Sports Injuries

Sports injuries are part of a runner's life.

If you run, chances are you will get injured one day.  But that does not mean that you should not run.  The benefits provided by running far outweigh the inconvenience of an occasional injury.  If you are new to running, and are afraid of hurting your knee (the most common fear of the beginners), consider that you can get injured while sleeping by falling off the bed.

I was injured when I had just started running, and was trying to increase the distance.  My longest run at that time was two miles long (which is less than half my shortest run now).  One day I felt a sharp pain behind my knee cap which knocked me down.  My wife picked me up from the pavement, put me in the car, and drove me home.  The pain lingered for many days, and worried me so much that I did not run for a month.  But then the love of running brought me back.  Injuries are common for the beginners because they tend to push themselves beyond their running capacity.

I exclusively run on treadmill during the dead of the Northeast winters.  Its not worth risking a fall by running on ice.  I had my second injury on a spring day, just after I abandoned my treadmill for an outside run.  On my first outside run of the spring, I noticed a dull pain on the side of my right knee.  The pain lingered all day long.  The pain became worse on my second run, and on my third outside run I had to limp back home.  I took a week's rest, but the pain returned on the first run after the rest.  Then we had a snow storm, and I started running on the treadmill again.  I noticed that I did not get the pain when I ran on the treadmill.  There was something different about running outside (although I had been running outside before the winter).  After much thought, I realized that during the  winter, I was running on the treadmill with zero incline, while there were hills outside.  I verified by setting the incline on my treadmill, and noticed the discomfort in the same location.  I kept running outside but reduced the distance and walked on the hills to train my legs for hills once again, then gradually increased the distance.  Injuries happen when there is a sudden change in the routine (in this case moving from zero incline to hills, and running the same distance).

I injured my shoulder a few years ago playing Basketball.  I initially ignored the dull pain in my shoulder, and kept playing.  Then I had a fall on that shoulder while skiing that made it worse, but I kept ignoring it, till one horrible morning when I could not lift my arm above my waist.  MRI, X-rays, doctors visits, many many PT sessions, lots of pain, and almost two years later I have a "working" shoulder.  If it was a leg injury like this, it would have been the end of my running hobby.  Never ignore an injury.  Any injury, no matter how small, requires immediate attention.

Thanking Naveed Azeemi for a generous contribution to my cancer fund raising.   Please click here for donation:
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