Running during and post isolation – The Iso Runner
Life during the Covid-19 pandemic has been challenging in many ways. Many of us have turned to running and walking for both physical and mental wellbeing.
However, clinically we are seeing many people come through our doors with pain and issues stemming from the rise of the “Iso Runner” – those new to running or returning to running after some time.
Factors related to the injured ‘Iso Runner’
- Increasing running loads too rapidly
- Running too frequently
- Old injuries/new niggles flaring
- Lack of cross training when not running
- Social media! Striving to keep up with others on Strava or beating that running App.
No doubt getting out in the fresh air while working at home has been great for both our physical and mental wellbeing; now a few months in, we are seeing plenty of issues in the clinic as a result of extra lockdown activity.
For beginner runners who may have always had running on their ‘To Do’ list, the lockdown has been the perfect environment to take up the challenge. Firstly, well done! Getting started is always the hardest part. Although with any new activity, comes a risk of injury and you need to be careful to limit this. You may have already noticed a couple of little niggles – which in many cases is normal and in no way means there is a catastrophic problem with your running/walking. However, this may be a trigger to contact a Podiatrist, where we can assist in the assessment of those niggles and your running/walking in general to help you to build towards any goals you may have.
This may include a structural assessment of your lower limb, a 3D RunLab assessment (https://3drunlab.com.au/), advice regarding complimentary training such as strengthening and probably, most importantly, opinion and advice regarding your training loads and volumes.
One trend witnessed within the clinic is the use of smart devices and apps to track the statistics of our patients running and walking. This data can be quite helpful when it comes to the planning and monitoring of your training. I have, however seen a few cases where our competitive streak takes over and the tracking of data reaches social media and an immediate comparison to our friends follows. This invariably can lead to over-training and the runner ends up pushing themselves past their current physical limitations. I saw this recently in the clinic, where a young male patient, who had not run for some time, ran four days in a row – building from a first run of 2.0km to 15km on day four. Enter a very sore Achilles tendon.
Of equal importance is those who would normally be competing in sports at this time of the year. A lot of us (myself included) who may compete in weekend football/netball/basketball/soccer etc have more than likely turned to running to keep up a level of fitness in the hope of returning to competition.
Firstly, any exercise is better than no exercise and no doubt with an uncertain immediate future in some sports (and some having already had their season cancelled) it is difficult to stay motivated. If you have been getting out running, my advice to those who may return to sport this year is to keep it somewhat specific. It will not be helpful doing three 10km runs each week if you hope to be sprinting up and down the netball court. If we happen to return to competition this year, the loading on the tissues in the foot and ankle when sprinting and changing direction will far exceed those on long steady runs, placing you at an increased risk of injury.
For those running with the aim of returning to sport, each week consider one session as an easy, longer run to maintain your aerobic base and make two sessions interval based. This should be sport specific and mimic the type of activity/loading you expect to do within your competition. To complement this, you should aim to maintain some gym/strength and conditioning type exercises at home on your non running days (and ideally return to the gym in a few weeks’ time when they open).
So, to summarise, for beginners the old adage of ‘too hard, too soon’ really does ring true, come in and seek our opinion should you need any guidance and advice running related – it could be anything from managing skin lesions and blisters to a full biomechanical assessment. For those considering a return to any competitive sports, keep your running training specific to your sport.
I hope you enjoy the winter running!
Kyle Dalmau