Sep 21st, 2017
Good Morning,
I was wondering if you would be able to point me in the right direction,
I am currently training for the London Marathon 2018 – I have been training
for a few months now and noticed that a couple of times when I am completing
a ‘longish’ run (the longest I’ve done so far is 7.5 miles) after a certain
amount of miles, I start getting a pain in my left shoulder blade area.
It feels like trapped wind or something like that. Sometimes it’s not painful
enough that I have to slow down or stop but I notice it and have to move my
shoulder around a little bit to ease it up, other times it has been quite
painful but I can still run through it if that makes sense.
Is this something I need to worry about?
Do you think I need to contact my doctor or get a massage or something?
As I say it doesn’t happen on every run, it happened to me last night but
other than that I hadn’t felt that for a few months?
Any advice you have would be appreciated 🙂
Thanks
Charlotte
Sep 21st, 2017
Morning
This is one of the most poorly managed type of running injuries – and it absolutely shouldn’t be.
First up – where you feel it, isn’t anywhere near the issue comes from!
As you start to run distance and fatigue sets in, your running form alters. You start leading more with your chin as your heavy head over takes your body and your thoracic spine stiffens as you breath deeper and longer.
The pain your feel in (behind) your shoulder blade is when a nerve becomes irritated in your neck because you poke your chin out and bounce on it as your run.
You need to do a few things.
Improve your thoracic mobility, especially pre run. Improve your running strength (you should have a decent lunge/squat program). Improve your running form (see a run coach!). Don’t be lead by your chin – run chest up (not out or stiff) relax your shoulders and reach your arms forward. Run quiet – try a few runs without headphones and try to make as little running noise (foot impact) as poss. Make sure your work station (or where you spend the majority of your day) is optimised.
You’ve got plenty of time to train smart – so well done. This is super simple to over come, now you know the cause of it.
Happy running
