6. Stress Fracture - Cumulative stress on the bone. Typically occurs in shin, feet or heels.
Prevention: Weight training, eating enough calories, correct nutrition.
An ideal situation for a runner would be to go out for a run and to be 100 percent pain free for the duration of our runner and hours afterwards. No aches or pains. This is not even close to the case for many runners. But the human body is an amazing and beautiful machine. Rather than allow the aches and pains (signals from the brain telling you to stop!) slow us down we just treat it as background noise. We learn how to move with this dysfunction. And typically ignore all the signs.
Would you let your car blow up before you decided to check the engine light? No, that would be nonsense. You would take it to a mechanic and get the issue resolved. If you had a messed on wheel on your car would you decide to go on a long road trip or get that wheel fixed up first? Most of us would either fix or replace the wheel. If the construction team laid a crooked foundation down for your house would you want them to hurry up and build the house or lay down a straight foundation again before any more construction was done?
These all seem like ridiculous questions with common sense answers. We came to quick conclusions and used basic logic to answer these questions but we don't use the same for ourselves and our athletes. All of these questions basically came down to the safety and well being of ourselves in that situation. I believe that a coach's foremost job is to protect his/her athletes.
Before I go any further I would like to say that I understand that it is impossible to prevent all injuries. But we have to treat it like a laundry list. We should constantly be trying to keep our laundry clean and if we notice we are running low on a particular item of clothing then it is time to clean it up a bit. Some injuries are not preventable but I think that the injuries that I listed above are preventable.
I've been an avid fan of running for more than half my life at this point and I like to look at running in an unconventional way. I have noticed in Illinois that many of our top guys and girls get injured in running. This theme seems all too common and disturbing for me. I've noticed that it is more prevalent in girls than boys. Many of the injuries are caused by structural imbalances, biomechanical issues or weaknesses in certain muscle groups. They are also caused by a lack of restraint in coaching.
Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. Many girls have severe weaknesses in hamstrings, glutes and hips that lead to many of the injuries that occur. If I have a freshman coming in that is a naturally great runner why is she doing mileage with senior girls? They are training at a volume and running paces that their body is not ready to handle. They may handle it metabolically but structurally they can't handle it. This basically means that their aerobic and anaerobic fitness are developing at a faster rate than their tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles.
A girls may be able to easily run six minute pace for three miles or a 30 minute tempo run, but her hips may not be able to handle the stress or the duration of the run. And this can lead to IT band issues. Running like this leads to an accumulation of stress that may not take its final toll until a season or two is over. I also like to call this overtraining. Most athletes will do what they are told to do so it is the coach's job to protect them. A coach's job is to tell an athlete when to rest. When an athlete gets injured it is as much our fault if not more than the athlete's because they confide their trust in us.
I think as coaches and athletes we need to look at training at least at a 4 year period if not beyond. Strength training and mobility need to be looked at as a part of training. Not something additional we do if we have time. It has to become an integral part of our training philosophy. I believe that if we make the mindset to start developing better athletes we will in turn develop better runners. We should not be trying to squeeze the most out of our athletes in high school. My goal is to make Illinois running the best state in the country but it starts with keeping our athletes healthy.
"In my dictionary, the word 'overtraining' falls just a page away from the word 'overkill', defined as 'to obliterate with more nuclear force than required.' Consider the connection: If your target is top running performance, then to overtrain means to apply more force than is required to hit that target. In fact, overtraining may literally obliterate your target, or at least leave you without the will to pursue it."
Jack Daniels.