about how she balanced education with being a "track star".

She lost a lot of friends. LOL

these people are in need of serious help.

they do not want to compete, or even to train. they turn up at practice for the chance to socialise with people who don't judge them for having last year's model of running shoe, or for not knowing what Pinterest is, or whatever it is they get bullied and mocked for in the rest of their life. like everyone else, they are looking for affirmation that their life is not a meaningless piece of doo-da with sprinkles on top.

in my training group, I use them as assistant coaches and assign them roles they can fill that don't require them to run anywhere or do anything physical. I give them cue-cards they use to check the rest of the group are doing their practice properly and I ask them for feedback and allow them to make meaningless input that never gets actioned. this gives them a sense of achievement without them ever having to achieve anything, or mess anything up. everybody wins.

Cheers.

Like everyone else, we always had a handful of these hanging around. One even milked three years of cross training and pt before placing 3rd at Conference her senior year.

You guys are delusional. I hope you never have to experience a lifelong injury

Please describe your permanent injury.

Winnie the poo wrote:

You guys are delusional. I hope you never have to experience a lifelong injury

This thread is about people who are "injured," not people who are injured. There is a difference.

There's a difference between those who want to complete and those that want to be around.

yep!!!

I run for an average-tier Division I program in the Northeast, and we still have these types of people on the team. OP has them pegged perfectly.

Yes, unfortunately he was very talented, off of pretty much no training at all he was running low 16's, f-you genetics

Winnie the poo wrote:

You guys are delusional. I hope you never have to experience a lifelong injury

It's called marriage

See name.

jpo070 wrote:

I run for an average-tier Division I program in the Northeast, and we still have these types of people on the team. OP has them pegged perfectly.

Nah man, I've definitely been getting re-injured in every single race I've started this year except the opener. I have a very good reason for DNFing in 7 straight races. No need to bash me on a public running forum. You're soft.

Trust me I would much rather not be injured than be cross training 2+ hours a day.

Many of these guys ran 9:10 in HS on 40 now and never lost. They now run 70mpw to hit 8:35 so it is partly discouragement and partly nagging injuries.