How To Prevent Running Injuries While Preparing For A Marathon

Many beginner runners have one concern before starting endurance training – injuries. And, in particular, how to prevent running injuries. After all, marathon training adds a lot of training hours to the day and with that training volume inevitably comes a lot of fatigue and muscle tightness.

All this time on our feet increases the risk of getting an injury. IT band syndrome, runner’s knee, tendinitis in various places, shin splits are just an example. That is, if we’re not doing anything about it.

So, how to avoid running injuries during a marathon training block when we’re running almost every day?

Prevent running injuries during marathon training

5 years ago I had an accident while skiing in the mountains. It wasn’t a serious fall, but due to tightness in my chest muscles it resulted in a serious shoulder strain that wouldn’t go away for months. I patiently waited for the pain to subside with no effect.

More on that in the video below:

Mobility for runners

After one of the doctors told me ‘we should do a surgery on the shoulder to see what’s there’ I started to investigate other options. And found one – mobility.

In particular, I stumbled upon a blog post where another person had the same problem. Shoulder pain after overuse that just wouldn’t go away. Luckily, he was able to reverse it through muscle release techniques and strengthening exercises. And that got me really interested and curious.

Mobility is the ability of joints to move freely without any restrictions and generate power at the end of range of motion. Mobile and strong joints lead to:

• More powerful and quality movements
• Improved blood flow, which leads to better performance and faster recovery
• Reduced injury risk

So, in the end, adding mobility exercises to the training schedule does not only help to prevent running injuries, but also become a better athlete overall.

Read also: How To Become A Better Athlete – 38 Practical & Useful Tips

Week 2 of marathon training

As I ease into a consistent training schedule I focus a lot on including a mobility session every other day. It helps to open up the joints, address any muscle imbalances and also prepare the muscles for a more intense training process going forward.

This week’s schedule was:

• Mon: off
• Tue: 45min bike ride – Z2
• Wed: 30min run – Z2, incl. 1K at HM pace
• Thu: 1h bike ride – Z1, incl. 2x8min Z3
• Fri: 30min run – Z2
• Sat: 1h bike ride – Z1, incl. 2x8min Z3
• Sun: 50min run – progressive Z3

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