I recently got a great question from a runner in San Francisco.

“I just want to make sure that I’m not heading for an over training injury and want to make sure to reduce the inflammation. When I have soreness following a hard workout, should I apply ice?”

Overtraining injuries happen because you have too much tissue damage, and not enough healing of that injured tissue before your next workout.

If you want to make sure you never get an over training injury all you have to do is make sure that all of your soreness completely subsides before you do your next workout. Obviously that just makes sense. But it’s also an absolute impossibility for any training endurance athlete.

I would be willing to bet that almost all actively training and racing endurance athletes are almost always in some state of soreness. You’re going to be stiff. You’re going to be achy. That’s a normal consequence of the normal tissue damage sustained during a workout. You’re always going to be healing and recovering. That’s part of getting stronger.

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about whether or not a runner should apply ice to treat soreness.