Injury and illness are a part of every athlete’s life at some point. An important part of successfully training is minimizing the risk of injury and illness as much as possible and managing an injury or illness effectively.

We’ve all been there at one time or another. A Summer cold or the Flu knocks you for a loop and you missed some workouts. Or, more seriously, you have an injury you are trying to work through or overcome. Perhaps you’re just getting sick and you’re wondering if you should push through it or rest? How you deal with an injury or illness can make or break your season. An overzealous approach can see things quickly spiral out of control, but being too conservative will lead to a loss of fitness eventually. There is a fine line and there are some general rules to guide you in your recovery.

Dealing with an injury is highly dependent on the type of injury. Are you dealing with a chronic condition or acute injury? If it is an acute injury and not too serious, ie road rash from a bike crash, you can usually be back at it as soon as you are able to deal with the discomfort while training. Sometimes you might have to find an alternative form of exercise but you can generally stay active during this type of recovery. If your acute injury is more serious, you will have most likely been under medical supervision (at least I hope so,) and they will give you a general idea when you can begin activity again. Keep in mind though, that recommendations from a physician tend to be geared toward the average individual, ie sedentary, so be sure to question them thoroughly and let them know your fitness level to see if there is any way you can speed up the recovery process. Sometimes you can do alternative exercise especially when dealing with chronic running issues. I’ve used an aquajogger many times to help me overcome chronic injuries before they become too serious www.aquajogger.com . Sometimes even alternatives may not be an option. Sometimes 4 weeks is 4 weeks, and you just need to recover and find an outlet for all that energy.

Chronic injuries are tricky. First and foremost, it’s crucial to discover the underlying cause of your injury. Treating the symptoms are fine and necessary and will often keep you going, but unless you are getting to the root of the problem, you are likely to continue struggling with that problem. It will go from an issue that you can and have been dealing with until it becomes an acute problem that causes an interruption in your training. Once a chronic problem becomes acute, it is much harder to deal with. Most chronic problems tend to be ligament and tendon centric. The repetitive nature of swimming, biking, and running tend to overload a ligament or tendon somewhere leading to pain. It’s important to address these issues early. Usually the underlying cause is bio mechanical. Something is out of balance. There are different resources and methods for dealing with an imbalance. Some people will use an overall stretching or strengthening regimen like yoga or pilates to address it. Some people will turn to physical therapy or massage. Some might even result to alternatives like acupuncture. Finding what works for you is important, but the truly successful athlete is the one who heads off problems before they occur. Address those weak areas with strengthening and stretching before they’re sore. An endurance athlete should be proactive about dealing with and heading off injury. A regular stretching and strengthening routine is mandatory. There are many ways to do this, but my favorite right now are the products and kits found at TPtherapy.com

Try and identify where you have weakness and deal with that weakness. Work on your form in all three disciplines. There are countless drills you can do for swimming, biking, and running. It’s also a good idea to address your overall functional strength, especially in your core. I’ve had success with p90x, but there are some wonderful routines on youtube as well. My current favorites are the free routines found at www.thestrongtriathlete.com They seem perfect for me intensity wise.

As far as cold and flu viruses, it really depends on the severity of the illness. If your symptoms are above the neck, you can generally do some work but you may have to cut back on the intensity or volume a bit. If you’ve been consistent, you’re not going to lose any fitness by taking it easy for a day or two. If you have the full blown flu with the corresponding body aches and fever, rest and stay in bed. It’s just not worth it to push through something like that. As with anything training wise, listen to your body. You’ll know what is right if you’re paying attention.

I hope that your training is going smoothly and you never have to deal with any type of injury or illness, but we know that is pretty unrealistic. When it does occur, be honest and realistic with yourself and do what you need to do to recover before making things worse. Better yet, implement a stretching and strengthening routine now while you are healthy so you can head off any type of injury down the road.

Happy Training,

Veto