What if you suddenly had twice the time to train? What would you do? Not to be a downer, but you’d probably get injured.
That was the consensus among a group of four leading sports podiatrists I had the privilege of interviewing on their RPM2 podcast last week. Matt Werd of Florida Foot and Ankle says he’s seen more than the usual stress fractures, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendon issues and the like since the start of the pandemic. “People have been stuck at home, not going to work, so they had an extra hour or two of not commuting,” Werd says. “Not only people who never exercised, even people who were seasoned, experienced—now they had time to train more, go faster, do new things. They took the opportunity to train harder, do more.”
Of course we are training more—not only do we now have the time we’ve always wanted, but we have this huge level of stress that demands we act. Runners know how to use those stress hormones: we go harder.