A Major Tip for Avoiding Overtraining as a Runner

Sophia Eick is a volunteer who has worked with Ronald McDonald charities to support chronically ill or elderly patients. Outside of her commitments in healthcare, Sophia Eick takes care of her health by running regularly.

As a runner, taking care of your health is your number one priority, as the work you put in can easily be invalidated if you overdo it. Beyond mere diminishing returns, overtraining can injure anyone from an amateur to a professional. Training is meant to take time and slowly build up your strength and endurance, and doing too much too fast leads to damage instead.

There are a few things you can do to prevent this. Early on, talk to a specialist or sports doctor about analyzing your body for its strengths and weaknesses; you might find that a consistent ache points to a structural weakness you need to be careful of or that you have been using the wrong type of shoes for the terrain you run in. Understanding your body’s biomechanics and understanding it as a machine you have to care for will improve your odds of noticing or predicting problems before they arise.

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The Benefit of Pool Running

Sophia Eick is a volunteer worker who has cared for patients with disabilities and chronic illness alongside charities like Ronald McDonald House and A.I. DuPont. Sophia Eick also regularly exercises by running, training for endurance and strength.

Running is a high-impact sport that makes regular runners constantly pound their bodies on pavement and other terrains. This pounding is usually hard on the joints and muscles that hold them together and lead to damage and injury over time. Long-term runners can combat this with various techniques, including pool running.

Pool running is a type of training where you run mostly or entirely submerged in water. While training in this way, you exercise by pushing against the water rather than pounding on the ground. The impact here is much lower as your footfalls will generally be a lot gentler than usual. This type of training is not easy and you will probably find that your average pool run will be a lot shorter than your average road run. However, if you have access to a pool, this can be a great way to take a break from high-impact exercise when you’re at risk of injury or need a change of pace.