Is it possible for certain people to just be injury prone? Any reasons? I've ALWAYS been injury prone. Always. I did a lot of sports as a kid and I got injured a bunch including stress fracturing my right foot 3 times in middle school and high school and having resulting nerve damage. The summer after I graduated college I tore my right quad playing adult co-ed softball running to first base on a fly ball....that went foul. Since I began running I've had plenty of injuries including ITBS, shin splints and now whatever the eff is going on with my left foot (tentatively diagnosed with a cuboid stress fracture until tests can confirm). When I got physical therapy for my ITBS with an excellent sports PT he was amazed at my body mechanics and how incredibly tight certain muscle groups are. And I work hard at flexibility with regular stretching and yoga. My massage therapist seems to concur, telling me I have the tightest calves, quads, hamstrings and feet she has ever felt as well as an incredibly high pain tolerance. Is it possible that my body is just ridiculously injury prone? I'm just really upset and miserable and wondering if I'm destined for a life of injuries if I stay active. I'm young (28) so age isn't really a factor, I should be more resilient I would think.... Sigh.

The NBA player, Greg Oden is a prime example.

LTH- my PT didn't have an issue with the way I run he had an issue with my body. My hips are externally rotates and really far forward in the hip socket, putting extra strain on my already tight hamstrings. I have ridiculously tight hips, calves, and feet. I have flat feet, almost no ankle flexibility , and overpronate. I doubt he'd have had an issue with my running style, it was more that the way my body was structured makes running efficiently and injury free difficult.

 

.  I have a feeling that not too many people would run through something that hurts this badly.

Mostly because of the significant potential downside in doing so.   You have a good chance of doing more damage and lengthening the amount of time you deal with being in pain by continuing to run through it.    To me - not worth the risk.  To you - maybe it's worth continuing to train through it.

LTH- my PT didn't have an issue with the way I run he had an issue with my body. My hips are externally rotates and really far forward in the hip socket, putting extra strain on my already tight hamstrings. I have ridiculously tight hips, calves, and feet. I have flat feet, almost no ankle flexibility , and overpronate. I doubt he'd have had an issue with my running style, it was more that the way my body was structured makes running efficiently and injury free difficult.

Yeah, I actually had a PT tell me that god didn't design me to run   And a chiro tell me that I could do marathons but I should keep my mileage low and use the Galloway plan.  She actually brought out the book.  

But when it comes down to it, I was just trying to do too much too soon.  And once I stopped doing that I got better.  I averaged over 60mpw this last marathon cycle, so despite my body not being good for running, I can actually handle quite a bit. I just had to build up to it slower than I wanted to.

So while I think it is true that some people are biomechanically blessed and able to do much more than others (and build up much more quickly), I wouldn't take this PT too seriously.  I think for some of us, it just takes more patience.

There's also the issue of how your attitude affects your likelihood of injury.

One reason so many newbies get hurt is they have more enthusiasm than experience, and will often push their bodies beyond their abilities.  If you push too hard too soon, you'll be more likely to get hurt, but it is hard to really understand that until it happens to you.  As LTH said, most people will only put up with so much pain.  Others will keep going no matter what, and deal with the consequences later.   If you race when you're injured, or when you haven't really trained properly, you run a much greater risk of doing real damage.  .  If you have a mental image of how fit you used to be, and try to perform at that level before your body is ready for it, you're more likely to get injured.  If you try too hard to follow a plan, regardless of how your body is responding to it, you could get injured.  If you try to keep up with people who are faster or fitter than you are, you can get hurt.  As an older runner, I have a real conflict between what my body is saying I can do and what my mind says I should be able to do.  Finding the balance between challenging yourself to improve and pushing yourself to the point of injury isn't easy.

Kristin, none of us run for a living.  Some are better able to fit it into their lives than others.  Here's a reality.  You will never earn a living by your running.  Me neither.  Given that reality, you have to run as you can without making it the number one priority in your life.  In reality, maybe that means you can only run 35-40 miles per week.  Well, so what?  Maybe that means you need to limit yourself to half marathons.  Well, so what?  None of us have to prove anything to anyone else.  Here's another reality.

If someone goes from sedentary to active, the curve of health benefits climbs very steeply up to about 25 miles per week but it flattens out significantly after that.  There is no evidence that you get any additional health benefit from running more than 50 miles per week and there is some evidence that the curve starts declining for those running more than 50 miles per week.  It's not a steep decline and the evidence isn't strong enough to be conclusive but the evidence is there.  My point is that, from a health perspective, there's no real reason to run more than about 25 miles per week.  If living a healthy lifestyle is your primary objective in running, then you can do just fine on that reduced mileage.

If that's not acceptable to you, then you just have to make compromises somewhere.  Maybe you have to skip that glass of beer in the evening because you are out getting in a few extra miles on your 2nd run of the day.  Maybe personal emails just have to wait until the weekend.  Maybe you aren't willing to make those kinds of sacrifices in your personal life just to satisfy your running life.

I don't have an answer for you.  What I do encourage you to do is to make a conscious decision.  Life is all about making choices and every choice we make has both positive and negative consequences.  I think too many people make themselves unnecessarily miserable because they try to avoid the negative consequences of their choices.  Well, you can't.  That's part of life.  I'll give you my example.

About five years ago, I had to decide whether I wanted to put in the time and effort it would take for me to have a chance at getting promoted to Colonel in the Army Reserve.  A promotion would allow me to extend my career for another three years and would increase my retirement by a decent amount.  On the other hand, taking the kinds of jobs that get you promoted and enrolling in Army War College would have essentially meant me spending 2-4 hours every single day performing military related tasks as well as being gone on military duty 3-4 weekends a month rather than 1 weekend a month.  In the end, I decided it wasn't worth it.  Between the lost three years of pay and retirement difference, I probably cost myself and my family about $50,000 - $100,000.  I don't know about you but in my world, that's not walking around cash.  However, I also have two young children and I wanted to be able to spend time with them every evening rather than having to devote nearly every evening to military duty.

Which decision I reached is almost irrelevant.  The point is that I considered all factors in that decision and made it with full understanding of the negative consequences of that decision.  But, and this is the important thing, I decided that the positive consequences of that decision outweighed the negative so I'm OK with it and I can live with those negative consequences.  Just make whatever decision is right for you.