Down for the Count: Injury Prevention 101

Over the past weekend I was fortunate enough to head to Pittsburgh to see the family and run one of my favorite road races: "the Great Race". With my mid-summer move, I backloaded my tri season like a champ and totally trained through it. I wasn't about to miss a workout for a "C" race. I thought maybe a hilly 10k would be a good training run.

And hello biggest mistake ever.... This is super embarrassing but I now have a grade II calf tear on my hands. I'm not sure how it happened but I think the hilly course just took it's toll on this flatlander :( I started experiencing sharp, stabbing pains at about mile 3 and somehow thought it would be ok to run through it and to run another 30 minutes post run to make sure I completed my scheduled workouts.

How does on go from heavy 70.3 training to tearing my calf at a silly 10k?

It happens.

(Even to those of us who should KNOW better)

Last week I was pretty much pain free with several hours of biking/swimming. I figured I would try to test it out Sunday for a long run and made it less than 2 miles before I started suffering sharp/stabbing pain. Again, still not the smartest idea.

With that said, here are some tips I thought I would share for dealing with an injury:


1. Rest with onset of a potential injury-One day off will not make you lose your entire years fitness.

2. When training for a long race 70.3 and beyond it is not worth it 6 weeks before to participate in any kind of C race.

3. Training through an injury does not make you tougher.

4. Let pain be your guide NOT your training schedule.

5. With a tear or severe strain, do not stretch it until pain free at rest. Why would you want to pull on healing tissues?

6. Graston/ASTYM and foam rolling work miracles to both involved and uninvolved areas.

7. Listen to your coach/PT/MD-as much as you think they are sabatoging you, they are ultimately the voice of reason.

8. Trying to be the stereotypical-type A over achiever triathlete will likely get you nowhere.

9. Be creative.... For me with a calf injury I'm spending extra time on core, upper body, swimming with a pull buoy. There are still ways to work out :)

10. And PTs still officially make the worst patients ever just as an FYI

Hope this doesn't happen to you!