Guest post

Before you read this ask yourself one question. How many of you have a recurring injury or niggle which affects your running?

I would bet that most runners have and they accept it as being a risk of the sport. I did, but that all changed for me. Let me explain why....

After four years of running a mixed bag of events, from trail ultras to track 5k's, adventure races to London Marathon, I felt like I'd pretty much found my feet as a runner (pun intended). Like all runners I'd had niggles and pains along the way, never a serious injury, more a series of issues which at times had reduced how much, how fast or how far I could run.

I've twisted ankles, suffered from the truly hideous plantar fasciitis, tweaked hamstrings and got bugs in my eyes, but perhaps the most persistent of these was Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PPS).

I will describe PPS in the best way I can. After running for more than 8 miles, my left knee would start to feel like it was seizing up, like the joint was rusting somehow and it was painful to bend the knee. This soreness would remain well after the exercise stopped and be exacerbated by having my feet raised with my knee straight.

To be honest, bending my knee after a period of rest was agony and the discomfort would last days.

I've suffered from this before and with a little rest it has gone away, I've also gone through extended periods of running with no issues but this time was different. I have a 100km race in 10 weeks time and as well as rest I needed to come back stronger than before. My goal was to build legs that could take all the damage that running could throw at it and still keep going. If the issue flared up again I wouldn't have time to recuperate and complete the training necessary for the event.

So I turned to Tom Goom aka @tomgoom (running-physio.com). After a lengthy Twitter conversation, Tom made me realise that the trick with recovery isn't to rest and then make the same mistakes again, rather it is to identify the issue, rest the injury and recover with exercises that will strengthen and condition the affected area to prevent it happening again.

This may seem obvious when you're reading this, but so often in fitness or sport we train in the same way and expect a different result. There is a concept in exercise known as specificity, it refers to the fact that the body will adapt “specifically” to a repeatedly applied stress.

In bodybuilding, if you continually increase the weight you are moving, the body will adapt to match the increased demand, building muscle strength and size. In running, if you increase your pace, you body will adapt and allow you to run faster. Genetics being a limiting factor in this, if you train properly and with structure, you can see specific improvements in any given area.

Rather than repeat previous mistakes, I devised a plan which would allow rest, active recovery and (when appropriate) strengthen and condition the area to prevent it happening again. I won't go into the details here as the training plan was lengthy and cumbersome to read, but I identified the muscles and connective tissues that were presenting as the weakness and trained them specifically to reduce the risk of recurrence of the PPS.

I chose a programme that increased flexibility and strength in my hips, particularly the gluteus medius (which was disproportionately weak compared to the other glutes) as well as quads, hamstrings and hip flexors. The programme started with reduced range of motion in the knee to start with so as not to aggravate the issue and steadily increased in resistance and range.

Rather than doing the same thing as before and expecting a different result, I

Identified the problem,

Rested the affected part,

Reconditioned it and the surrounding and postural muscles and

Came back stronger than before.

After two weeks I was able to run pain free. After a further two weeks I started a 20 day run streak with distances varying from 2 to 16 miles, with no issues at all. I genuinely felt stronger than ever and my running form was improved.

I'm now well into my training for the ultra marathon and keen to run more. You never know when an injury will occur, but you can do a lot to reduce the risk of injuries that can plague you as a runner.

Running is a great sport, it keeps you fit, it gets you outdoors and it opens you to a whole world of new experiences and people. But if running is your goal, my recommendation is this; train the rest of your body to support it.

Running alone does not a good runner make.