How to avoid injury and what to do if injury occurs

If you haven't had an injury during your running career, you have done exceptionally well! Most running injuries are over-use injuries, in that they develop over time. The other type of injury is an impact injury. Team players are more susceptible to these as they are more likely to be knocked or to fall but runners sometimes 'come a cropper' and sustain an impact injury if, for example, they put their foot into a hole or divet whilst out running, trip over a kerb or other obstacle or land awkwardly whilst dropping off a style or pavement.

Some typical running injuries include:

Strains - an injury to a muscle or tendon often caused by twisting or pulling

Sprains - an injury to a ligament often caused by stretching or twisting

Sore muscles, especially lower leg

Very tight feeling muscles

Pain along the front of the shin, in the achilles tendon area, under the arch of the foot, around the knee

These injuries are usually soft tissue injuries that can be treated and can mend quickly but it is better not to succumb to them in the first place so let's look at why they occur. There are a number of reasons and here are just a few of them: