Why Do Novice Runners Get Injured More Often?
Running is one of the most accessible forms of exercise in the world. All you need is a pair of shoes and a road or trail. Yet despite its simplicity, running has a surprisingly high injury rate, particularly among newer runners.
Research suggests that between 50–70% of runners experience an injury each year, making running-related injuries one of the most common sports injuries worldwide.
This article examines a number of possible mistakes novices make and uses real cases I’ve seen in the clinic as examples to highlight the issues. Worth a read if you are new to running, are serious about your training or are planning to test yourself in a half marathon some time soon.
Another surprising statistic is that many runners increase their training load too quickly, especially when preparing for races like half marathons or marathons. Studies tracking training patterns show that rapid increases in weekly mileage are one of the strongest predictors of injury.
Injury Rates in Runners: Experience Matters
Research looking at injury epidemiology across different running populations shows a clear pattern: novice runners experience the highest injury rates.
Studies measuring injuries relative to running exposure report approximately:
- Novice runners: ~15–30 injuries per 1000 hours of running
- Recreational/intermediate runners: ~7–10 injuries per 1000 hours
- Competitive/elite runners: ~2–8 injuries per 1000 hours
In simple terms, runners who are new to the sport are roughly two to three times more likely to experience an injury than experienced runners.
Why Novice Runners Get Injured More Often:
Injury risk appears to decrease with experience. We will explore 3 key factors that may explain this and from Part II of this series we will deep dive and explore these more thoroughly with actual case studies and more practical take-aways for those new to running:
- Tissue Adaptation
Elite runners train far more; more frequently and with more mileage. It seems counterintuitive that they suffer less with injury woes, however, experience brings several protective adaptations.
Running places repetitive stress on the body’s tissues:
- tendons – experienced runners have thicker tendons
- bones – experienced runners have greater bone density
- cartilage – has improved biochemical composition and resistance to load.
- muscles – experienced runners are better conditioned with superior neuromuscular control
While cardiovascular fitness can improve within weeks, musculoskeletal tissues adapt much more slowly.
Bones may take months to strengthen, and tendons often require 6–12 months of progressive loading to develop resilience. New runners often feel fit enough to increase training faster than their tissues can tolerate. As a result, what we see is a change in running loads that are too fast for these adaptations to occur. The reality is
Tissue adaptation takes time
- Load Progression
As just eluded to, progressing running volume too quickly can result in unfavourable tissue responses and pain. Load management is one of the most critically important activites of a consciously competent runner. To really understand the importance of load management, we need to define Training Load. Tim Gabbett describes load as:
“The cumulative amount of stress placed on an athlete from training and competition.”
Whilst mileage is the first metric most “green-shoes” think of when considering load and programming, it is by no means the ‘be all and end all’. In fact, it is only one metric of external load; that is, what the athlete does. Training load, however, is actually a product of external load AND internal load; how difficult or stressful the external load was. We will leave it at that for now, but Part II will go in to much more detail. Just understand that even careful monitoring of mileage alone, may not be sufficient to help you crush your goals or protect you against injury.
Injuries relating to load progression issues, in general, are the result of one or more training errors. These errors result in training loads that are too fast for tissue adaptations to occur:
- Coming in hot: Entering in to the sport too keen, with higher starting loads/mileage relative to previous running experience. Entry level running volume for first year runners is somewhere between 15-30 km per week. The reality is we see injuries with volumes at even less. So a true beginner with very little running history might start with weekly mileage as low as 5-10km, and that is completely okay.
- “I need to be ready”: Most novices are progressing mileage too quickly. Often people will program their running backwards from a scheduled event that they locked themselves in to as a means to motivate themselves. What eventuates is a ‘race against the clock’ situation and trying to force tissue adaptation that in reality only time, structure and consistency can deliver.
- “I run when I can”: This is the structure. Coming in with an ad-hoc and random approach to training loads around your already busy life schedule can create peaks and troughs (spikes and dips) that if too great are difficult for the body to respond to favourably.
Additional to this, a classic “weekend warrior loading” pattern often exists. Most people have time to burn on the weekends and it becomes the most obvious opportunity for a long run, which often accounts for a significant portion of the weekly mileage.
Example:
- Monday: 3 km
- Wednesday: 4 km
- Saturday: 7 km
The long run constitutes 50% of the weekly volume. Most Clinicians use 30-35% as a recommended maximum.
- “I’m always in the hurt-locker”: Training intensity is a significant factor influencing training load. A lot of new runners feel the need to make training ‘hard’ or just operate close to their threshold for extended periods. The majority of your runs, particularly whilst you are establishing a training base, should be done at low intensities; 70-80% of sessions at an rating of perceived exertion of 2-4 on a 10 point scale.
During easy runs, runners should be able to:
- speak in full sentences
- breathe comfortably
- maintain the pace for long periods without excessive fatigue
Additionally, training with the idea of bettering a previous time, every time, is not a sensible or sustainable approach. It inevitably leads to increasing session difficulty, more system stress and fatigue, and ultimately, injury.
3️. Running economy and mechanics
Novice runners usually have poorer running economy. Running economy = oxygen cost at a given speed.
Studies consistently show that:
- Less experienced runners use more energy at the same pace
- They have greater muscle co-contraction; and are subsequently burning more fuel, creating more metabolites
- They are less efficient in force production and energy return
Why this matters for injury
If a runner is less economical, they fatigue earlier. Across a number of sports, fatigue is a significant risk factor for all types of injury. It’s why we see more injuries (muscle strains, ligament sprains and even concussion) at the back end of games (acute fatigue), and the back end of seasons (chronic fatigue). Across the board, there is strong evidence that fatigue causes altered movement patterns, which increases tissue stress. And our novice runners are more susceptible.
- they fatigue earlier
- fatigue alters movement patterns
- altered mechanics increase local tissue stress
Fatigue induces or exposes a number of biomechanical deficiencies:
- Overstriding – causing increased braking force and higher ground reaction forces
- Reduced cadence – reduced steps/minute and running efficiency
- Reduced neuromuscular control – poor calf capacity, weakness of the hip abductors and excessive hip drop.
Whilst these issues by themselves may not cause injury, when combined with training stress, they can lead to tissue loading that exceeds a pain threshold (eg. patellofemoral pain) and potentially even a mechanical threshold; the tissue ‘lets go’ and fails (e.g. stress fractures).
This concept throws back to the same notion that the large majority of runs should be easy. It opens the door to discuss the importance of sleep and nutrition for adequate recovery as well as a multitude of rabbit holes we can dive down to improve running efficiency.
Key Take-aways from Part I:
Most running injuries in beginners aren’t bad luck, they’re predictable and preventable.
Respect progression – Load management is significant and structure beats motivation.
Prioritise consistency over intensity – Build your load tolerance slowly and keep the majority of runs easy.
Part II will cover in more detail load management and provide real examples from real clients who have been injured and gone on to crush their goals.