Back In The Running

For most runners, most of the time — yes. Not always the same run you had planned, but some running usually stays on the table.

This is probably the question I get asked most, and it’s almost always asked in a slightly panicked way. The fear underneath it is that carrying on will make things worse in some lasting way. For the vast majority of running niggles, it won’t.

Complete rest has a cost that nobody mentions. Fitness drops, your tissues lose capacity, and you come back to the same training you were doing before with less ability to handle it. That’s a very reliable way to get the same problem twice.

Stop asking whether, start asking how much

“Can I run?” is a yes-or-no question and your body doesn’t work in yes-or-no. The better question is: how much running, at what pace, on what surface, and how often?

An irritated area isn’t refusing all load. It’s telling you the load it’s currently getting is more than it can comfortably handle. Drop below that line and you can usually keep running while it settles — which keeps your fitness, your routine and, honestly, your mood intact.

A simple way to judge it

I use a pain-monitoring approach with the runners I work with. Score your pain out of ten as you run, and pay attention to the 24 hours afterwards.

A word on how strong that evidence is, because I’d rather you knew. Pain-monitoring frameworks like this have been tested properly in tendon problems — Achilles and patellar tendinopathy in particular — and they hold up well there. Applying the same thinking to every ache a runner gets is a sensible extension, not a proven one. It’s the best practical tool we have, and I use it, but I’m not going to dress it up as settled science.

What “modified” actually looks like

Change one thing at a time, so you learn something from it. Shorten the run. Slow it down. Flatten it out — hills and speedwork ask far more of a sensitive area than steady miles do. Break an hour into two half-hours. Run every other day instead of daily. Swap one run for the bike or the pool and keep the aerobic side ticking over.

Downhill running deserves a special mention. It loads the legs harder than most runners realise, and it’s often the thing to drop first.

Then build back gradually as the scores come down. Add distance or intensity, not both in the same week.

When I’d want you to stop

There are genuine exceptions and it would be no help to you if I glossed over them.

Stop and get assessed if you can’t walk normally or bear weight properly, if the pain came on suddenly and sharply mid-stride, if there’s a sharp, pinpoint spot on a bone that hurts when you press it or hurts at night, or if the pain is getting worse week on week despite you backing off. Ongoing swelling, giving way and locking are all worth a proper look too.

Bone stress injuries are the main reason I’m firm about that list. They’re the one category where running through it genuinely does set you back, and they need identifying rather than guessing at.

What to do this week

If it’s new, give it 24 to 48 hours. A lot of niggles quietly sort themselves out and never need another thought.

If it’s still there, go out for a short, flat, easy run and score it. Write the number down, along with how it felt the next morning. Three or four runs of that and you’ll have something far more useful than a feeling — you’ll have a level you know you can work with, and a direction of travel.

And keep hold of this while you’re doing it: a sore area is a sensitive one asking for a change in load. Pain is very rarely a measure of damage.

Run happy and injury free.