Forums >Running 101>Advice on preventing injuries yet still building mileage
On On
Yes, but, that's a little different from what I was getting at. I don't think pain is some kind of goal or indicator of good training. I just meant that you can't equally focus on injury prevention and building running fitness.
What is your definition of fitness? Is it getting PRs, or getting your ass out the door?
I think most people on this site are interested in getting faster so the assumption would be you are building mileage to eventually running faster. But you could just be running more to be at a better over all fitness level. If that is their goal then maybe throwing in some cross training would help.
NJ Trail Series NJ Trail Series on Facebook NY NJ Runners Group @rickmcnulty
For me, it's racing faster.
I don't disagree with anything you said.
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
not bad for mile 25
Same thing; if you land so hard that hard surface will hurt you; running on a softer surface MIGHT aleviate a little but it's not going to be the solution. You need to learn to land softly. That's the same thing with barefoot running. It's not running without shoes would help you but what running without shoes would teach you to do that would help and that is to land softly. Many people misunderstood it and they focused merely the superficial side of it--running barefoot--and had gotten injured. I see so many YouTube footage of some young idiot filming themselves running barefoot and still landing on their heel. On the other hand, I have seen a clip, I believe it's a part of the original Leiberman research, of a runner running "correctly" with shoes. I don't run barefoot but I do run in minimalistic shoes. I've been running nearly 40 years now, mostly on roads, many years of 100MPW, and I'm waiting for the time when my knees gave in and I can't run any more. At the age of 52 (almost), it hasn't happened yet and I don't think it's happening any time soon.
Nobby, thanks for validating what has been my experience. After having improved my running form and taken up minimalist running, concrete is a fine surface, and causes no problem. The feet and ankles do a far better job of cushioning than all the technology they attempt to put into shoes. The running shoes I used to wear tended to be okay for my knees for about 80 miles, but after that failed to protect and may have been actually causing chronic knee injury.
The only difference with running on trails or grass is that the footfall is more irregular. That makes our feet and ankles work a little harder, but that's what they're built for.
I think it's hard for one mind to equally focus on a) building up fitness and b) preventing injuries (also, "preventing injuries" seems to be the primary goal in the thread title). You have to get a hurt a little, like that saying about making an omelet. How do you know what will really hurts you, unless you're willing to be a little hurt. How do you learn that? By running more and, occasionally, harder, accepting the possibility that you're going to get a little hurt.
I have to take this on, makes me sound wimpy: my goal is to prevent a chronic injury to my knees that I have been protecting for all my adult life. In these forums there is on going advice to newbies about not pushing too hard and getting hurt. I understand pain and have no problem with muscle soreness etc, I am pretty tough, might not have done a marathon, but I have crossed oceans on sailboats, played polo, gone straight back to work after trying to break my hand in the mixing blade of kitchen aid, you get the point. BUT a nagging low grade niggle in my knee is different because it is not "earned" pain, in fact it is not painful just annoying and not right and this was the point of the question how to build strength and mileage while protecting those knees. I do not have a desk job, i need these knees for work and can not afford to be to gimpy.