Running Injury Oracle

Every talk i give to runners and non runners alike has, as its main theme, the idea that to aim for symmetry in the way that our bodies move is of paramount importance to warding off injury. This is never more true than in runners. A slight asymmetry in function will create a difference in [...]

I was treating a man the other day who is training for the London Marathon 2011. He’s obviously someone who takes care of his fitness, and someone who you would expect would run a fairly quick time. However, when i asked him what sort of time he was looking for he mentioned that somewhere between [...]

The kitchen may seem like an unlikely place in which one can heal ones running injuries, but it holds one of the most potent tools for easing tired, sore and tight muscles. The tool i’m talking about is the rolling pin. My patients are probably pretty sick of me talking about how useful the pin is! But [...]

I was treating someone with a running related cuboid dysfunction the other day, and the process of treating it, using sports taping, reminded me of something to blog about. Certain running injuries, the ones that are as a result of a problem with foot mechanics, often require the use of insoles, or orthotics as they are commonly [...]

A couple of days ago i was treating a friend and exceptional marathon runner, Simon freeman, who runs with my running club. He is just about to run the Florence marathon this weekend coming. Anyway, we got onto the subject of improving marathon times. I seem to be gradually chipping my way along to my golden [...]

It’s been a full three weeks since the amsterdam marathon, and my legs are now back to speed. I thought i would just tell a little about the marathon, the course and the day itself. Beautifully organised, except perhaps for the bag drop which was a bit slow, and almost cost me a place at [...]

A big bee in my bonnet has always been the idea of asymmetry being the enemy of the runner. So with this in mind I just wanted to bring up the subject of ‘camber’ and how it can really upset your body and result in injury. A camber is ‘a convexity in a road surface’, [...]

Someone just told me about a great test for whether or not you have a stress fracture, anywhere in the body. Normally, in clinic, when examining a patient, I use the base of a tuning fork on the bone I suspect is fractured (it will be painful if  a fracture is present!), but you can [...]

For those brave warriors who are on the epic voyage towards running the London Marathon this year, you will be firmly into your training schedule. As i am writing this there will be only 10 weeks to go. Your long runs will be becoming more substantial, perhaps up to 16-18 miles, and your speed work, [...]

“I stretch until the cows come home, so why am i still injured?” The obvious answer to the question would be that stretching is not the answer to your recovery! Of course you need to understand what your injury is before choosing the right tools for rehabilitation (essentially what this website is designed for!). If [...]

Last weekend was the Oslo marathon. My wife (who was running the 10k) and I went out there, without the kids! The weather was good to us, which is a good job really, since everything was so expensive at least the weather was free! It was a really tough marathon, and i missed my target [...]

Knee pain is often quite a tricky problem to treat. One of the major stumbling blocks is not so much what the injury is called, but exactly how it got there in the first place. In my experience of treating hundreds of runners’ knees each year there is certainly a common cause that runs through [...]

The Running Injury Oracle was born on the night of the 7th September 2009. I’d like to say that i’m still reeling from the hangover, but there was no alcohol involved, and no launch party (yet)! The purpose of this blog will be twofold. Firstly, I will be writing about any interesting points to do [...]

Well over a month ago i said that we were almost there with launching the site. I am learning that when it comes to website development, ‘almost there’ is as meaningless as talking greek to an african! I decided to change the subscription time to 4 months rather than 3 months, for the same price. [...]

This is my first blog on the Running Injury Oracle site, and we’re only a week or two from launching the site! I thought i would just give a little bit of background to how the site was conceived, for anyone that might be interested. Three years ago, i was travelling to Denmark to run [...]