of the leg more than the front, runners often have overworked, tight calf muscles and weak shin muscles. This can lead to four specific lower-leg injuries – calf pulls, shin splints, stress fractures and compartment syndrome.A calf pull (also called a strain

that they assist with the function of both, making an injury to either muscle group extremely disruptive to running. Both can be strained (or pulled) if they are overextended to the point that they rip slightly. A complete tear of the muscle is called a rupture

job. They use it for self-improvement, from losing a few pounds to beating a PB; there’s nothing like it for boosting your self-esteem and giving you a sense of achievement.Injury takes all that away. As soon as a runner feels a pain, the fear begins

barbell. Oops.I became obsessed with what the human knee can and cannot do when one of mine shut down after a couple of days of modest runs over a nearby hill. The technical name for my injury was patellofemoral pain syndrome, otherwise known as PFPS

sooner rather than later. If an injury hurts so much you can’t even put weight on it, it’s probably a serious one, and you should get advice immediately.The only knot we haven’t tied is what you should do about pain in a race. It’s just not realistic

Learning how to manage injury – and the threat of injury – is an unavoidable side-effect of being a runner, but how can you tell whether the sudden onset of pain will pass in a couple of miles or is a sign of something more serious? Is the only

GETTY IMAGESMost runners know about injuries. They're almost part of the game. Run long enough or hard enough, and you'll probably come down with an ache that will temporarily sideline you.Fortunately, most running injuries are short-term. After a