TIaRT - Running Injuries and Treatment

This is for Runner's Lounge Take It and Run Thursday. This week's theme was running injuries and treatment, which is a really interesting topic for me. I've always envied those runners who seem to effortlessly run 100+ mile months, run days and days in a row without rest in between, or who can run half marathons and marathons on back-to-back weekends without becoming crippled. I am not one of those runners. So much so that the other evening when we were out and met a massage therapist and I said I could use a massage, my husband agreed and said "there's always something wrong with her."

Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, but I have had plenty of times where it feels like I'm moving from injury to injury to injury, getting one ache and pain healed only to find another on the next run. I had a particularly nasty string of injuries training for my first half marathon that went like this: left hip flexor, right hip flexor, right foot, left piriformis, right piriformis, right knee, right shin, right foot again, left foot. Along the way I made several visits to the doctor, the physical therapist, an orthopedic specialist, and the bone scan people. The best thing that I heard through the entire ordeal was this from my friend and yoga teacher who was training for her first Full Ironman at the time - "if you're any sort of athlete you're going to end up dealing with injury problems like this at some point in your life." Well, that hit it home for me. I never considered myself any sort of athlete before - but maybe after running my first half marathon and my first full marathon in back-to-back months I can finally call myself that.

At any rate, that doesn't resolve the issue - what do you do with all those injuries? I'm certainly not a pro, but here are my top 5 ways of dealing with my own injuries:

1. Yoga, yoga, yoga - I've found yoga to be amazing to both help me prevent injuries and treat them after they happen, and even when I can't make it to class I use yoga poses at home to target areas that I know are problems for me, like my hips.

2. Ice, ice, ice - I never really bought into the ice thing until I started running. Now the minute something starts to hurt, I slap ice on it. And when I started being religious about my icing after 13+ mile runs, I noticed a huge decrease in soreness and achiness the day afterward.

3. Rest - I really hate to take days off. I mean, I REALLY hate it. But I've gradually had to accept that sometimes it's better not to run than it is to run. And that it's okay to run easy some days. Some days I have to remind myself that I don't always have to run until I'm exhausted or something hurts.

4. Foam roller - I love my foam roller so much, it sits out right next to my bed. I can't afford to get a massage every week, so this thing is a lifesaver for my hamstrings, quads, and IT bands. BUY ONE!

5. Don't be afraid to ask for PT - There's no way I would have made it through half marathon/marathon training without my PT. Luckily I have a doctor who is a runner that understands the problems we runners have, and doesn't hesitate to refer me to PT if I need it. And I think that it definitely helps to get a sports-medicine PT who understands running and the unique problems runners have.