Summer is when running takes off. Lighter evenings, dry pavements and a calendar full of autumn races mean June is the month most people start adding distance. It is also when we see a wave of overuse injuries come through the clinic, and almost all of them are avoidable.
Most running injuries are not bad luck. They are load problems: too much, too soon, too often, with too little recovery. Here is how to build your distance through the summer without ending up on the treatment table.
The 10% guideline, and why it matters
The most common mistake is increasing mileage too quickly. A sensible rule of thumb is to add no more than around 10% to your total weekly distance from one week to the next. Muscle, tendon and bone all adapt to load, but they adapt at different speeds. Strength and fitness can improve faster than tendon and bone can keep up, which is exactly how stress injuries creep in: the legs feel fit, but the structures underneath have not caught up.
If you have had a few weeks off, start below where you left off, not where you finished. And don't stack a longer long run, more speed work and more hills all in the same week. Change one variable at a time.
The injuries we see most over summer
- Runner's knee (patellofemoral pain): aching around or behind the kneecap, worse on stairs and downhills. Usually a load and hip-control problem, not a knee problem.
- Achilles and calf trouble: stiffness first thing in the morning and at the start of a run, often after a sudden jump in hills or speed.
- Shin pain: the catch-all "shin splints", which ranges from muscle overload to early bone stress. Pain that sharpens and localises to one spot needs assessing, not running through.
- Plantar heel pain: first-step pain under the heel or arch in the morning that eases as you warm up.
- Hip and low-back niggles: often a sign that the trunk and hips aren't controlling the repeated single-leg loading of running.
Recovery is training, not time off
Adaptation happens between runs, not during them. The block that gets people injured is usually the one with no easy days in it. A few simple habits do most of the work:
- Keep easy runs genuinely easy, you should be able to hold a conversation.
- Put at least one rest or cross-training day in the week.
- Sleep is the most underrated recovery tool there is. Protect it.
- Strength work twice a week, calves, glutes and trunk, builds the tissue tolerance that lets you handle more mileage.
Shoes, surfaces and the small stuff
Rotate between two pairs of shoes if you can, and replace them before they are completely flat. Mix your surfaces rather than pounding pavement every run. And warm up properly in the cooler morning and evening starts, a few minutes of easy jogging and some leg swings beats launching straight into pace.
When to get it looked at
Niggles that settle within a run or two are part of training. Get pain assessed if it:
- Sharpens or localises to a single point, especially over bone
- Makes you change how you run, limp or shorten your stride
- Comes back at the same point of every run
- Has not settled after a week of easing off
The earlier a running injury is assessed, the smaller the problem usually is. We diagnose what is actually driving it, treat it hands-on, and give you a clear plan and the rehab to get back to building, rather than just telling you to rest and hope. If summer training has thrown up an ache that won't shift, book in and we'll take a proper look.