Frequency of Injury and Illness in the Final 4 Weeks before a Trail Running Competition

Abstract

We aimed to (i) determine self-reported injury and illness frequency in trail runners 4 weeks preceding competition; (ii) compare athletes with and without injury/illness by sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and competition distance; (iii) describe mechanism of injury, anatomical region (injury)/organ system (illness) involved, consequences of injury on preparation and self-perception of injury severity; (iv) compare anatomical region (injury) and organ system (illness) by sex. A total of 654 trail runners (age 36.2, IQR 30.6–43.0; 36.9% females) participated in this retrospective cross-sectional study by completing a self-reported questionnaire. Injury and illness frequency rates were 31.3% (n = 205, CI:27.7–35.0%) and 22.3% (n = 146, CI:19.1–25.7%), respectively. No significant difference was found between injured vs. non-injured or ill vs. non-ill study participants by sex, age, BMI and competition distance. Regarding injuries, gradual onset (41.6%) and knee (33.2%) were the most indicated mechanism and anatomical region of injury. At least 85.4% of trail runners changed their training following injury and 79% indicated that their injury would affect their competition performance. Regarding illness, the respiratory tract was the most frequent organ system involved (82.9%). Male and female participants reported similar proportions of anatomical regions (injury) and organ systems (illness) affected. These results could help to generate education strategies and appropriate medical support before and during these competitions.

Lesiones en Trail Running, Cross-Country y Orientación: Una revisión sistemática (Trail Running, Cross-Country and Orienteering Injuries: A Systematic Review)

“…La rodilla fue uno de los lugares con mayor prevalencia para ambas modalidades. Para corredores de trail running, la rodilla ha sido la región más reportada entre las lesiones musculo-esqueléticas, en estudios como el de Hsu et al (2020) con un 38%; Gajardo et al (2021), con 34,9% en hombres y un 30% en mujeres; para Viljoen et al (2021aViljoen et al ( , 2021b con un 29,8% y un 26,5%, respectivamente. Datos coincidentes con estudios similares, que también se concluye que uno de los sitios más comunes de lesiones fue la rodilla (Van Gent et al, 2007;Viljoen et al, 2021c).…”

“…Las lesiones en parte inferior de la pierna ha de ser considerada en corredores de trail running, en donde se observa que la prevalencia varía de 8,6% (Krabak et al, 2011), hasta el 32% (Hsu et al, 2020). Por otro lado, el pie también ha sido un lugar común de lesión para corredores de trail running con valores similares, entre el 11% y 16% como indican Gajardo et al (2021), González et al (2021, Hespanhol et al (2017), Hsu, et al (2020) o Viljoen, et al (2021b. Los datos mostrados anteriormente sobre corredores de trail running, concuerdan con los reportados por corredores de cross-country y orientación, pues en cuanto a la región anatómica, los lugares de lesión más prevalentes en estas modalidades fueron la parte inferior de la pierna, rodilla, tobillo y pie.…”

“…En contraposición, en el estudio realizado por Marshall et al (2020), se observó que las partes del cuerpo lesionadas y los diagnósticos eran similares entre sexos, para crosscountry. En cambio, en otros estudios sobre corredores de trail running, como indican Gajardo et al (2021), no se encontraron diferencias significativas en lesionados y no lesionados por sexo, edad, IMC y distancia de competencia. No obstante, según Hsu et al (2020), los hombres demostraron un mayor riesgo de lesión en el muslo que las mujeres, así como los corredores con menor peso, respecto a los de mayor peso.…”

Injury Prevention, Safe Training Techniques, Rehabilitation, and Return to Sport in Trail Runners

“…The knee and ankle are the most common sites for overuse injury. 6 Cross-sectional data collected over four trail races revealed that of the total respondent pool, 22% had suffered ITB syndrome, 10% had Achilles tendon injury, 9% had hamstring injuries, and 7% had calf muscle injury over the last 12 months, with an additional 19% reporting chronic injuries to the knee and lower leg. 3 Among the 2019 SkyRace competitor pool, muscle/tendon accounted for 44.1% of tissue type injuries.…”

Mental Toughness and Resilience in Trail Runner’s Performance

“…Exercise benefits have been well described in past literature ( Spittler & Oberle, 2019 ) with agreement that exercise contributes favorably to the physiological, psychological, and social development of the human being ( Bostancı et al, 2019 ). Traditional recreational running is a very popular form of exercise around the world ( Waśkiewicz et al, 2019 ) creating positive lifestyles changes ( Gajardo-Burgos et al, 2021 ). Over recent years, there has been increasing interest in running longer distances ( Spittler & Oberle, 2019 ), probably due to modern societal demands to overcome adversities and challenges ( Goddard et al, 2019 ).…”