Injury Avoidance

Six years ago, as I was just getting started running, I sent a fan letter to experienced ultramarathoner Paul Ammann thanking him for his online race reports [1] and sketching out the naïve training plans I hoped to pursue in ramping up my mileage and improving my speed and endurance. Paul gently replied with superb advice — advice which came to mind again recently when a new friend started training hard, got injured, and had to scale back expectations. So it's not lost again, Paul's comments:

:IMHO, this is a very aggressive schedule, by which I mean that the
risk of injury strikes me as quite high. Your body can handle
all kinds of ridiculous stresses - but only if you give it plenty
of time to adapt. Many people - including me, I admit - are
impatient with running goals. And many people - including me
again - are often sorry about that. I've read a lot of race reports
that essentially read:

:"I ramped up fast and then I visited my doctor"

:I have a more or less continuous "injury recovery" program in
place. My ankle, or my knee, or my hamstring (all on the left
leg, curiously) is typically in need of some form of maintenance.

:Patience really is a virtue, and the reward for patience is very
concrete, namely injury avoidance.

:If I were doing my first marathon over again, I would probably plan
to walk a third of it (mostly in the beginning). It would be much
more pleasant that way, and the risk of injury would be near zero.
Ultra marathons have taught me that extensive, deliberate walking
is not only "ok"; it is much faster than running til you can't.

:Look at it this way - you aren't out to run one marathon. You are
out to run so many that you lose track of them. Make one of those
future marathons the qualifier.

:btw - 20 miles a week is plenty to run a marathon. Don't let the
logbook run your life. I believe a fair number of people run 100s
on just 30-35 a week (me included). Again, injury avoidance is the
main goal. I would recommend crosstraining over increased mileage.

:And listen to *your* body. It will definitely be talking to you!

:Happy trails!

:-- Paul

(quoted with permission) - ^z - 2008-06-02

(correlates: ResetTheThermostat, MainGoal, LoseTrack, ...)