Running Without Injury: Picking a friendly surface

Ellis, Joseph. Running Injury-Free: How to Prevent, Treat, and Recover from Runner's Knee, Shin Splints, Sore Feet, and Every Other Ache and Pain. Rodale, 2013.

Before getting into the main part of the blog, I’d like to give a little background information about me and why I chose this topic.

I love soccer. I love playing it, I love watching it but before my passion for soccer, I really enjoyed running.

Soccer is a very physically demanding sport and if you’re not fit for it, you will get injured. I have experienced this myself. I was plagued with injuries: a hamstring injury in 7th grade, a calf injury in 8th grade, and a calf hamstring injury in 9th grade limited my playing time, as well as my development because I was still relearning soccer after abandoning it to focus on music. Though I still scored in my first season, I could’ve done better, and I could be better today had I not been injured so much.

After my injury in the fall of 9th grade, I realized that I needed to take better care of my body and keep it conditioned to not get injured. And I did just that. I was injury-free ever since that injury and I went through the soccer season in the spring of 9th grade without getting injured. Let’s hope it stays that way. After losing the blistering pace that I once had, I’m trying my best to stay fit to maintain the pace that I do have and even improve on it as being fast is very important in the modern game

While reading the book, “Running Injury-Free: How to Prevent, Treat, and Recover from Runner's Knee, Shin Splints, Sore Feet, and Every Other Ache and Pain” by Dr. Joseph Ellis, I learned some helpful tips and tricks to prevent injury when running.

According to the book, “The best surfaces for running are firm (not mushy or slippery), relatively flat (without camber), smooth (without ruts or holes), and provide some degree of shock absorption. The more angled the surface, the steeper the incline, the harder the surface, the greater are the chances of an injury” (Ellis, 238). This might seem obvious, but this leads onto something eye-opening for me.

“Grassy areas such as golf courses make relatively poor running surfaces. This may surprise some people who choose grass because it’s soft. But grassy surfaces are also uneven. And many of us--more than half the population have some biomechanical abnormality. So, running on grass makes the muscles and tendons in your feet and legs work harder and leaves you more susceptible to injury” (Ellis,238).

I found this surprising and I think it would surprise a lot of people too. I usually run on grass surfaces because they are easily accessible and when everyone first started out running when they were toddlers, they most likely were outside in the park or in an open grass field of some sort so we’re used to this type of surface for running.

Jogging on grass field

When I was jogging on a grass field, it was definitely not flat because there are lots of holes and small lumps and hills. Although it’s soft, it’s unevenness and inconsistent condition makes for a very bad place to be running or even jogging on.

Jogging on tartan track

When I was jogging on the track field or tartan track, which is designed so athletes can compete even in bad conditions. I definitely felt more safe and consistent than on the grass field where I felt like I could’ve injured my ankle by accidentally stepping into a hole.

Have you ever gotten an injury? If so what did you do to prevent them from happening again?