How do I know if I am injured?

As a runner we are never completely healthy! Perhaps one or two days a year all the stars align and you just feel fantastic. Usually, each day you will have a little pain here or a niggle pain there. How do you tell the difference between a training pain and an injury. Our system, devised by Julie Sparrow, will help to work out whether you are injured or not.

Green Light - Nothing particularly hurts, you have some fatigue because you have been training hard but you go out, you do you run, it may not be great but any aches and pains go away after a shower! That is perfectly alight.

If you have a pain in same area after 3 consecutive runs then you have an injury. Catch it early and step back for a few days, then you will be back healthy and running within a few days. This is the mild amber light. The pain should be in the same location and start to come on at same distance into the run each time. These can be managed.

If you pain during your activity and a little while afterwards. Again, same area after 3 consecutive runs then you have an injury but you will need to stop running because you have let it progress from above. The pain afterwards is the difference here. Now we are in full amber. Stop now and get some help.

If you hit the red zone, you have pain or soreness before exercise, it takes some loosening off, it then hurts during the exercise and afterwards. In real terms you would be very unlikely to make the start line of a race. The injury is very significant and it would take a period of time to get rid of. If you are at this point you are really injured!

The screaming neon zone! If you are here, you can't walk or run properly, we can't help you. You need a psychiatrist! This isn't a joke. Don't let it get this far. Follow these steps and avoid injury.

#InjuryPrevention