Common Marathon Training Pitfalls that Increase your Injury Risk (and what to do instead!)

Training for a marathon is an exciting challenge, whether you’re new to distances or a seasoned long distance runner! As many of us know, marathon training also comes with a degree of injury risk, especially for recreational runners juggling work, life and long runs.

The good news is that most running injuries are usually the result of a few common training pitfalls. We’re going to go throughout few of the big ones that we see often with runners in clinic, and see what the evidence tells us can most impact our injury risk.

1. Doing Too Much, Too Soon

This is the classic mistake: mileage ramps up quickly, enthusiasm is high, and your body hasn’t caught up yet.

The majority of running injuries are overuse type injuries, meaning that they build up slowly over time rather than from a traumatic event such as rolling your ankle (which of course also happens!). Anecdotal evidence suggests that training errors (i.e. excessive distance, sudden change of training routines, etc.) are the cause of 60–70% of all running injuries (Nielsen et al., 2012). and that specifically excessive and rapid increases in training loads are likely responsible for a large proportion of non-contact, soft-tissue injuries (Gabbett, 2016). Why? Perhaps because bones, tendons, and connective tissues adapt more slowly than your cardiovascular system, meaning that you might feel great increasing the load and feeling nicely conditioned, but your Achilles might not be catching up and adapting quite so quickly.

Try this instead:

• Increase weekly mileage gradually

• Be cautious with stacking long runs, speed work, and hills all in the same week

• Remember: consistency beats hero workouts

2. Skipping Rest Days (or Recovery Weeks)

Rest days can feel unproductive, especially when motivation is high. But recovery is where adaptation actually happens.

Insufficient recovery between training sessions has been shown to increase overuse injury risk (Meeusen et al., 2013). Without recovery, small tissue stresses accumulate until something breaks down.

Try this instead:

• Schedule at least one full rest day per week

• Build in lighter “down weeks” to your plan, or when you're feeling fatigued

• Treat sleep as part of your training plan!

3. Ignoring Strength Training

Many recreational runners believe running alone is enough to prepare for a marathon. The research shows that supplemental strength training can reduce running-related injury risk and improve performance (Lauersen et al., 2014).

Try this instead:

• Try to add in 2 short strength sessions per week

• Focus on calves, glutes, hamstrings, core and some plyometric work

• It doesn't need to be complicated - bodyweight and light resistance go a long way if you don't have gym access

4. Running Every Run at the Same “Moderately Hard” Pace

Many runners train in a grey zone, too hard to recover well or too easy to get faster. A lack of training intensity variation has been linked to increased injury risk and fatigue accumulation (Seiler, 2010).

Try this instead:

• Make easy runs truly easy - this feeds back into planning your recovery, if you've programmed an easy run, make sure you are strict with yourself

• Save harder efforts for planned workouts

• Lots of easy, a little hard, very little medium

5. Pushing Through Pain

Some soreness is normal, but persistent pain running is not. Previous injury is consistently associated with developing a further running injury. 'Previous lower extremity injuries that have healed completely should not increase the risk of a subsequent lower extremity injury. However, injuries that give rise to permanent structural or biomechanical malfunction and/or dysfunctional coordination increase the risk of future running injuries' (van der Worp et al., 2015). In other words, if you continue to train on something that is painful or dysfunctional, your risk of further injury increases. The body has a way of compensating - chronic ankle instability or a grumbly achilles that you've been training through and you find 6 months later that you develop ITB syndrome? It's not a co-incidence.

Try this instead:

• Pay attention to pain that worsens as you run

• Don’t ignore pain that changes your stride

• When in doubt, reduce volume early rather than stopping completely later

• Work with a professional when a pain or injury isn't going away

6. Forgetting That Life Stress Counts Too

Work deadlines, poor sleep, travel and stress all affect how well your body handles training. Overall stress load, not just running volume, plays a role in injury risk

Try this instead:

• Adjust training during high-stress weeks

• Be flexible with your plan when life gets in the way - Missing one run is better than missing six weeks

Hope this has helped you better understand what actually increases your liklihood of getting injured and what errors to try to avoid during your marathon training. Remember: the goal isn’t just to reach the start line, it’s to arrive healthy enough to enjoy the run.

If you're struggling with an injury, I have worked with runners for more than a decade in central London. We're fast approaching lots of spring marathons, London marathon, Paris, Manchester, Tokyo, Brighton - if your race date is approaching and you're struggling with a running injury, we're here to help. You can book a new patient osteopathy appointment with myself or one of the team, online via https://balancedosteo.janeapp.co.uk/

References

• Gabbett, T. J. (2016). The training—injury prevention paradox. British Journal of Sports Medicine.

• Lauersen, J. B., Bertelsen, D. M., & Andersen, L. B. (2014). The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries. British Journal of Sports Medicine.

• Meeusen, R., et al. (2013). Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the overtraining syndrome. European Journal of Sport Science.

• Nielsen, R. O., et al. (2012). Training errors and running related injuries. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy.

• Seiler, S. (2010). What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.

• van der Worp, M. P., et al. (2015). Risk factors for running-related injuries. Sports Medicine.