The Keys to Injury-free Running

Key Takeaways

• Post-run strength and mobility work is essential, but it won’t make up for poor training design - intelligent programming is the foundation of injury prevention.
• An injury-free system requires five elements: a thoughtful progression of volume, intensity, and strides, a progression of workouts that teaches running by feel, and a weekly rhythm of easy and hard days.
• Rather than viewing injuries as inevitable in running, recognize that with the right training, they can mostly be avoided.
• The Myrtl routine is a good starting point, but the real key is a system where post-run work and training design work together.

Injury-free running is more than doing daily pre- and post-run work.

When I was a first-year coach, I was convinced that if I could keep athletes healthy throughout a season, they'd run PRs.

Twenty-three years of coaching have only strengthened my conviction.

You know that injury-free, consistent runners race faster. But what exactly do they do?

I'm going to tell you what I do to keep athletes injury-free, but first, I have to share a story...

When I arrived at the University of Colorado as an assistant coach, I was tasked with coaching the middle-distance runners.

The best middle-distance runners in the Big XII conference ran at Kansas State, and were coached by Mike Smith (now the coach at West Point).

I saw Mike's athletes doing all kinds of things pre- and post-race that I'd never seen. Unlike today, when you only need five minutes on a social platform to see a dozen hip mobility and core routines, the exercises Mike’s athletes were doing were unique.

So, I did something contrary to my shy nature: I went up to him and asked him if he'd explain what he was doing.

For the next few years, Mike mentored me on strength, mobility, and other "ancillary" exercises he used to keep athletes injury-free.

We even made a series of DVDs together - Building a Better Runner: Building from the Ground Up.

But there was a problem...

Many of the routines required another person.

So, I took what I learned from Mike and created routines that a person could do alone.

The Myrtl routine is made up of exercises I learned from Mike that someone could do on their own.

(I get asked all the time, "Why was it named Myrtl?" Because Myrtl rhymed with "hip girdle." I had no idea that Myrtle is the common spelling.)

Yet more was needed...

Over the next year or two, I had a full complement of routines based on what I learned from Mike.

Yet I soon realized that post-run work alone wasn't enough to keep athletes injury-free if the rest of the training was inappropriate.

I made sure my training had these elements...

• A thoughtful progression of volume/mileage 
• A thoughtful progression of intensity 
• A thoughtful progression of strides (that has athletes doing them 3-5 times a week) 
• A progression of workouts that teaches "running by feel" 
• A weekly rhythm of easy days and hard days 

When these elements (and a few others) were a part of the training plan, I saw a dramatic decrease in injuries.

And my view of injuries changed too.

Rather than seeing injuries as a necessary part of running, I viewed them as something that, with the right training, can mostly be avoided.

But intelligent, progressive post-run work won't make up for poor training design. The post-run work isn't a band-aid you can put over poorly planned training and have athletes stay healthy.

Remember, intelligent training includes:

• A thoughtful progression of volume/mileage 
• A thoughtful progression of intensity 
• A thoughtful progression of strides (that has athletes doing them 3-5 times a week) 
• A progression of workouts that teaches "running by feel" 
• A weekly rhythm of easy days and hard days 

You can use the free post-run strength and mobility routines with your athletes.