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LONDON MARATHON RUN FOR IT ! If you're training for the marathon this year, and its the first time you've attempted such a distance, first things first - WELL DONE! SUCH AN ENORMOUS DISTANCE ! Secondly, bear in mind that the worst thing you can do as the event comes closer is to overtrain. Don't be tempted to push up your distance too drastically, you run the risk of provoking an overuse injury which could prevent you from taking part on the big day. The sorts of injuries we see, coming up to the marathon, are inflammation of the tendons - the patellar tendon and Achilles tendon are most common. Achilles tendon problems are thought to arise from inadequate stretching (or warm - up) before sport. But sometimes an Achilles injury happens well into a run so you know you're tissues are warm. Tendons are made from connective tissue - very strong - and elastin - to give the springy character . The Achilles tendon is said to be the strongest in the body, think about it - you can take your whole body weight on one leg and rise up on to your toes – there's a lot of power in the calf muscle and the Achilles tendon takes the strain as it attaches to the heel bone. Running requires the same sort of muscle action but this time at speed so the force is even greater. The repetition takes its toll, and if you increase the demand too rapidly by pushing up your distance or the frequency of training the tendon might just begin to react - a little inflammation in the fibres slowly starts to build up. The other thing about tendons is they have a relatively poor blood supply. Muscles are full of blood, vital to their action of course, all that oxygen required to make the muscles contract and relax. This means that a muscle injury will probably heal very well, all the necessary constituents for tissues to repair are readily to hand in the blood, but tendons like other connective tissues don't usually require much blood, so when an injury does occur everything is very slow, the cell repair takes longer and re-injury is more of a risk. In
the last two months, a relatively minor tendon injury can snow ball
into a major problem, slow to heal, it stops you from running, your
training regime starts to go out the window, all your hard work over
the past year starts to look as though its going to come to nothing.
They are treatable of course but they can be avoided by resisting the
urge to push your training that little bit too much. If you've never
run a marathon before the question will be looming large - can I really
do that distance? My advice would be to concentrate on cautious training
coming up to the event, listen to your body, if you think you might
be getting a bit of persistent tenderness get it checked out, don't
leave it to chance. If you've been running comfortably and following
a sensible distance regime, stick to it – don't be tempted to just try
that little bit more. Believe in your running ability and on the day
it will all come together. Richmond
Physiotherapy, Tel: 020 8332 1132
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