So how do you tell? I have always played sports through injury, but have made a commitment to myself not to do this anymore.
So how do I tell when the everyday achs and pains of training are more than that? I mean if i run a 10K and my knee hurts for the rest of the night is that OK? What if it hurts for all of the next day? Not a throbing pain or anything, just when I walk or go up and down stairs.
Its hurts for the first 3K or so of the run and then goes away. As soon as I stop and cool down it is back worse than before.
Any sharp pain that is accompained by a noise or loss of strenght and or stability stop…you’re done…probbaly will end up at the doctors office.
Any sharp pain that goes away within a few minutes…keep runnning. I get these often. I think it’s a nerve thing but they’ve never caused anything but a temporary hobble.
If I have pain when I start I run for a while, mile or whatever it takes you to typically warm. If the pain goes away I keep going. If it stay’d I stop and walk a bit and try again. If it gets worse I stop. If it doesn’t go away after a couple cycles of stopping and walking I stop.
If the pain in #3 causes pain afterwards I do a change up. This means cut back a bit on intensity or mileage, change the surface I’m running on or possibly my shoes. If the pain does not get better or gets worse I cut back more. If it refuses to go away and is a constant all day pain, I’ll take day off. If after doing this process for a few weeks and the pain stillo does not change or go away I usually give it a serious break…or on the rare occasion that it’s causing severe discomfort I’ll go to the PT.
if a pain pops up in the middle of run, as long as it’s not a #1 pain, keep running. If the pain continues to get worse as you run, stop. If it stays the same run for a while longer and see if it get’s better. If it goes away keep running. The caveat here is knowing how long is too long. Almost all running pain will go away if you run long enough…I think it’s endorphans or something. They key is to figure out teh point at which the pain is going away because it’s not an injury vs going away because it’s being blocked out. this is probably teh toughest one to figure out in my opinion.
All in all it really comes down to figureing out what you’re body is telling you. I’m getting barely competant at telling when I can keep going and when I should stop. Most of teh issues I have now I can cut back, stretch massgae and get back at without much issues. 2-3 years ago I woudl have missed the signs or ignored them and ended up injured and off running or biking for a period of time.
~Matt…I am not a doctor…I’m not all that bright…this is what I’ve figured works for me so use it at your own caution.
Swimming for my college it was a dream in my mind ever since I started. I finally made it, albeit without a scholorship, but i was extatic. The training consisted of many two a days that were longer than 2 hours and lotsa weight training. I went through high school witout any injuries and had never encountered it. The thought of stopping for an injury didnt make sense, “you go till you cant move any more!” was my mindset. Mid season my shoulder started hurting. I talked to the trainer and started a regiment of going to practice an hour early for stim and therapy, as well as afterwards with ibuprophine and iceing for inflamation. A few weeks later along with the shoulder my lower back started hurting like non other. I had incorporated more kicking into my workout to lay off the injured shoulder. I swam butterfly, and this kicking caused a lot of stress on my back.
Fast foreward to before conference:
The night before conference i sat in bed with an arch in my back and in agonizing pain. I got no sleep and i had to wake up early for the “Big meet”. The results of the meet were as follows: A drop of a total 1% in my 50 free and less than a percent in my 100 fly. My form broke in my 200 fly because of the pain and i was DQ’d for one arm butterfly. I Dropped a percent or less of time from over 1000 hours of training in the last 9 months. Was I happy with this? Did it make me feel better? Well with no scholorsip and swimming all the time I took out plenty of loans to cover the costs. As well as having lost tons of study time and being tired always.
Was it fun? Sometimes. Was it the best use of my time? Probably not.
Later that year I saw another trainer from my local clinic, his words were something like “had you continued swimming use of your arms would be serverely affected”
I guess what i am trying to say, is based off of training I wouldnt do somethign that will affect your lifes functions. With a knee injury, what would you do if you couldnt walk because of an injury that couldve been avoided by sitting out for a week?
I decided to not swim for the team this year and the multi sport training that i get to do now is much better. I actually feel good when i can swim at a pace that doesnt hurt. When your body hurts it is trying to tell you something.
MJuric has some very good points. For me, I realize I’m not a professional, and my long-term health/function mean more than a possible few more second of time on a ride/run/swim, so, if I have a pain that seems out of the normal range of “old age”, I re-evaluate whether or not my current behavior is jeapardizing long-term health/function…if not, keep on hurting. If it may be, slow down. If it is, I stop immediately.
I think everybody has specific problem spots they end up knowing not to mess with from past history. For instance, if my achilles starts giving me sensations of its existence, the workout is done. Nothing else has given me long term aggrivation.
Something strange…if I get a bad sensation in my left leg I almost never worry about it, but if it comes up in my right leg I get a little bit more paranoid it could end up being a problem. My left side almost never gets long term aches/pains/injuries, and I assume it’s because I’m right handed/sided and therefore that side is maybe bearing a little bit more of the effort and has muscles that are slightly more contracted/less elastic.
That’s exactly how I figure it out. Sharp pain means something is wrong and time to stop (maybe PT/doc). Achiness is just a good hard workout that should go away by the next time I do that activity. That’s the beauty of mulisport, if something starts hurting move to one of the other sports. I’m coming back from a strained calf muscle which kept me from running, so I moved to the bike and swimming. Then I began to suffer from piriformis syndrome from the bike, so I moved to running (calf had healed enough) and swimming.
Yup, having other sports to rely on is great. I’ve been biking and swimming and just am getting back into running. The frustrating part is going from 18mi runs to like 3mi… and being sore afterward! My biking has gotten better though
