Injuries

by | Jan 18, 2015 | Running

As you may have noted, I am an older runner. I turned 62 on June the 8th in 2011. When I speak of injuries, I am relating my issues as I have aged. When I was racing in my late 20’s through my early 40’s, I was fortunate not to have any injuries. In my early 50’s I began to have some trouble with plantar fasciitis. A few days off and some ice usually took care of it. I also began to have some hamstring issues. When you get older, unpleasant things can begin to happen. In my mid 50’s I can remember just jogging up a rather steep hill during an easy ten mile run, and I suddenly pulled my left hamstring. That knocked me out for a week. I probably started back too soon because I then pulled my right hamstring. That was a mess. I missed a lot of time recovering. Later I started having achilles tendon problems. In an unrelated accident, I broke a toe back in late November, 2010. That kept me away from running for a while. I began running two miles every other day in early January, 2011. I had put on about twenty extra pounds, so I wasn’t feeling all that great. I felt like an elephant. I built my mileage up very slowly until I reached 50 miles a week in June. I was not doing any speed work. My weight was coming down. I started doing speed work (30 x 30’s) in mid June, and that did my left foot in. Plantar fasciitis struck my left foot with a...