You don’t have to com­plete the kilo­me­ter vol­ume of a marathon train­ing ses­sion to be afflict­ed by t typ­i­cal run­ning injuries such as shin splints or the no less dread­ed runner’s knee . 

“Changes in train­ing behav­ior, unac­cus­tomed strain, gen­er­al health and even stress are risk fac­tors for run­ners.” 

Pouria Taheri

Pouria Taheri, Head of Med­ical at adi­das Run­ners and adi­das SPORTS BASE BERLIN, knows where run­ners tend to tweak. But he also knows ways to pre­vent health prob­lems. He reveals them to you in his 5‑point plan.

1. MAKE A PLAN

Prepa­ra­tion is every­thing! Take a moment before the start of the sea­son to plan your com­pe­ti­tions. Mark them in an annu­al cal­en­dar and set your­self ambi­tious but real­is­tic goals. No mat­ter what dis­tances you are aim­ing for, pre­pare strate­gi­cal­ly. Train­ing accord­ing to a plan will help you stay on the ball even when life throws obsta­cles in your way or you are exposed to oth­er dis­trac­tions.

2. WORK ON YOUR WEAK­NESS­ES

Be hon­est: do you know your weak­ness­es? Use the break between sea­sons to iden­ti­fy your weak points and work on them. The off-sea­son is ide­al for this because you are run­ning less any­way and are prob­a­bly more relaxed. That’s my advice as a doc­tor, because every run­ner or ath­lete has their weak points, no mat­ter how suc­cess­ful they are. Core sta­bil­i­ty, flex­i­bil­i­ty, endurance, strength, tech­nique, health, nutri­tion, lifestyle — where do you see poten­tial for opti­miza­tion? All of these fac­tors can have a major impact on your risk of injury. You might even do a “Func­tion­al Move­ment Screen­ing” (FMS), a move­ment test I rec­om­mend to all goal-ori­ent­ed run­ners.

3. BUILD A NET­WORK

In addi­tion to work­ing on your weak points, more knowl­edge will also make you a stronger ath­lete. Very few peo­ple want to wade through dry books on run­ning tech­nique, nutri­tion or opti­mal train­ing behav­ior. That’s not my advice either, because read­ing usu­al­ly does­n’t give you a good reflec­tion on the con­tent. Bet­ter: build up a net­work, join a com­mu­ni­ty like the adi­das Run­ners. Go to places where you can meet like-mind­ed peo­ple, pro­fes­sion­als, peers and stronger peo­ple. In such an envi­ron­ment, you will not only find moti­va­tion, but also sup­port and knowl­edge. Help­ing peo­ple to help them­selves may sound trite, but it is the key to suc­cess. Who knows who? Which doc­tor should I con­tact if I have injured myself? A well-func­tion­ing net­work solves many prob­lems all by itself.

4. “RELAXED READI­NESS””

The good thing about a train­ing plan is that it caus­es pos­i­tive stress. This is nec­es­sary to stay moti­vat­ed.to stay moti­vat­ed. On the oth­er hand, it can also increase neg­a­tive stress if you don’t make it to your ses­sion. Your mind­set plays an impor­tant role through­out the train­ing phase. “Relaxed focus” is a desir­able state of mind for all ath­letes that helps them to stay focused. You have the pos­i­tive feel­ing that you have always giv­en your all and don’t let self-reproach slow you down. This atti­tude is what makes top ath­letes. Above this is the premise that only a free mind can focus 100%. Pas­sive train­ing ses­sions such as auto­genic train­ing, yoga or tran­scen­den­tal med­i­ta­tion can help to devel­op a mind­set like this.

5. COR­RECT HAN­DLING OF DIS­COM­FORT

At the end of the day, it has to be said that acci­dents and injuries hap­pen. The impor­tant thing is when they are rec­og­nized. Nev­er ignore com­plaints and take them seri­ous­ly. Even in the case of (seem­ing­ly) minor injuries, it is best to con­sult a sports physi­cian straight away. This usu­al­ly leads to much more effec­tive treat­ment. Get a sec­ond opin­ion if you have any doubts. Once the diag­no­sis has been made, accept your injury. If you have to take a break, go through with it, even if it’s dif­fi­cult. The pain will usu­al­ly go away soon­er than you think if you fol­low the doctor’s instruc­tions. If you keep run­ning, you not only risk aggra­vat­ing the injury, but also long-term prob­lems and lim­i­ta­tions. Always remem­ber: pain goes away.

The adi­das SPORTS BASE BERLINoffers the per­fect envi­ron­ment in the Ger­man cap­i­tal. Here you will find a spe­cif­ic train­ing pro­gram and a com­mu­ni­ty that will help you achieve your goals.