Ep. 379: The Top 3 Mistakes that Lead to Running Injuries

Welcome to the not your average runner podcast. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running coach and your running BFF here to help you start running, feel confident and love the journey no matter your size. Now if you’ve ever felt like you just weren’t meant to be a runner, think again. I believe that running is for all bodies, even yours.

This podcast is your warmup buddy. giving you tips, motivation, and the support you need to lace up and get moving. I’ve helped thousands of women become runners, and now I want to help you. Let’s go. Hello, runners. What is up? I hope you’re having an awesome day. Um, before we dive in, I gotta tell you about this thing that I do when I go out for a run or a walk.

Uh, if I see change on the ground, you know, coins, I stop and I pick them up. Every single time. My dad was a runner, um, and then as he got older, he was a walker. And in the early 80s, he would go out for these long, like, 10 mile excursions. We lived out in the semi country, and you could just go for miles on those roads without worrying about traffic.

But anyway. He found money all the time and he would come back and he would put it in this enormous glass vase that we kept in the family room. It was like two feet tall. And then after several years, he cashed it all in. And there was, I shit you not, over 200 in just coins, like pennies and dimes and nickels and such.

And this was back in the eighties. So that was a lot more money than it is now. So anyway. Every time when I am out for a run or a walk, I, and I see money on the ground, I stop and I pick it up because it makes me think of my dad. And since we moved to Philly three years ago, I’m finding a ton of money. I don’t know why people are just throwing their chat, their change on the ground, but there’s a lot of money on the ground in Philly.

So I pick it up and I started keeping it in an old salsa jar and now it’s full and it’s time to go cash it in. So I put a little video of the jar up on my Instagram and I’m going to do a contest to see who can guess how much money is in there. All right. The winner gets a signed copy of my book. So make sure you are following me over on Instagram.

My handle is not your average runner. Comment on the post with your guess on how much money is in there. The person who gets closest without going over is the winner and I will send you a signed copy of my book. You can either have my Not Your Average Runner book or my Not Your Average 5k book. Your choice.

Anyway, on to our warm up topic. Now, nothing kills a running habit faster than getting hurt, right? You’re doing great and then suddenly Bam, something happens and you’re looking at a month or maybe even more of recovery before you can run again. And if you’ve got a race coming up, that is like the worst news ever.

And unfortunately, a lot of injuries are actually caused by avoidable mistakes, which is. also great news because it means you can prevent them. So in today’s episode, I’m going to break down the top three mistakes that lead to running injuries and what you can do to avoid it. Okay, you ready? Let’s go. So the first big mistake is super common, and it is doing too much too soon.

And look, I totally get it. When you decide to start running, it is so exciting. You want to see progress quickly, so maybe you push yourself a little harder, you run a little farther, you skip some walk breaks because you think you should be running more, and spoiler alert, you don’t have to. But anyway, uh, or, Maybe this, this happens a lot.

I, people come to me and they’re like, Hey, I’ve never been a runner, but I just signed up for a half marathon and it’s four months from now. Can you train me? And I’m like, Oh my goodness. Okay. Wow. Like it takes time to build up a running base. And by the way, listen to episode 375 from January for more about what a running base is, but it takes time to build up a running base.

And if you go from zero to half marathon in four months. You’re probably going to get injured. So the reality about this is that your body needs time to adapt. And running puts stress on your muscles, your joints, your connective tissues. And if you increase your mileage or your intensity too quickly, your body doesn’t have that chance to adjust.

And this can lead to shin splints and stress fractures and other overuse injuries. So, to avoid it, you’re gonna follow the 10 percent rule, and that is don’t increase your weekly mileage by more than 10 percent at a time, okay? So, if you are currently doing a mile once, you know, every two or three days, you can bump it up to 1.

1 miles, okay? And I know that doesn’t sound like much, but I promise you, you will thank me later. So, don’t increase your weekly mileage by more than 10%. Use the run walk method to build endurance safely. I talk about run walk intervals all the time here on this podcast. I actually recommend using this method for as long as you’re a runner.

Um, but it is an absolute must when you are first starting out to make sure that you don’t get injured. Okay. And then don’t run on back to back days. Give yourself at least one day in between for recovery. You can do something else if you want to. You can go for a walk or do some strength training or some low impact cardio like swimming or rowing or cycling, but don’t run.

Okay? Give your body a chance to recover. And as always, listen to your body, right? If something feels off, you can give yourself extra recovery time. It’s much Easier to take a couple extra days of recovery now than it is To push through and have to take a week or two weeks or a month off later on. Okay?

All right, mistake number two is skipping the strength training. And I know. I get it. You love running. The last thing you want to do is spend time. Lifting weights, it doesn’t sound like fun, but the thing is that stronger muscles means fewer injuries. So when your core and your glutes and your legs are weak, your body compensates in ways that put extra strain on your knees and your hips and your ankles.

Weak muscles lead to joint problems. Okay? So over time. This is going to result in common running injuries like IT band syndrome, or runner’s knee, or Achilles tendonitis, or even plantar fasciitis. So, the way to avoid it is to add two days a week of simple strength training. Think like squats, lunges, core work, okay?

Maybe some deadlifts. You don’t need to spend hours in the gym. All right. A focused 15 minute session where you really just buckle down and focus twice a week is going to do wonders for your strength. Okay. Now, if you want to do a whole hour and you want to throw in some bicep curls and some chest presses and all that kind of stuff, that’s great.

But if you, if you’ve got 15 or 20 minutes, squats, lunges, core work. Okay. Focus on glute and hip strength because weak hips cause knee pain. Okay? If your hips are weak, if your glutes are weak, you are going to struggle with knee pain. Alright? And then of course, core work. Please don’t leave that out. Even adding in, like, 30 second planks into your session is going to make a difference.

It’s going to help strengthen your body. And we talked last week about the importance of your core for your running form. So if you need to go back and revisit that episode, make sure you do that. Now, the third big mistake. We’ve already kind of touched on this, but I’m going to dive a little deeper, is ignoring recovery and rest days, all right?

Because a lot of runners are like, oh, more is better. The more I run, the stronger I’ll get, the better I’ll get, the faster I’ll get, right? Not necessarily. Rest is actually where the magic happens. And I tell all of my clients in Run Your Best Life that rest is an important part of your training plan. A rest day isn’t a day off, it’s literally part of the training, okay, because when you run you are actually creating these tiny little micro tears in your muscles.

And if you don’t give your body that time to recover, those little tears can turn into bigger problems and, and lead to injuries like plantar fasciitis and tendonitis and, and all kinds of things and burnout for sure. So to avoid it. Take one full rest day per week, at least one, maybe two, all right? And this means like on a rest day, no, nothing more strenuous than some gentle movement, right?

Restorative yoga, I don’t mean like a power yoga class, I mean like a yin yoga class where you’re on the floor the entire time. Um, take a leisurely walk, do some stretching and some foam rolling, okay? You can also do nothing at all, that is totally fine. All right. So at least one full rest day per week. It does not mean you are lazy.

It means you are respecting your training and caring for your body. Now I also want to make sure that you are prioritizing sleep, hydration, and mobility work. And by mobility work, I mean, Stretching. So doing that stretching after every single workout is going to help your body recover. Lots and lots of water.

Get as much sleep as you can. I recognize that we are all busy as fuck. And that maybe getting a full eight hours is not always going to happen, but when you can. Prioritize sleep over scrolling. Okay, so the, the scroll, the doom scroll will still be there the next day. Put the phone down, put on a little sleep meditation.

Go to sleep. Okay, and finally pay attention to aches and pains because a little bit of soreness after a workout is normal But if you have sharp or persistent pain, this means you need a break. This means you need to pay some attention Okay. All right. Let’s do a quick recap Number one, doing too much too soon.

Let yourself make gradual progress and listen to your body. Number two, do that strength training, okay? Stronger muscles equals fewer injuries. And number three, don’t ignore your recovery and rest days because rest is just important as your workouts. So, progress over perfection, my friends. Take your time, listen to your body, and you will set yourself up for a long, injury free running journey.

Now, today, while you’re running, when you, when you hit that run button to get it started, think about your training schedule and whether you have set yourself up to prevent injuries or to encourage them, all right? And if you are a member of the Not Your Average Runner podcast, Facebook community. Go over there, hop in, tag me, let me know if you have any questions about what we talked about today.

If you’re not a member of that group, I don’t know what the heck you’re waiting for. The link to join is in the show notes, alright, it’s free. And that is it for our episode today. So if you found these tips helpful, please share this episode with a friend, don’t forget to subscribe, and please give us a 5 star rating on iTunes because that helps more people see this podcast, and it means more people get to start running.

Okay. As always, remember you’re a runner, no matter your pace or your body size, keep on running, keep moving, and I will catch you next week. All right. Bye. Real quick, before you go, I’ve got a fun challenge for you. Take my exerciser personality quiz to find out exactly what kind of exerciser you are and how to make running feel easier and more enjoyable.

Just head over to to notyouraveragerunner. com slash quiz to take it and get your results. That’s notyouraveragerunner. com slash quiz.