I get asked all the time if it is normal to feel pain when running, especially longer distances. This whole question is loaded and has a nuanced response to the each individual and their reason for asking. The short answer is no, you shouldn’t feel pain when running, but it is no uncommon to feel pain or discomfort sometimes when running. “When running longer distance” is very specific to the individual, because what might seem like long distance to one person, might be a warm up to another. We must assess the pain or discomfort when running specifically to one’s self and diagnose what hurts and why is it hurting. Learning to identify warning signs can help us avoid major pain and even injury.
Pain vs. Discomfort
The distinction between pain and discomfort is difficult to distinguish or explain. The best I can come up with is, discomfort is a feeling of generalized abnormality. You can continue what you are doing but it just doesn’t feel like you are performing movements efficiently, hence making it feel uncomfortable. Pain has a specific point at which you feel you can’t continue the movement or you must adjust your mechanics to complete it. Whether it be when your foot lands or at toe-off, sometimes it can be during the leg swing, the difference is you can describe an exact moment and location of where you feel tightness, shooting, burning, etc.
Discomfort is often related to issues such as fatigue, sore-muscles, or over-training, These types of discomfort often dissipate as the body warms up, but sometimes can manifest into whole body and emotional/psychologival exhaustion. Pain is typically sharp, not always bilateral, and often-times can progress with increased activity. Understanding the difference between these two sensations can help you improve your training and decrease your risk of real injury.
How should you handle discomfort?
While i did mention above that duscomfort is mostly due to fatigue, soreness, and over-training and does not directly reflect a high risk for injury, we can still listen to what the body is telling you. If you feel the discomfort decrease after warming up and your movement isn’t greatly affected, then I wouldn’t be worried. If you are out for a run and you feel discomfort for the duration of your run, then you should assess as to why you might feel this way. For example, if you feel discomfort in the achilles, think about your training protocol. Have you increased your mileage recently? Are you doing to many “fast” miles? have you changed your shoes recently? if you changed shoes and have switched to a less-stable shoe which directs your footstrike toward the forefoot, your calves will be working much harder, which can put too much pressure on the achilles. While there is no injury, these warning signals might be telling you to take a day or two off, decrease the rate at which youre increasing your mileage, and practice more self-myofascial release(Foam rolling.
What to do about pain?
If you’re experiencing sharp, immediate, or abrupt moments of pain, you may need to address this quickly so it doesn’t become something worse. There are many different forms of injuries related to endurance running. Nerve pathology can occur, bursitis, stress fractures, tendinitis, shin splints, among others can be caused by over-usage, undeveloped muscles, poor-fitting or old footwear, and poor running gait. If you are feeling pain, you will want to take a break for a few days, if the pain doesn’t subside, then you need to be assessed by a professional trainer, therapist, or running coach who has experience working with injuried athletes. After being assessed, it is best to remember that any exercises or stretches that are prescribe to you are not only for resolving injury, but also for preventing the injury to happen again in the future.
What it all means
As a coach, i want my athletes to truly understand the distinction between these two feelings. During training, I want runners to become comfortable with being uncomfortable because that will lead to positive adaptations. Heart and breath rate elevation can create discomfort, along with heavy and tight legs, sore feet, etc. Working through these will lead to better endurance, speed, and overall performance. Training through pain can lead to major injuries like stress fractures, articular cartilage damage, and neuropathy. these are long term injuries which can be difficult to recover from without medical intervention.