We’re nearing the end of marathon season here in the Twin Cities, but Turkey Trots and other Thanksgiving runs are still a few weeks away, meaning a number of individuals are probably right in the middle of their training sessions for their race. If you’ve chosen to run a half marathon this year, that’s great, but you also need to know what factors could increase your risk of injury during your training. In today’s blog, we look at some of the injury risk factors during half marathon training.
Half Marathon Training Tips
The half marathon has become a popular run in recent years for individuals who are looking for something more challenging than a 5k or 10k but who want a stepping stone before considering a full marathon. A half marathon is 13.1 miles, and most training routines for these types of runs are about eight to 14 weeks long. A recent study of nearly 800 half marathoners decided to try and pinpoint why some runners who are training for this race get injured.
According to the study, there were two main factors that helped determine if someone was more likely to suffer a running injury than the average runner. Those two factors were:
- Mileage
- Pace
When analyzed together, researchers called this measurement the “training load,” and they found that runners with shorter or slower training loads were more likely to suffer an injury during training. Researchers found that runners training for a half marathon who run less than 15 km per week (~9 miles a week), and/or those who run slower than a 6 min/km pace (~just over a 10-minute mile) may sustain more running related injuries than their counterpart runners.
The team noted that of the 784 runners who took part in the study, 136 suffered injuries during their 14-week training plan, and there existed a “tendency toward fewer injuries amongst runners categorized as having high experience or high pace and a combination of both high experience and high pace, compared with their counterpart peers.”
So what should you do if you’re following a low mileage training plan to get ready for your half marathon? Because drastically increasing your mileage can put you at a heightened risk for overstress injuries, runners should focus on working on their speed. By focusing your sessions on your speed work, you can help to improve your pace without adding extra miles to your load. Speed work can also increase your running efficiency and reduce the likelihood of some repetitive stress injuries.
