Doc On The Run Podcast

#138 Fracture in the ball of the foot. Getting back to running with Coach Craig Moss

If you get pain and swelling in the ball of the foot you might become worried you have a fracture. Let's face it. When runners get an aching pain in the foot at the first thing we worry about is probably a stress fracture.

The good news is that in the overwhelming majority of cases where you have pain in the ball of the foot at the base of the toes, it is not usually a broken bone. But it can happen. In today's episode we have an interview with Coach Craig Moss who is a 46-time marathon finisher.

Today on the Doc on the Run podcast, we're talking about a fracture in the ball of the foot and what it takes to get back to running with Coach Craig Moss.

There is no accidental healing for running injuries.

You get a running injury because you made a mistake in over-training. You tripped over something. You did just a little too much in your workout. Something went wrong. It was an accident. 

But healing does not happen by accident. Healing a running injury has to be intentional, just like your training.

Think about what you do in training. You have a very, very specific plan to make sure you stay on track, but it is not by accident. 

And it's the same way with the healing process after you have an over-training injury. Don't forget, when you get an over-training injury, all it really is is an exaggerated form of the same tissue damage that you get in normal training when you're running.

So, you can use that same sort of active plan being very intentional about when you're going to heal, and how quickly. All of that must be deliberate, but you can't have mistakes in healing the same way you can't have mistakes in your workouts

Today on the Doc on the Run podcast, we're talking about how healing a running injury does not happen by accident.

 

If you're not moving, you're actually getting more injury-prone

If you're not moving, you're more injury-prone. If you got an over-training injury from running, and you're not moving, if you're not exercising, things are actually getting worse for you. You are actually getting more injury-prone, not less. 

This is the misconception: if you get injured, you have to sit still. You have to rest. You have to ”take care of yourself,” and you have to heal. And that is what physicians feed runners most of the time; this idea that they should just calm down, sit down, chill out, relax, recover, take it easy…whatever. But you know as an athlete, there are only two possibilities: Either you're getting stronger, or you are getting weaker. And if you're getting weaker, you're actually more injury-prone.

Today on the Doc on the Run podcast, we're talking about how if you're not moving, you're actually getting more injury-prone.

#135 Runners fast forward healing

Faster means faster! It means making decisions quicker. Forward means you and your doctor are making decisions more frequently so you can shorten the recovery time and make it to your next race. 

So how does that really work?

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about how runners fast-forward healing.

#134 Don't have high hopes for healing if you have downhill habits

The key with recovering from running injuries faster than normal patients is to identify what it is helping your healing, and what may be hindering your recovery. Runners don't choose the rate of recovery. Runners choose our habits, and our habits choose our rate of recovery. 

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about why you shouldn't have high hopes for healing if you have downhill habits.

#133 Last week's healing plan won't heal you today.

How does healing change on a weekly basis? It's going to continue to change throughout the healing process from day to day. No, it's not going to change a great deal in one day, but it's going to change a lot in a week, and it's going to change a whole lot more in two weeks. 

Everything's getting stronger: your muscles, your tendons, your bones, your ligaments, everything. You're getting stronger and stronger the whole time you're training and the whole time you're healing.

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about how last week's healing won't heal you today.

#132 Why runners heal faster

Why do runners heal faster? Simple...You are not a normal patient if you're a runner.

Not only do you exercise more, you eat better, you sleep better. You as a runner are a well-primed healing machine and this is the bottom line. If you think about it, if you've been a lifelong runner, what have you been doing? You go out and you train. You do tissue damage and then your body rebuilds it. So you have been teaching your body, physiologically priming that system, to heal. Your body knows how to heal. 

Today on the Doc On the Run podcast, we're talking about why runners heal faster.

#1 Book for Runners in 2019 is by David Goggins.mp3

Today on the Doc on the Run podcast, we're talking about the number one book every runner should read in 2019.

I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm going to recommend the number one book you need to read if you are a runner. I think this is going to be the best book for runners in 2019. And truthfully, it's not actually just a running book. The book is David Goggins', "Can't Hurt Me."

I actually met David Goggins about 10 years ago or so. And he probably won't remember me because I'm just a run-of-the-mill runner. But I met him at this event. It was a race in Chattanooga, Tennessee called the Wauhatchie Trail Race. Since that time, David Goggins has gone on to do some pretty amazing things! But, the truth is, what most people don't know is he did lots of amazing things before that...And that is what this book is all about.

If you want to achieve big things this year, read this book. Get it wherever you get books. You've gotta read, "Can't Hurt Me."

In "Can't Hurt Me", Goggins talks about his whole history. You are going to love it and you need to get this book!

#131 New Pain 10 Days Before Marathon Should I Run Now?

Today we're talking about whether or not you should run when you have pain about 10 days out from a marathon. 

This morning I got a call from Amy in Houston, and she's running a marathon in 10 days. She's doing the Houston Marathon. Today is Thursday, so a week from Sunday she is running the marathon. She has pain, and she's 10 days out, and wants to know if she can run now. That's the thing. She says, "I got this new pain, and I wanna run and finish my training." She admits that she didn't really train effectively, so she didn't train as much as usual. She normally is prepared for the marathon, but this year a bunch of stuff happened, just didn't get to train as much. Her plan was to try to run 10 miles today, on Thursday, and then maybe do a final 18 mile run on Saturday, and then maybe a few runs next week, you know, five, seven miles, or six miles, or whatever a couple of times next week, leading up to the marathon next Sunday.

So, her question is whether or not she should run. You know, she has this weird pain, this weird soreness. She's not sure what it is. She's done a bunch of marathons, but she doesn't know what it is. Is it a good idea to run or not? All right. So, just to back up, let me tell you, the first thing you have to know is that if she goes and sees a doctor, they're almost certainly gonna tell her to not run. Right? Why? Well, doctors tell you to not run, because they assume you wanna heal. Now, that sounds kind of simple, but that's the thing. When you're a runner, we know that that's not always the only consideration and certainly, in many cases, not even the primary consideration. They're not assuming your goal of finishing a marathon, an ultra marathon, an Ironman Triathlon, anything. They're not assuming that that goal of finishing is actually more important than your overall goal of making sure that you don't make your injury worse. Listen and I will explain...

#130 Should I Taper or Keep Training?

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about whether or not you should taper or just continue training when you have soreness right before your marathon.

 

The purpose of a taper, is to really get prepared physically to do your best, actually perform your best, on race day. You should always taper if you have been sticking to your marathon plan, if you're fully trained, if you're fit, if you've really got all of your training in, then you can taper with confidence. But if you've done less than optimal training, i you didn't stick to your plan, well what are you going to taper from?

And somewhere in between there is where most people fall in. They missed a couple of workouts here and there, they want to extend the training period into that taper period, and that's where you start getting into trouble. And if you had any kind of injury and you extend your training into your taper period, you are really playing with fire. That part I don't think anybody would disagree with.

So you just have to decide, given your scenario, how much training you did and how closely you stuck to your plan, whether or not you can push your taper a little bit, or if you should skip it all together. But that's something you've got to talk with your coach and you have figure out what to do.

Remember, the goal is to make it to the race, make it through in one piece, and then continue resuming in whatever training is and you have to think about what your goal is after that event to really make a clear decision.