RUNNING
Seeking the truth behind running injuries
A study of 23,000 runners leads to more mystery than answers BY JESSICA NATALE WOOLLARD Writer, teacher and communications professional in Victoria, B.C. JRWOOLLARD
GRAHAM MCKERRELL
R
unners seeking a magic bullet to prevent injuries will have to keep searching. A study published in the Journal of Athletic Training in September 2021 sought correlations between running-related injuries and training parameters—such as distance, duration, frequency, intensity— and changes to training regimens. To the disappointment of runners everywhere, the research provided no eureka moments. The study was led by Jean-Francois Esculier, a medical professor at the University of British Columbia and leader of research and development at The Running Clinic, based north of Québec City. The team examined 36 studies featuring 23,000 adult runners. Results were underwhelming, if not unexpected: there is no clear connection between injuries and training circumstances. None of the professionals we spoke with were surprised. Rob Hasegawa, a chiropractor at Good to Go Sports Therapy in Victoria, B.C., specializes in running injuries and has
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worked with athletes of all levels. “The more years I’ve been in practice, one of the most common things I do when someone asks me what I think they did (to get injured) is shrug my shoulders,” he says. “There’s just so many variables… It can be anything on any given day.” Calgary’s Cal Zaryski, owner of CriticalSpeed.com, agrees, saying “We can’t hang our hats on one or two metrics (like heart rate). It’s just a mathematical model. The reality is the human body is way more complex than that.” Zaryski is a high-performance athlete as well as a coach. In 2021, he won both the Ironman 70.3 World Championship and the XTERRA off-road triathlon—his tenth in the latter—for his age group. Sometimes, the cause of an injury is obvious, he explains, remembering a sore ankle he developed after running barefoot on sloping sand in Maui. Other times, issues “come out of the blue,” he says. “A little ache or pain, or some issue that’s starting to brew. It accumulates. It’s just too complex to figure out the cause of certain things. The key is to catch them before they become an injury.”
The clear message from the study, Zaryski says, is that training prescriptions need to be dynamic, to adapt to each individual’s situation any given day. One way to ensure dynamism in training is to work with a coach. Bruce Deacon, two-time Olympic marathoner and running coach in Victoria says having a good coach can help avoid injuries, but there’s a caveat: the runner needs to provide the coach with enough information and feedback to make critical training decisions. “The value of your money, of your investment (in coaching), is only enhanced when you’re open, honest and trusting with your coach. Let your coach know, ‘I didn’t sleep well, I feel a little niggle in the back of my throat,’” he says, noting that coaches need to know about mood and mental and emotional stress, too. “A coach needs all the information to keep you healthy.” Ultimately, the takeaway from Esculier’s study is that runners need personalized care to be at their best. Every runner is unique, so unique that the variables that lead to running-related injuries are too broad and too complex to reveal