Hey running comrades, hope everyone's runs have been going well and free of injury!

Link to last week's thread

I just responded to somebody asking about injury prevention in the old thread, so I though I should repost it here for discussion and addition to (and arguing about). Here's some things I've picked up from my own experience of tonnes of stupid injuries plus also nerding out on running forums:

  • Big long loping strides where you land hard on your heel (with your foot in front of you when you land) are bad. Try and aim for shorter, quicker strides. If you have a fancy watch that measures these things, I’m told a cadence of 175 or over is good for casual runs (may be higher for racing)

  • Decent running shoes make a big difference for injury, especially shin splints etc. If you’re getting serious about it, could be worth trying to find a specialty running shop nearby (the good ones will do gait analysis etc) and get a decent pair. And also the consensus is to replace them every 800km or so. From my own experience, I think this is legit and not just shoe industry propaganda to make you buy more shoes.

  • Concrete is brutal on your legs, try and avoid it as much as you can. Bitumen is much better, dirt or grass are great. Grass will slow you down a bit and make you work a bit harder, and it’s also good for the balance muscles

  • The general rule of thumb is not to increase your distance or intensity by more than 10% per week and take some weeks to consolidate rather than constantly increasing

  • I’m really bad at this, but core strength is good for preventing injury (and good for pace too). There’s a Runners Standard Core Routine or something (sorry I cant check or find the video right now), it’s 7 exercises you do in a row for a minute each, that I've found to be quite good

  • Be really careful when running hard. General advice is at least 80% of your running should be slow and easy anyway, but just be extra conservative when starting on things like hill sprints or intervals etc. And try to be a bit careful running down steep hills too

  • Don’t run through an injury. It’s so tempting but it always just makes things worse. If your body is telling you that you probably shouldn’t be running, you should probably listen to it.

  • Stretching is actually something people are divided about the benefits of for running, so I’d say it’s not the #1 thing, but it won’t hurt and if you find it feels useful then why not?

What's everyone else's injury prevention tips?

And tell us about your running successes/stories from this week!

I've been lucky enough to be away the last two weekends so I've had back-to-back beautiful Sunday morning long runs through the countryside. So nice running through nature with almost nobody else around!