Whether you’re chasing a PB, gunning for a comeback, or finally ready to see what you’re made of, the last thing you want is to be sidelined. I won’t sugar-coat it: training smart is just as important as training hard.

Injuries might happen in trainings, but if you follow our advice it will decrease the likelihood of it happening during your training. Here are a few tips on how to stay injury free.

Injuries happen sometimes. It may mean that you have to miss your race & stop running for a period of time, but it doesn’t always mean that you have to stop completely and lose all the progress you have made. Here are tips to help you overcome injury.

Want to run strong and stay injury-free? Discover the 5 biggest factors in running injury prevention — backed by research and coaching experience — and how to apply them to your own training.

Do you have “cheat days”? Cheat days (and cheat meals) are incredibly popular. The idea behind them, if you’re not familiar, is to eat healthy most of the time, say, 6 days a week, and avoid “treats” – like chips, fast food, desserts, alcohol, soda, or any number of “bad” foods. Then you allow yourself to have all the foods that you crave one day a week.

Do you have “cheat days”? Cheat days (and cheat meals) are incredibly popular. The idea behind them, if you’re not familiar, is to eat healthy most of the time, say, 6 days a week, and avoid “treats” – like chips, fast food, desserts, alcohol, soda, or any number of “bad” foods. Then you allow yourself to have all the foods that you crave one day a week.