I have been running injury free for quite some time now. For two years almost, touch wood. I often wonder what went right with me this time that I didn't come down with any injury despite running for so long?
In my earlier attempts I would come down heavily with injury in either the knees or calves or plantar or even Achilles. Why not now?
I think the answer lies in doing a few things right. I do not know which one was right and which one was more important than the other. But I must have done them all right. Rather, I must not have done something drastically wrong to stay injury free. Let me note them down so that anyone who reads this might benefit.
Rest and Recovery - The principal difference between a young man and an old man is the recovery time the older guy needs. If you are injured at 50 it takes you a much longer time to bounce back than it would have if you were 15. I realised this through trial and error and personal experience. And running is nothing but inflicting micro injuries on your joints.
I therefore decided never to run on two consecutive days. I would run for a day. Rest for a day the next day and then run again on the third day. This would give my legs, particularly the joints, time to recover. If I have to err, I would rather err with two consecutive days of rest than run.
Post Run Recovery Drink - I have started believing in the usefulness of a post-run recovery drink. It probably does not do anything to the joints but it works wonders on the muscles. The recovery of the muscle after this drink is almost instant. I can feel it. Without this drink my muscles used to remain sore for some time. But ever since I started drinking this my muscles feel strong almost instantly. My magic recovery drink is nothing but a banana milk shake. Just one banana chopped in a glass of milk and processed in the food processor. I drink it immediately after I come back. This is a combination of protein and carbohydrates, which is what is necessary for muscle recovery. I learnt about it from a website and it works.
Strengthening Exercise - Before starting this run of injury free running I started with a regular exercise regime. I used to get Mampu to sit on my feet and do three sets of sit ups. I think that strengthened my core and thighs. I used to do this every alternate evening and go for evening walks on the rest days. Finally those walks became runs. And then there was this evening when I ran for more than 2 kms. I was pretty impressed. That was a 23 minute run. Now I can run 2 kms in less than 14 minutes. In fact my best time is 12 min plus. I do a little more elaborate exercise now and that is probably yielding better time. But I think now I need a day's rest between the exercise and the run. I will experiment with that.
Proper Shoes - There are many runners who believe in minimalism and go for the most ordinary running shoes and quite remain injury free. I am not one of them. To me properly cushioned shoes are very important. Without them I come down heavily with injuries. I will not get into the detail of all the trials and errors that I went through. But I finally saw some success after changing over to properly cushioned shoes. Of course with strength and stretching one can possibly get away with bad cushioning but let's be honest - I do not have that kind of strength yet. My shoes cost me Rs 10,000 or so. But I think it is well worth the investment.
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