Not Looking Where You’re Going

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/health/nutrition/19best.html

If anyone has ever run track and come across and injury, it is not uncommon to hear the coaches and trainers telling you that you should try to run on "softer ground", meaning grass and trails. Whether or not this tale has any truth behind it, I never knew. So when I came across this article it immediately caught my attention. Dr. Tanaka was saying that he could not find any scientific evidence that running on softer ground was beneficial to runners. When I injured my leg last year, my coaches where always telling me that I should run on softer ground until my leg healed. However I could never see any logic behind this, it seemed to me that running on disheveled surfaces could not have any effect on the seriousness of my condition regardless of how "soft the grass" was. In the article Dr. Tanaka used the examples of how he was recovering from a knee injury and had started to run on grass and dirt, and it was because of the new terrain that he twisted his ankle and aggregated his knee injury. I found this example to be ridiculous. It was not the grass and dirt that caused him to twist his ankle but his own was carelessness. I cannot tell you how many times I have run on asphalt and straight smooth surfaces and twisted my ankle. It's not something that can be blamed on running on soft terrain, but something that can be blamed on being careless and unobservant. I am not saying that softer terrains are good for your injuries, but any new injury that results from the new surface extenDs form "not looking here you're going." So while I believe that running on softer surfaces cannot have any positive effects on your injury, I also believe that negative ones branch from a lack of concentration.
-Sinead Brennan