Aches, Pains, and Visits to The Doc

After unusually persistent aches and pains during training or after your race, you may decide it’s time for a visit to your sports doc. Of course, we hope you’ve increased your training slowly, checked your shoes and done your best to  learn how to avoid the doctor’s office.

Now that you’ve decided it is time for a visit, how can you make that visit work in the best way possible for you?  What should you bring? Of course bringing yourself in is the most important thing.  The following items are helpful. And the running shoes are often contributors to the injury and it can be very helpful to examine them.

Try to bring in the following items:

Notes on your injury:

• When did it start?
• Where does it hurt?
• When does it hurt?
• What has changed in your training?
• What speedwork or harder than normal running have you been doing?
• What shoes did you wear before you were injured, when injured and what are you wearing now?
• What surfaces have you been running on?
• What have you tried to make things feel better?

Things to bring:

• Current running shoes ( the newest running shoes you have used)
• Previous running shoes (recent ones which may have contributed to your injury)
• Orthotics (if you use them)
• Running/Exercise Log (if you have one)