Make these tips your running bible to guide you in 2026.

Here we have provided a no nonsense and evidenced based guide to running faster with reduced injury risk. Read our running tips now.

1. Follow the 80/20 rule, keeping 80% of your running miles EASY conversational pace. The 20% higher intensity is so over rated and risky and is the icing on the cake not the cake! 
2. Strength train to reduce your risk of injury by 50% and increase time to exhaustion by a whopping 35% after 90 mins of running (more to follow on this!) 
3. Seek help early with any niggles; it usually means that you can continue to train at the same time as treating the problem
4. When life stress goes up intensity should go down. Life stress reduces your ability to recover so stick to the 80% easy runs until the stressful period is over
5. Factor in a de-load week every 5/6 weeks especially if you have frequent niggles AND if you are prone to bone stress injury. 
6. Don’t increase volume and intensity at the same time. This always results in an injury. Volume creates fatigue due to the length of the runs, intensity takes your tissue extensibility to the extreme. Both need extra recovery from so doing both at the same time means you can’t recovery adequately.
7. Mix up running surfaces to stimulate different responses in your tissues as well as reduce overload in certain tissues
8. Rotate different brands of daily training shoes on a weekly basis for the same reasons as point 7 above, plus it helps them last longer. 
9. Struggling for time for strength training? Focus on the calf muscles which contribute a whopping 40% to forward momentum for running. In addition older athletes lose a huge amount of calf muscle strength with aging. 
10. Prioritise good quality and adequate amounts of protein to improve muscle and bone strength, improve recovery timeframes and reduce injury. A good easy rule of thumb is at least 1g per 1lb of body weight per day and ensure you spread this over the day to maximise recovery
11. There is an increased risk of tendon injury during the perimenopausal period as well as a whole host of factors that affect your running performance/injury risk. Don’t give up! This is the worst thing you can do. Seek help, do research into what you need to do to still run well
12. Prioritise sleep, this is really your No 1. Tried and tested evidence based method of recovery. It supersedes ALL training aids, expensive gadgets and recovery nutritional products
13. On any given time/day you run your most bio-mechanically efficient way to get the job done. If you want to change this, do the drills /mobility/strength work, DON’T try and quick win “hack” this by dramatically forcing a new style of running whilst running, this is a huge injury risk
14. If you have bladder, bowel or prolapse symptoms that are preventing you from running or reducing your ability to run, there is help available, DON’T STOP! Would you rather be the youngest in the nursing home OR the oldest at the gym/park run? Reducing your activity levels due to these symptoms will surely direct you down path A
15. Bi-annual lactate testing is not just for the elites; those with busy jobs, family life need to maximise each precious run and ensure it is purposefully working towards their goals and a lactate test. Elites have more time to waste, you don’t
16. If you wear carbon shoes which are very unstable then you should be strengthening your hip muscles, foot muscles to reduce an injury risk from a sprained ankle incident. You should also prioritise calf strength to ensure your calf muscles don’t become detrained from the increased energetic effect caused by the shoes themselves. 
17. If you have known imbalances from previous surgery, accident and injury or previous sports then having a gait analysis plus strength and mobility testing to provide a individualised S&C program is investment well spent for reducing injury risk and improving performance. 
18. Running requires around 15-20 degrees of hip extension (the leg moves behind the trunk), sitting based work is 8+ hours per day in 90 degrees hip flexion. That is a loss of good running mechanics of 110 degrees for 40+ hours per week. You NEED to activate your hip extensors and mobilise your hip flexors regularly to improve your running efficiency
19. If you have an occupation that is inherently unbalanced e.g., farmer/fork lift truck driver always rotating to one side, lorry shunter always using same foot to twist in/out of lorry 200+ per day, production line worker always twisting to one side then these will contribute to your body not being symmetrical whilst running and so exercises to bring you back into balance on a daily basis are crucial
20. If you do nothing else outside of running to reduce your injury risk then make it spending 7 mins doing a pre run warm up and activation routine for points 13, 17, 18 and 19. 

BOTTOM LINE Do not ignore this. If you have frequent niggles, your body is not coping with the training load placed on it. This could be too much training, not enough recovery, poor nutrition, poor shoe choice, too much life stress, faulty biomechanics and usually all of the these at the same time. Doesn’t matter how you try and justify this to yourself (everyone does this!) your body cannot cope and you have to do something to change this.

Following these tips should set you on your way for a healthier, faster running year! And if you need help, just get in touch.