During my long run this week, I felt a familiar stabbing pain in my right knee. I grimaced at the pain caused by an iliotibial (IT) band that's tighter than a piano string.
Runners are no strangers to injury. In a study of 725 male marathon runners published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports in 2008, 54.8 per cent had sustained one or more injuries in the year prior to a race.
"Among the 50 marathon clinic participants last year, 20 of them had some sort of musculoskeletal complaint in the course of their 12-week preparation," says Dr Simon Yeung, director of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon's free training clinic.
The main cause of running injuries is a rapid increase in mileage or intensity, says Dr Michael Tse, director of the Active Health Clinic at University's of Hong Kong's Institute of Human Performance. "It is important to progress slowly, increasing your distance by about 10 per cent each week, until you reach your maximum training distance."
For more intense workouts, a dynamic warm-up may help reduce potential injury risk. Tse suggests light jogging, followed by movements such as butt kicks, knee lifts and lunges. "Work on the hot spots, like tight hamstrings, hip flexors and ankles," he says.
Yeung also recommends alternating terrain to work different muscles and avoid overloading any particular one. Unfortunately, some people are more injury prone than others due to biomechanics, joint flexibility, musculoskeletal balance and technique.