Injured? Get advice from the right people
Running, like anything, goes through its crazes – bits of gear, running styles, training fads that have come and gone.
The fluoro headband, anyone? They used to be all the rage but I can’t say I’ve seen them on many foreheads in years.
Armbands for phones? Once, if you’d run around the bays in Auckland or Wellington, or through Hagley Park in Christchurch, you’d think they were compulsory. Not so now.
But injury is the one thing that is consistent. This week on the Dirt Church Radio podcast, co-host Matt Rayment and I were lucky to speak with physiotherapist
and ultra-running doyenne Nikki Kimball.
There’s not much the American hasn’t seen over the past few decades – she’s been there, done that and got the drawer stuffed with race T-shirts.
Kimball has won huge races and dominated her opponents. But when she was queen, through the late-1990s, 2000s and early-2010s, running fulltime was not an option, especially for women.
Nowadays she has a large dose of pride – understandably, mixed with a tinge of sour grapes at the thought of what she missed out on – when she sees top women earn big sponsorships and equal prizemoney.
‘‘I definitely feel some pride in that and feel that I’m one of so many women who have been a cog in this process,’’ says Kimball. She knows, too, that there is some way to go.
Women and girls’ races at some cross-country events are shorter than for the men and boys’ races, for example, and some races don’t stump up with bonuses for women’s course records when they do for men.
But still, she’s seen the sport come a long way.
Except with injuries. When we asked if in her physio clinic in Montana she was noticing different injuries, she says: ‘‘I think it’s mostly the same sort of stuff.’’
Knees, ankles and hips, the usual biomechanical glitches that every runner knows about.
(And before anyone says it, no, that does not mean running is bad for your knees, ankles or hips.)
Kimball does see some hopeful developments, including the increasing number of physios and biomechanical experts writing about running and running injuries, plus there’s more research.
She also sees more clinics offering screening services.
‘‘We look for common weaknesses and imbalances and minor issues before they become problems.
‘‘If someone is super weak in one hip, for example, and we pick that up in a screening before they start upping their mileage, we can make what would have been an IT band problem not happen.’’
Kimball is firm that runners should seek advice from experts. She remembers the ‘‘Born to Run’’ phenomenon, spawned by the Christopher McDougall book, which in telling the incredible story of the Tarahumara bare-footed running tribe of Mexico, popularised the barefoot or minimalist running shoe movement in the early-2010s.
It is said that physios did very well out of the phenomenon. ‘‘When you get your biomechanics advice from a journalist . . . ’’ says Kimball.
But it doesn’t just fall at the feet of journalists, thankfully. Kimball also treats plenty of people who have been coached or had advice from people who have little experience and even less knowledge.
‘‘I’ve treated people who have done ridiculous things under a coach’s advice,’’ she says.
So, if you want to take some advice – yes, from a journalist – it’s this: get advice from people who know what they’re talking about.
Armchair experts are good to chew the fat with, but it pays to listen to people who know what they’re doing when it comes to training, dealing with injuries and things like nutrition. Just because something has worked for someone you know doesn’t mean it will work for you.
A sample size of one will not yield good evidence, because there are harmless trends – bring back the headband! – and then there are the ones that can hurt.
Eugene Bingham and Matt Rayment are hosts of a trail running podcast, Dirt Church Radio. Learn more at dirtchurch radio.com or get in touch via email dirtchurchradio@gmail. com