Taking the rough with the smooth

Over the past year, my running has improved dramatically, I’ve moved on from coming in the last few places at most of my races to finishing towards the middle of the pack. My 5k time is under 20 minutes and I recently completed my first 50 miler.

The increased performance is largely due to the fact that I’m training more than I ever have.  Previously I only really ran at weekends, holidays and races, but I’m now clocking up 40 miles or more a week and running every other day.

But the all this training has come at a price, I’ve never had so many injuries. Last year I lost around 9 weeks training with 3 separate hamstring strains. This year the problems have moved down a bit. I injured my right achilles tendon at the start of January, its still a little painful when I start off a run and seems to mainly affect lateral stability. It’s possibly Achilles tendonitis. Then on Thursday running home from work I suddenly felt an extreme pain in my left shin, luckily it was only ½ a mile from home, so I was able to hobble the rest of the way home. Regular ice applications, rest, elevation and ibruprofens have brought the swelling right down, although I didn’t risk running on it at today’s Kielder Borderer.  A little searching on the internet seem to suggest it’s probably a strained tibialis anterior muscle (possibly a micro tear),  it’s also sometimes called shin splints.

The cause of all these injuries is apparently could be over use or over training, possibly related to running on hard surfaces, deteriation in arch strength or poor shoes. Although I wasn’t wearing the five fingers when I injured the tibialis I was trying out compression socks and i had done a hard run in the Vibrams on the previous Saturday. Generally running in Vibrams seems fine while i’m running, by arches had been a littl sore the following day.

The treatments seem to involve resting until they go away. Which for me could be 3 to 4 weeks. The problem then becomes, if I don’t train for four weeks, firstly all the hard work over the past few months will go to waste as I’ll loose condition before I get better enough to pick up training again and secondly I’m likely to put a bit of weight on, going from 50 miles a week to no miles.

So the dilemma is do I continue to run with minor injuries and risk them turning into major injuries before July, or do I rest now and hope the injuries get better and I still have time to get race fit in time for July.