Doc On The Run Podcast

You get a running injury because you made a mistake in over-training. You tripped over something. You did just a little too much in your workout. Something went wrong. It was an accident.  But healing does not happen by accident. Healing a running injury has to be intentional, just like your training. Think about what you do in training. You have a very, very specific plan to make sure you stay on...

If you're not moving, you're more injury-prone. If you got an over-training injury from running, and you're not moving, if you're not exercising, things are actually getting worse for you. You are actually getting more injury-prone, not less.  This is the misconception: if you get injured, you have to sit still. You have to rest. You have to ”take care of yourself,” and you have to heal. And that...

Faster means faster! It means making decisions quicker. Forward means you and your doctor are making decisions more frequently so you can shorten the recovery time and make it to your next race.  So how does that really work? Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about how runners fast-forward healing.

The key with recovering from running injuries faster than normal patients is to identify what it is helping your healing, and what may be hindering your recovery. Runners don't choose the rate of recovery. Runners choose our habits, and our habits choose our rate of recovery.  Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about why you shouldn't have high hopes for healing if you have downhil...

How does healing change on a weekly basis? It's going to continue to change throughout the healing process from day to day. No, it's not going to change a great deal in one day, but it's going to change a lot in a week, and it's going to change a whole lot more in two weeks.  Everything's getting stronger: your muscles, your tendons, your bones, your ligaments, everything. You're getting stronger...

Why do runners heal faster? Simple...You are not a normal patient if you're a runner. Not only do you exercise more, you eat better, you sleep better. You as a runner are a well-primed healing machine and this is the bottom line. If you think about it, if you've been a lifelong runner, what have you been doing? You go out and you train. You do tissue damage and then your body rebuilds it. So you h...

Today on the Doc on the Run podcast, we're talking about the number one book every runner should read in 2019. I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm going to recommend the number one book you need to read if you are a runner. I think this is going to be the best book for runners in 2019. And truthfully, it's not actually just a running book. The book is David Goggins', "Can't Hurt Me." I actu...

Today we're talking about whether or not you should run when you have pain about 10 days out from a marathon.  This morning I got a call from Amy in Houston, and she's running a marathon in 10 days. She's doing the Houston Marathon. Today is Thursday, so a week from Sunday she is running the marathon. She has pain, and she's 10 days out, and wants to know if she can run now. That's the thing. She...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about whether or not you should taper or just continue training when you have soreness right before your marathon.   The purpose of a taper, is to really get prepared physically to do your best, actually perform your best, on race day. You should always taper if you have been sticking to your marathon plan, if you're fully trained, if you're fit,...

I’m recording this episode right around the start of the New Year, and this time of year everybody starts talking about their goals. Most people talk about where they want to be. What they want to accomplish, where they want to be, but I what I really think you have to think about is who are you going to be. Who are you going to be in one year, because … You know, it’s interesting.  You would neve...

The idea that one given treatment will work for one condition, when the people are different is absurd.  Runners are different than normal people.  Risks of certain treatments are much higher for runners then they are for other people.  Some treatments that are not risky at all for a runner, might be very risky for the average non-runner.  Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we're talking about i...

This question comes up a lot for runners with Achilles tendon injuries. But it can happen with any kind of tendon. The difference between an injury to a tendon which has been labeled "tendonitis" versus "tendinosis" is really a difference in the amount of time that you have the condition and the amount of damage to the tendon itself.  There’s been a long running debate about this. I was lecturing...

Let me ask you a question. Do you set goals when you are training for a race? What about when you are injured? I mean let’s face it, if you are training for a marathon you probably have a really specific goal right? You want to do a specific race on a specific day. You want to start at a specific time and you want to end at a specific time. So then you have a whole bunch of goals to try to get you...

The number one question I get from runners is "How long is it going to take me to heal this injury?" It could be a metatarsal stress fracture, it could be plantar fasciitis, it could be an Achilles tendon injury. Then the follow-up question is always "How soon will I be back to running?"   The whole underlying premise of those questions is completely absurd. All of us want to believe it takes some...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we’re talking about the 5 causes of big toe joint pain in runners. If you are a runner and you have pain in the big toe joint, the first step in treating it is figuring out what is actually causing the problem. There are lots of different causes of pain in the big toe joint, but there are really five that affect runners most often. These are the most common that...

I know I talk about this a lot but collagen is one of the most critical things when you’re healing any running injury. If you have a tendon, ligament, fascia that’s injured. All that stuff is made of collagen. If you get an ankle sprain, you get an Achilles tendon tissue, you get a peroneal tendon tissue, you get plantar fasciitis. Any of those things, it’s all an issue with collagen and all of th...

In an ideal world, we would have research that actually studies everything, every variable, every possible scenario and then helps you know conclusively what will work and what will definitely not work. The problem is that research studies really don’t work out that way. There’s almost never a study that shows that something is 100% effective for everybody, all of the time, given all of the variab...

You’re never staying the same. You’re never the same person. You’re not the same person you were a year ago, and you’re not the same person now. You’re certainly not the same person you were 10 years ago either. And what you’re doing professionally, you’re probably not the same sort of person you were a year ago or 10 years ago with that either. The truth is pretty much nothing stays the same in l...

Can I run with a split peroneal tendon? Well, yes. There are two cases in which you can run with a split peroneal tendon. Number one. If you’re certain running will not make the peroneal tendons worse or if you can accept that you may make the injury worse and it’s worth the risk to you, given your specific goals. Today, we’re going talk about what all that means if you’re a runner with a longitud...

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about the seven steps a runner should take when you’re not healing. You’re probably a runner and you’ve probably been injured for some time. You probably just didn’t get injured last week when you were running a race, but you probably got injured a while back, and then a lot of things happened. You probably took a little bit of time and kind of to...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re talking about the top 10 myths about plantar fasciitis in runners. There are a lot of myths surrounding plantar fasciitis, and plantar fasciitis is common, but you have to understand when you’re a runner that not all the stuff you read is true. You can check out the course on runner’s heel pain if you’re really worried about this or you really want to kee...

I recently went to pick up my 10 year son Alex from an after school program. He and all his classmates were playing on the playground. The camp administrator that runs the program actually approached me as I was walking across the playground. He said, “Alex doesn’t make good decisions for his safety.” I looked over and Alex who was standing up on the tire swing. He was swinging so high that he was...

I recently got a great question from a runner in San Francisco. “I just want to make sure that I’m not heading for an over training injury and want to make sure to reduce the inflammation. When I have soreness following a hard workout, should I apply ice?” Overtraining injuries happen because you have too much tissue damage, and not enough healing of that injured tissue before your next workout. I...

Today we’re talking about how inflammation management can make you slower. After giving my lecture in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago I’ve had so many different questions about inflammation that I thought we should doing an entire series of episodes about inflammation management in runners and other athletes. There are lots of things you think about inflammation and one of the things you have to u...

Just about a week ago I was giving a lecture in Las Vegas at the 24th Annual Scientific Program of the International Foot and Ankle Foundation and this is a medical conference where podiatrists, foot and ankle surgeons, sports medicine doctors go to get their continuing medical education credits. One of the lectures I was asked to give there was entitled “Inflammation in athletes – The good, the b...