Catch 22 - Mental vs physical health when running

[Lifeisexpensive]

I started running last summer aged 38 and really found my groove. Turns out I'm a pretty decent hill runner - I won my first trail half marathon last weekend. BUT I've got a big issue with getting injured. I do leg strength training twice a week, try to keep most runs easy with a tempo/interval/speed/hill session once a week and a long run once a week plus a few other five or six mile easy runs, but about every four weeks one tendon or another will cause me problems and I'll have to stop completely or really scale back. It's so frustrating.
Running is good for my mental health but apparently bad for my physical health. I do have low oestrogen and low thyroid hormones at the moment which probably isn't helping, but is there anything that will?!

Well done for your amazing progress in such short timeframe!

I’ve no experience of this personally, but make sure your leg strength sessions are the right type of exercises for tendon strength. And additionally, are you getting enough protein and taking collagen? These two things spring to mind when thinking about tendon and muscle health.

Thank you, just ordered some collagen. I've upped my protein a lot recently which has definitely helped my muscle strength, but good shout on the collagen ☺️

These are basic suggestions you’ve probably tried but:
Have you had gait analysis to check you’re wearing the right shoes?
Have you seen a physio? A decent sports one can advise on your form for both running and strength training.

You’ve progressed quickly but sounds like it’s causing your body strain. How much strength training do you do?

I have a lot of health issues, physical and mental. I’ve taken up Crossfit. Every is scalable and the social side is amazing for my wellbeing, especially as I’ve had to give up working or volunteering.

I was watching a really interesting vlog about adults starting ballet and about the science behind becoming flexible, which was basically about taking things slowly and doing long slow stretches - much longer stretchers than runners usually do, and looking into this might help more than the strength training (just an idea - I run too, but not as seriously as you from the sound of it)

Are you running too much? A long run + intervals + a few 5/6 mile runs means that you are presumably running back-to-back days at some point in the week? DH is a runner and he’s realised that he can’t do that and has cut down the number of runs he does per week so that it’s more sustainable for him.

Do you see a sports physiotherapist? And echoing other posts about making sure you are doing the appropriate strength work for your aims.

Also, are you doing something for your mobility and flexibility?

Have a look at the benefits of yin yoga for runners? Longer yin stretches help with joint, tendon health.
Might be worth researching?
Good luck, hope you find a way to continue enjoying your running.

Thank you all. I did gait analysis initially but it's possible that my gait has changed so that's definitely something I can repeat. I think the strength work should be beneficial - lots of single leg work and glute med stuff. But maybe I need to see a sports physiotherapist (my BIL is a physio so I've been quizzing him) as well. Never heard of the yoga will have a look, thanks!

Is there a pattern to your injures ,e.g. after intervals or hills or mileage increases.

Brodie Sharpe has a helpful podcast on injury prevention for runners - the first ten episodes are a good primer. A key principle is that if you get an injury from a particular level of intensity, you can't just go back to that level of intensity once you heal up as it will just repeat.

A good physio should be able to give you some idaa of what might be causing this so I suggest speaking to one.

So far it's been a variety of things - Achilles, IT band, posterior tibialis, runner's knee...the basic pattern seems to be that I try to increase mileage or work on a technique (running downhill was the latest trigger) and part of me gives up. I then reduced mileage and hills, add in strength training to target that and gradually increase mileage again which seems to work as I haven't had repeats of the injuries, but then something else gives up on me!

Have you tried Shockwave?

It is remedial rather than preventative but it can work a treat.

It basically works by passing pulses through your tissues. It can reach where massage can't. Quite a lot of physios are trained in it now. It is especially good for tendon issues.

If you try googling in your area, you may find one.

Ooh no I haven't, thanks!

Are you eating enough?

Are you genuinely running easy paced for most runs? As in a few minutes slower per mile than your fastest pace?

Tendons take much longer than our cardiovascular system and muscles to adapt to running and to go from
nothing to winning a trail half seems like you’ve progressed really very quickly. This is likely because your genetics have let your muscle and cardio adapt really quickly but your tendons sadly less so.

You said your thyroid is low - have you taken any medication for this? This can really mess up your recovery time after each exercise. They also recommend taking extra iron when your thyroid is low, so this might help too.

Could it just be too much too soon? You say you only started last summer so that's less than a year running. You are getting injured, then resting, then gradually building up again but how long are you resting for and how gradual is your building up that less than a year after starting you are racing a half marathon with what you describe as multiple stops and starts to rest injuries?