No, really: what if you get injured training for a Marathon?

Injuries suck. Plain and simple.  And sometimes its even more frustrating when you Google what to do if you get injured and all the results read something like "the best way to deal with injuries is to prevent them from happening".  Its kind of like a big fat "I told you so" when you are looking for help.  Sometimes you wonder when will it end? And then if it does end when will it come back?

That being said, all runners, no matter how "bullet-proof" they may feel should be taking prevention efforts toward running injuries.  These include everything from stretching and strength training, to foam rolling and massage, iceing and elevation, proper rest and recovery, and even you daily hydration and diet practices.

However, really, what do you do when you get injured during training?  First thing is first - don't freakout.  This is easy to do, as you see months of work mentally evaporate away and start thinking you'll never run again (don't worry - you will).

The little things

I don't think anyone can completely prevent running injuries, even if you do all the smart preventative stuff.  However, what you can do is prevent a little problem from turning into a big one.  If you have something that feels sore, fatigued, or just generally not-right, do not use the popular strategy of just running through it and hoping it goes away.  Yes, for some people it goes away; for most others, it just gets worse.

The good news is that if its only a minor injury (e.g. a tight IT band, early signs of shin splints, or runners' knee) you probably aren't at high risk.  You will need to rest a few days from all activities to let the inflammation go down and let any soft tissues heal.  Then you can get back to cross-training and low impact activities such as spinning, biking, swimming, pool-running and elliptical-ing.  Every injury is different and requires its own set of corrective measures to prevent the problem from reoccurring.  Google your injury and you should find more than enough ways to deal with it.  Make sure to utilize some of your handy runner items during this ordeal, and then keep using them.  Look at your training schedule and try to figure out if you need new running shoes.  Most shoes can handle anywhere from 250-400 miles so if you are at the upper end of that get new ones.

If you only suffer from a minor injury like I have just described, you should be back running in 1-3 weeks and since you maintained most of your fitness with cross-training you won't have to scale back your goals.  Make sure, as with any injury or break from running, you ease back into your training.  Don't jump right back into your schedule.  My rule of thumb is to run about half the mileage of all my runs in a week's schedule the first week back, then the next week run about 2/3 the mileage, by the 3rd week you should be back on track.  You may want to skip your track workouts or hard runs for a few weeks too just to be safe.

The big things

Then sometimes you will have major injuries that take you out of the game for months at a time and cause you to re-evaluate your goals and races for the year. If you are smart, listen to your body and take corrective measures against minor setbacks, you should never have to deal with these.  However, more than likely you will do something stupid (that may seem smart at the time) and fall victim to major shin splints, an achilles tear, plantar fasciitis, or one of the various other issues that causes significant time off.

It all depends on how long you have to take off, how far out you are from your race, how much cross-training you can implement to preserve fitness, and what your current running base is like.  If you have to rest for more than a few weeks you will most likely have to readjust your goals.  This may mean pushing your marathon goal time back by 10-20 minutes, or even sitting out your race and finding something a month later if you are really set on hitting your desired marathon time.

Just always know you will bounce back someday.  Even professional athletes takes months if not years off due to injuries and are able to return faster and stronger.  Its not the end of the world, or the end of running, even though it often feels that way.

The only time I would ever advocate running while injured is race day, and even then its tricky.  So you have trained hard all season, made it through your minor set backs, and now 1 week out (or less) you have a problem that is not resolving itself.  Rest the entire last week if you have to and just go run your race.  Go get that Personal Record and then sitting on the couch for the next 2 months will at least be semi-bearable.  If it takes a few weeks or months to heal up post-race than so be it.  However, if you are on the brink of a serious, career-ending (as in, may never run again) injury, then in this case skip your race and live to fight another day.

Doctors...

We usually hate dealing with Doctors.  They just give us bad news, tell us what we already know, and typically are completely out of touch with endurance sports (which I find ironic since they should be encouraging a healthy lifestyle).  However, if you have something thats been plaguing you for a few weeks, or a major (and painful) running injury, just go.  Find an orthopedist or running specialist or get referred to one from a general practitioner.  They will most likely tell you what you already know - to rest from running, and ease back into it in 6-8 weeks.  Also, for the record, 6-8 weeks is the amount of time badly damaged soft tissue needs to heal (thus the timeline).  Mentally it can help to hear it from a professional, and to confirm your self-diagnose.  It solidifies that you need to rest.  This realization is a turning point, to take you out of denial and into acceptance.  Now you can plan a comeback, schedule rest, cross-training, and eventually a return to running.