I'm very injury-prone: Best long-term solutions for training

You say you get injured at 40 mpw, but what's your mix of easy running vs workouts?

If you aren't running almost 100% easy runs in the summer, you're begging to get injured because you don't have a good strong base to work off of. I speak from experience. I had a tibia stress fracture in HS too, and it was almost solely because I followed what my coach said (too many workouts) instead of just doing a huge amount of easy running in the summer.

Figure out what part of your biomechanics is causing you to be repetitively injured. Focus on letting your body move naturally. Hips and torso twist, trying to minimize rotation is bad.

I'll throw another suggestion into the pot: it might be worth staking out a dedicated off-season where you take it easy on the running and do something different for a while. Play some Frisbee, go hiking, surf, sh!t like that. Might not maximize performance in the short term, but will probably help in the longer term.

I'm going to keep this really simple because it has all been said by others here:

- If you are not recovering between workouts then you are prone to injury. Everyone faces this. Some more than others obviously. This means sleep (NUMBER 1), foam rolling, diet, etc... Training is creating a stimulus to bring the system down which causes an adaptation. If you are not resting and not allowing the adaptation to happen you will not improve and you will be injury prone.

- Your biomechanics could be off.

- You could have muscle imbalances. The most likely would be hip weakness as you mentioned. Buy some mini bands and do lateral side stepping work with them. I don't know what you have been doing up until now, but this will work.

That's a lot of time to spend riding indoors. Try to get your hands on a road bike and ride everywhere you can- school, work, wherever. Go chase some cars, get your heart rate up. Or head for the hills if there are some nearby. Don't kill yourself, but don't take it too easy.

I agree with what people are saying here in regards to sleep. You HAVE to get enough or you will be injury prone, that's all there is to that. Get a minimum of 8 hours and preferably more, given your age, your body needs it.

Second, I saw you said you eat a lot, but what are you eating... processed crap or good quality food and sufficient caloric intake? All of those stress fractures are an indication of insufficient dietary intake/nutrition. And... I couldn't find anything that referenced if you are a girl or a guy. If the former, are you getting regular periods? Sorry if I missed that somewhere. Disordered eating is common, moreso in females than males, but it happens to both women & men. If you think you may have this problem, please talk to your parents and your coach and see a physician and forget about running for a while.

"Easy running", which you need more of IMO (cross training can be a good supplement but it's not running) if you do not have an eating disorder, is not half marathon pace. It's conversational pace, the pace at which you can carry on a conversation. These miles are the foundation that support the workout miles. Workout miles can (really) be ANYTHING faster than conversational pace, depending on what your goal distance is and what the workout is. Don't listen to bullshit about having to run fast or hard so much of the time. The easy stuff is what is necessary in order to do harder efforts.

Start with substituting a couple of those 30 minute stationary bike sessions with 20 minute runs at Conversational Pace. Stick with that for a few weeks... then proceed to substitute another, stick with that for a few weeks, then proceed.... etc. Be sure it's truly a pace at which you can carry on a conversation... easiest to do this with someone that you run with and enjoyable. A treadmill may be wise to use instead of hard surface (if the hard surface is concrete, move to asphalt at least), it's a shame you can't get to a trail or athletic field?. Perhaps trail on the weekends when you aren't obligated to a race. Dirt/grass is best.

Be sure to have a day every week where you do no exercise at all until you are through being "injury prone". No bike, no run, no weights, no nothing. Even two days if your body is telling you that is what it needs at the time.

Good luck!!!

I'll send some thoughts your way because I can resonate with the injury-prone situation. I was healthy all through high school and then basically spent 4 years of college constantly injured. And keep in mind, none of the people posting here know you or your exact situation. They can only speak to what they have experienced or what they have seen others experience. You should look for what things resonate best with your situation and try to take some steps toward improvement based off that.

The two things that stood out most to me here were diet and training intensity. I know you said you feel you eat well with a lot of dairy and veggies and that's good. I'm curious about your size though. I had always been really skinny, even for a distance runner. I started college at 5'10" 125ish lbs. I ate alright I suppose, but after a couple years, I decided to expand my diet to include a lot more protein and red meat. I gained like 12 lbs in 6 months (pretty much all muscle) and it helped my running a lot. I think it led to a lot more muscle development, which in the long term helped with a lot of bone problems. My shins took a lot of beating because my calf/shin muscles would get fatigued too easily, but they have since been a lot healthier.

Second thing would be about the training intensity. You say 40 mpw, but the pace is critical here. You should have hard days be hard and, more importantly, easy days be easy. Easy pace is probably slower than you think. For someone your speed, there is nothing wrong with 7:30 pace for your easy days. Another thing you may want to try, you said there are *no* soft surfaces around you, but surely there must be a soccer field or football field somewhere. Try like 20 minutes around the field. May consider doing it barefoot as well. I'm not a proponent of barefoot running in general, but I think some slow barefoot running in place of your 30 min bike might be beneficial for you. It's really good for building some strength in the lower legs.

Just my two cents. Best of luck.

I am with you… this is an exact description of my running career (except you were a bit faster than me). I eventually ended my career at age 30 by training too hard, straining the same hamstring twice, and building up enough scar tissue on it that I can't train hard anymore despite 20+ PT sessions, deep tissue massage, etc.

Rule #1: Most durable runners do not understand non-durable runners. They just don't. They think it is "in your head" or there is some magical lifting exercise you aren't doing or cross training or your dietary regime that is holding you back. Some get it. I am convinced that just as there is now a genetic test for ligament durability in NFL/NBA athletes (see 'The Sports Gene"), there will one day be a "panel" of genes that will show some runners have less durable soft tissues than others.

You have to learn to accept this. Here are the ways I found to improve my performance.

First, prioritize the long run. Protect it. You may need an extra day afterwards to recover that your teammates don't, but you need that extended aerobic stimulus. Even if you can't hit high mileage, if you can get the long run weekly, you can get some of the benefits.

Second, treat speedwork carefully. Treat it like nitroglycerine…. always err on the side of one less rep or 10% less intensity. Yes, it's frustrating. Yes, it's so frustrating that your teammates can go deep in the well and not injure themselves. Your number one goal during speedwork is not to injure yourself. Period. Which is worth more: 1 more hard rep during Tuesday's interval session, or knowing you won't be injured for the next two weeks of your training block? The answer is always avoiding injury.

Third—adopt a new philosophy—your training is like water wearing away stone, or a carver gently whittling away wood. You are not a construction worker blasting away at concrete with a jackhammer. Every workout must make a little bit of difference, but not be a danger.

Fourth—you MUST do strengthening exercises. Weights are fine, yoga is good too… but strengthen those muscles. It was when I gave that up for lack of time once we had my daughter that I sustained my injuries.

Good luck. Accept it is not fair, and train with intelligence.

I would only do speed twice/week including the races. Do some hills for the other running session (not nearly as much pounding and will help with form). Try to run on soft surfaces. You could also do some swimming instead of biking. See the chiropractor or other medical folks that might be able to help. Do a lot of stretching and do some lifting.

If you are becoming injured running more than 40mpw than don't run more than 40mpw. American HS Junior is grade 11? So you're probably 16-17 years old. Judging by your personal bests, which are decent for your age but modest for someone in the sport for 5 years, you may have not reached physical maturity yet.

If you plan to run after HS you are going to have a terrible experience after suffering from so many stress factures as a teenager. Keep the mileage below 40mpw and focus on mechanics. Plyometrics and medball throws are fantastic to work on good hip and trunk mechanics; the better you move the further you jump and throw. You can see your progress daily. Legendary coach Dan Pfaff has all his beginner athletes do medball throw workouts twice a week after tempos to improve mechanics.

High volume is useless for teenager athletes. VO2 max and anaerobic threshold are the strongest indicators of endurance performance, and none of those finish developing until 21. VO2 max partically is largely genetic and can only improve on average 20% after physical maturity is reached. Working your ass off trying to do college level mileage in HS when your cardiovascular system isn't fully matured is a waste of time. The largest improvements of performances are simply from the athlete aging onto their genetic baseline VO2 max and anaerobic threshold

When I was 17 I ran your 800m and mile times after only 1 year in the sport by focusing on mechanics and running 25mpw. The largest error in my training as a teenager was attempting large mileage because I ran some decent times. I boosted my mileage to 60mpw when I was 18 and it created such bad tendonitis in my Achilles that I had to skip an entire outdoor season. I wasn't able to train pain free till I was 20 and it destroyed all my chances of joining a great college team right out of HS.

Foam roller

Shake your legs in a pool regularly.

I’m a guy.

Maybe my Prs aren’t that great for my age because I’m not talented. Just throwing that out there.

I eat a lot of healthy food. I’m very particular about eating proper food, and lots of good quality veggies. The diet is not the problem unless I have some sort of disorder that makes me not absorb nutrients, and there’s no indication of that.

I wanted to run after high school, but I’ll never run at a high level so I’ll see how it goes.

I just want to be healthy. Even though I’ve been taking off recently, I think I have a season ending foot stress fracture. I’m fed up with all of this.

injury prone runner wrote:

I'm a HS junior who's been running for 5 years. I've started to have a slump in performances due to chronic injury. I can't seem to get over 40mpw without getting some sort of injury. I've had stress fractures in both tibias and one metatarsal, severe tendinitis in my feet, plantar fasciitis, and chronic hip imbalances that I can't seem to fix with lifting and core strengthening. It just seems to be something new every few months.

Your stress fractures point towards overstriding.

Your plantar fasciitis and tendinitis point towards flimsy, unsupportive shoes. Lots of runners can train in racing flats and Nike Frees, but some of us can't.

I suggest you have someone video you running and verify that you are landing hard on your heel with your knee nearly straight.

For shoes, you should consider adding a Superfeet Black insert to help with the plantar fasciitis and foot tendinitis. You might need to switch shoes, too.

I don’t overstride. I have a good cadence and my coach filmed me running and verified that my stride is good. my foot lands directly under my center of mass.

I run in Asics Gel 2000 v5 shoes for distance and tempo runs, and Saucony Kinvaras with an insert for anything sub 5:20/mi pace.

LoveMarathons wrote:

Second, I saw you said you eat a lot, but what are you eating... processed crap or good quality food and sufficient caloric intake? All of those stress fractures are an indication of insufficient dietary intake/nutrition. And... I couldn't find anything that referenced if you are a girl or a guy. If the former, are you getting regular periods? Sorry if I missed that somewhere. Disordered eating is common, moreso in females than males, but it happens to both women & men. If you think you may have this problem, please talk to your parents and your coach and see a physician and forget about running for a while.

+1 on the diet. too many injuries, especially stress fractures, for that kind of mileage not to have something to do with nutrition. are you trying to keep an abnormally low weight.

If I were you, I would not do workouts, doing easy runs will do you more good than trying to do workouts that put too much stress on your body.

Low mileage + right intensity may work. There some real good threads on LRC like this one (Jim Spivey):

You can even run only 3-4 days but always at a good clip (only workouts or AT runs) and take the other days OFF.

All the cross training you propose is overkill and while useful for general aerobic improvement won't make you a faster runner and leave your body always tired and injury prone.

Good luck

moanswers wrote:

LoveMarathons wrote:

Second, I saw you said you eat a lot, but what are you eating... processed crap or good quality food and sufficient caloric intake? All of those stress fractures are an indication of insufficient dietary intake/nutrition. And... I couldn't find anything that referenced if you are a girl or a guy. If the former, are you getting regular periods? Sorry if I missed that somewhere. Disordered eating is common, moreso in females than males, but it happens to both women & men. If you think you may have this problem, please talk to your parents and your coach and see a physician and forget about running for a while.

+1 on the diet. too many injuries, especially stress fractures, for that kind of mileage not to have something to do with nutrition. are you trying to keep an abnormally low weight.

I’m 5’9 and 135lbs. I lift and eat a lot. I’ve been trying to gain weight, and I’ve succeeded. I was 125lbs a year ago.

"My current idea is to only run workouts and races and substitute all of the other mileage with cross training."

Sounds like a bad recipe to me. Exposing yourself to 2-3 hard sessions a week without ANY recovery mileage in your running shoes is bad. Your body still takes all the beating from the hard sessions.

My way out of injury hell was lifting (heavier than you think) plus more easy mileage. And then some demanding workouts performed as cross training. I personally dislike spinning, but have tried the power mill climber? (

https://lifefitness.com/facility/products/powermill-climber#

) or the eliptical with the right speed and resistance. They can be quite demading and get your HR elevated.

Wish you the best.