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Keeping connected with your running community

By Doug James – physiotherapist and podiatrist, at the intraining running injury clinic.

Running means different things to different people. For some, it’s a fun thing to do a few times a week with friends. For others, it’s about striving to achieve goals you once never thought possible. Running can be hard work, but with it comes to a sense of achievement and enjoyment that fast becomes addictive and it ingrains itself as a part of your life. When this part of your life begins to fall apart – be it from injury, a lack of motivation or you’re unsure of how to complete a running goal you’ve set, it helps to be connected with the networks that are available to you.

The Injury Support network

One of the unfortunate aspects of running is that you will almost certainly develop in injury at least once a year. This may mean that there are a few days or even a few months where you won’t be able to run due to pain. Beyond the pain caused by the actual injury, dealing with the mental anguish of not being able to run can be unpleasant, but thankfully, both of these pains may be mitigated by connecting with your injury support network intervention.

If you have developed pain with running that has lasted more than three days, it is worth checking in with your injury support network. Getting your injury assessed and diagnosed can help you understand how to make the injury get better – and importantly, how to stop making the injury worse (it’s always surprising how often runners will exacerbate an injury thinking they are fixing it). Avoid adopting a “wait and see” approach, as early treatment is often associated with a speedier recovery, meaning less downtime from running.

Understanding your injury – in particular how long it takes to heal – can help to lessen the emotional burden of it. Seeing a practitioner that is experienced in dealing with running injuries (and is a runner themselves) is important. Too often a heavy-handed (and often misguided) ‘treatment’ for running injuries is to prescribe complete rest. Worse still is for the practitioner to tell the runner that they “aren’t meant to run”, or “will never run again”. Given a lot of people use running for stress relief these negative ideas coupled with not being allowed to run can create somewhat of a crisis. With a few notable exceptions (usually bone injuries) you can usually do an amount of running while rehabilitating an injury, but it is important to know the limits.

The intraining running injury clinic was created with the specialised focus of helping injured runners. The team of skilled Podiatrists and Physiotherapist are all keen runners and host a wealth of knowledge and experience to keep you running at your best. Beyond treating injuries, this network can also be accessed for injury prevention, training tips, and running advice. The intraining injury team can assess your running technique and prescribe exercises to improve your running performance and reduce injury risk. Additionally, the team are able to perform personalised footwear fittings – guiding you to the best shoe for your foot, and customising it (by adding extra arch support, heel raises, orthotics etc) where needed.

The Running Community network

One of the great joys of running is being able to share it with other people. Running has such a great community – one that is welcoming and inclusive of people of all abilities. If you have taken the time to lace up and break a sweat, you’re a runner. Even if you haven’t run all the way in a 5km yet – you’re still a runner. And with that, you are instantly bonded by the camaraderie of others that run.

The running community exists in many different forms – from the people you run with – or run past, to online forums (cool running, Reddit), or activity tracking app networks such as Strava. You’ll often form new friendships with strangers through your mutual love of running in this community.

While the running community will help you celebrate your running achievements (or ‘kudos’ in Strava-speak) the community can also be an amazing source of support during the times you are injured or finding running hard. Keeping in touch with the running community can help buoy your spirits during these tough times and help reduce any negative thoughts that can arise. Through staying connected to the network you are bound to find someone out there who has experienced what you are going through and the shared experience and advice can be comforting.

The intraining running club is one of the largest in Australia and has a terrific and very social running community network that supports runners of all abilities. Being a member of such a large community, you’ll likely find people of your ability that share your running goals and interests. Taking part in an intraining session or long run is a great way to spend an hour or two (or four) with some like-minded souls. For those who are unable to run, you can still stay connected through helping at a drink station for the run, and then catching up for coffee afterwards. Running is more fun with friends, and staying connected to your running networks is the best way to do it.

Getting connected to a running network can be easier than you think. From simply chatting to other runners after a parkrun to joining an intraining running session, you will find yourself welcomed to a new family. For more information about joining an intraining running session, or looking for an injury assessment, go online at www.intraining.com.au.

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Runners School REGISTRATION is OPEN NOW…

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