No matter what type of injury you could get while training, whether it's to your foot, ankle, knee, or hip, Dr. Steinberg said it's a good idea to see an orthopedist who specialises in sports medicine if possible. "There's a lot of nonoperative sports medicine physicians, which would be a good place to start as well," he noted.
Injuries such as the ones Dr. Steinberg mentioned earlier are typically treated with periods of rest, anti-inflammatories, and, most of the time, physical therapy. "Because usually there's a cause for these things whether someone's tight somewhere or there's a muscle imbalance of some sort that usually can be addressed," he said. "A lot of runners fall into a cycle where they'll train, have recurring plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendonitis, do a little bit of therapy, and do some anti-inflammatories. It goes away, but they don't address what the ultimate cause is."
Shin splints are especially troublesome because it's repetitive microtrauma, Dr. Steinberg said. The area is weakened, so if you do too much, then it could become a true break or a stress fracture. Make sure you go get checked out if you suspect you have shin splints. Overdoing it will only make matters worse and could cause you to miss your big marathon day altogether.
Dr. Steinberg explained that he typically doesn't like to prevent people from doing what they enjoy — he wants them to go back to running! If an injury isn't harmful, he'll let them run, but if the injury interferes with running and, for example, there's a significant limp, he'll have them take a break since there's a higher risk of getting worse or damageing some other body part. He'll mainly suggest anti-inflammatories, physical therapy, and sometimes cortisone or other types of injections. It depends on the injury and how long you might have until your marathon, but talk to your doctor about appropriate treatment plans and what to do moving forward.