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Archives for the day Monday, January 17th, 2011

I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget about the people who are just starting out.  I am not a professional athlete or trainer.  I do excel at trying hard and getting injured from over doing it.  I usually fix the injury and move on to find a new body part to injure.  I always manage to have fun and find alternate routines to keep me training while injured.

The most common cause of injury for beginners is from doing too much, too soon.  People following my training plan or any other training plan usually try to go faster every day.  Fitness and endurance are long term goals.  You have to stay within your abilities.  It is easy to look at someone who has been exercising for a long time and think running is easy.

Running is easy; it just takes time and practice to run for extended durations.  I am in my base building phase right now and I still add some extra miles because it is a nice day or I feel good.  I know better but I do it anyway.

The most common injuries for runners building up their miles occur from the knees down.  The knee problem I suffer the most is an ITB injury.  The best way to find out what knee ailment you have is to do a search on the internet.  All of the search engines work well and come up with similar answers.  Strength, or lack thereof, is a common theme for older runners taking up the sport.

After I get done tearing up my knees, I start working on my calves and shins.  The common cause is lack of strength, flexibility and building up too fast.  Calf injuries are not to be trifled with but they are relatively easy to correct by strength training and stretching.

The feet are extremities that are not really affected from poor strength training but they are affected by a lack of stretching and doing too much too soon.

Next I will post about feet.  The feet are the most common annoying issues that people endure but they are usually easier to fix.