DUMB QUESTION ALERT: When should you take a day off? Injury prevention thread.

Never call a training run a 10k. Even if it was exactly 6.2. Call it 6 or 6 miler.

Failure to fix that will result in you being slow and injured with all the other people that run 10ks on Tuesday.

Thanks for that advice, but I was looking more for stuff regarding injury prevention.

I always say "Listen to your body". But it's really hard to define what that actually means.
Just go with your personal feel, since nobody else is in your body.
If you think a day of rest would be beneficial, just take one. If you think a second day would be good too, take that one as well.

It always worked for me. I was injury free for 3 decades. Only this year I got PF and I am still dealing with that a bit.

Best of luck

Figuring out how to train hard without major injuries is an integral part of maturing as a runner. You need to be objective about yourself, and that's tricky. You also have to be willing to experiment and sometimes be more conservative that you think -- just to see if it works. Allowing yourself a rest day is often harder than just pushing through it.

Anyway, one basic guideline: Don't run if your stride is altered or compromised. That's a recipe for more injuries due to overcompensation.

I also think about how recovery fits into training. When I was younger, I would often take easier or rest days before a tough workout because I really wanted to nail it or prove to myself I was in good shape. Now, I'm more likely to plan my easiest (or rest) days after my hardest days because I know it helps me recover faster.

Another thing that comes with experience is knowing which body parts are more sensitive to rest or which aches and pains are likely to last a long time. For me Plantar fasciitis is something I've had a few times, and have always been able to run through it, but it takes a long time to go away. For some friends, it's nearly debilitating, and they can hardly run without severe pain. I also know that my hamstring responds very well to a day off but can go from mildly annoying to gimpy very quickly, so I almost always just do the rest day instead of risking it.

Start slowly and see how it goes.

Bullet in the Blue Sky spot on about not running if it alters your gait.

Also I find if I try to go for a run and the pain gets worse then stop and take time off. A lot of the time I go out with a niggle and it's fine after a few days.

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I'm a man, I'm 40 wrote:
Never call a training run a 10k. Even if it was exactly 6.2. Call it 6 or 6 miler.

Failure to fix that will result in you being slow and injured with all the other people that run 10ks on Tuesday.

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I suspect the conditions might have caused this slight flare-up (if indeed it is a flare-up of anything at all). The slippery conditions meant I had to chop my stride along some particularly muddy places, and I'd slip every 500m (that's roughly 0.3 miles for our metrically challenged friend above). Perhaps that led to something.

I'll take today off, might just run 7.5k tomorrow instead of 10k.

I always found that a short easy run got things to heal faster than a day off did. But that's something everyone needs to work out for themselves. Most of the little niggles we feel are things you can train through and they'll go away eventually. If you don't run every time something feels a little "off" you'll probably never get any consistency going. It's dicey. My rule for something like you described was to run for ten minutes. Things almost always stopped hurting in that time. But if something started hurting more in the ten minutes I'd bag the run.

Yes, the lack of consistency is annoying. I've been trying to get back up to 40mpw for the 18 months-2y described, but "running through" stuff tended to injure me, forcing me to start again after months away. It's annoying, because it means I am raising milage by something like 2 miles a month, but I am running more distance and more consistently. It's just irritating my miles have to be low!

Once I get to 40mpw with 3 hard workouts, that will hopefully get me to 17-18m for 5k. I'm about 30mpw at the moment, all easy running. Once I'm there, hopefully the injuries will subside a bit, but who knows.

If you'd had recurring injuries I would argue that time off is not going to be the answer.
Something is off from a functional standpoint. Could be muscle deficiencies, form issues, etc. You would probably benefit from a slow mileage build with mostly easy running, and working in drills slowly. Butt kicks, high knees, 5-10 minutes of barefoot jogging or walking, etc. Just pick 4-6 exercises that you feel comfortable with do them well (not fast! form over speed). 1-2 days a week to start. Then add in 1-2 days a week of things like lunges, squats, calf work, etc. Then don't let up. It's just part of what you do now as you increase your mileage. Oh, and core 5x/week.

Get to the root of why you keep ending up injured. Don't just treat the point of pain...

Yeah, I'm looking into this too. It's complicated a little by the injuries all being seemingly unrelated. First injury was a hip flexor tear (this was the worst one, took something like 5 months before I could run again). Second injury was undiagnosed, but I expect something to do with my peroneal tendon. This thing (if it is anything) is in the ball of my foot/underside of my toes. The first 2 were both on my left side, this is on my right.

Possible causes: muscle weakness. I can do a limitless number of crunches, and have started doing 100 before each run. I also cannot do a single sit-up. I don't know what specific muscle weakness that would be, but it is obviously pronounced, and is probably important.

Other possible cause: Shoes. I run in forefoot-striking shoes with little cushion. However, I feel great running in these, which seems counterintuitive to an injury - and the worst, first injury was when I was running in different shoes.

The only way I found for figuring out what I could and could not run through was to try running. Maybe for some people ten minutes is too long. Maybe they should see what happens in five minutes and bag it if the hurt doesn't reduce. Or maybe you should start with walking and bagging it if the walking hurts. I do think the guy who said not to run if you have to alter your form has a good point, though even on runs when nothing hurt I would often need a minute or two of hobbling before I could run with normal form.

In your case, if you've got injury problems and are doing 30 a week now I think you're asking for trouble by planning to get to 40 AND adding three hard sessions. You're adding two stressors. An extra ten miles a week for you is a significant mileage increase and many people cannot handle even two hard sessions a week. Three is really pushing it.

The amount of hard running someone can do is related to how much easy running they've done, i.e., more easy miles make it possible to do more hard miles when the time comes. If you're going to stay in the 30-40 range and want to add hard sessions I would recommend increasing the easy mileage to 40 and adjusting to that with no hard runs. When you want to add hard sessions, and I do think three of them could be too much for you (though if we really got into this we'd need to know specifically what your hard sessions are like), you'd do better to drop back to 30-35 .

Yeah, I should have been clearer - this is a long-term project. I don't plan to be up to 40mpw for 3 months or so, all going well, and all easy running (as frustrating as that piddling build-up is, I just think injury beckons otherwise). I'll then add in one session each month, and will stop at 2 sessions for 6 months or so before MAYBE adding a third.

I also had a long spell of running 55mpw with 2 sessions and a long run before stopping running for a couple of years, and it was on my comeback that the injuries began. If I hadn't stopped, maybe I wouldn't be in this boat now, but hey ho - I still think I can get to 40mpw, and I'd be happy with that. Running is a hobby for me, so I don't really feel the need to run much more if it comes with injury risk - NOT running devastates me a lot more than sticking to 40mpw would.

My general rule of thumb for when I feel some new, mild pain, is to go for a short easy run. If it hurts less the next day, I keep running, Otherwise, I take a few days off then try again.

My advice is that you put more detail in your training log. I say that, of course, not knowing exactly what you normally include in your training log.

I reccomend that any time you feel an ache or pain in a run, you make a note of it. Even if it's not the kind of thing that would normally make you consider taking a day off, write it down. For example, say that it would take something reaching the level of a 6-7 for you to consider taking one or multiple days off. You should be able to go back in your log and figure out when it became a 2-3 and when it became a 4-5. The better you understand the trajectory of aches and pains, the better you can understand and prvent them in the future.

And always, always make sure you are wearing the right shoes. Go to a really good running store and get a reccomendation.

3 hard workouts in 7 days is too much for most I’d have to believe.....and totally unnecessary for A 17-18 min 5k.

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I'm a man, I'm 40 wrote:
Never call a training run a 10k. Even if it was exactly 6.2. Call it 6 or 6 miler.

Failure to fix that will result in you being slow and injured with all the other people that run 10ks on Tuesday.

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Woke up as a raisin wrote:

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I'm a man, I'm 40 wrote:
Never call a training run a 10k. Even if it was exactly 6.2. Call it 6 or 6 miler.

Failure to fix that will result in you being slow and injured with all the other people that run 10ks on Tuesday.

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Man, do you know kilometers are used outside the world of competitive distance running? Yeah, they’re sort of catching on as a unit of measurement.

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