>College & High School track teams are full of athletes who
>overtrain and either hurt themselves or their ability to
>perform.

College and High School track teams are more full of athletes who undertrain due to a fear of overtraining and never reach their full potential. I was one of them, and I wasted the best years I had worrying about injuring myself. I never got injured, but I did become the smartest training slow guy you'll ever meet. You can't burn out until you catch fire.

Run everyday, twice a day, for 30 days. Doing this made me realize how silly my standards were for taking days off - they were almost entirely a product of me reasoning my way out. People say "listen to your body" - but if you've never really tested your body over a longer period of time, you can't really know what it's saying to you. I prefer to group injuries into the repititive use variety and the sudden, catastrophic variety. The latter is unpredictable and momentary and therefore has no genuine relation to the amount of time and frequency you spend training. The former shows up in signs before a real problem and is therefore predictable, and I think an obvious correlary to what I suggested is that if you're getting injured, stop running.

These injuries are also easily preventable - don't stretch until you've gone a few miles and avoid statis stretching as much as possible. Monitor your shins, knees and ankles particularly areas that have been problems in the past. If pain is specific and repetitive - then you've got a problem and you should take a day off.

The threat of shin splints is always present. I live in the city, so this is impossible, but anytime people can run on grass or unpaved trails, they should take advantage of that opportunity. Also, to prevent shin splints, at least five nights a week, drop a few pencils on the floor and pick them up with your toes. Do this with both feet several times. Some people like to use marbles, but my toes aren't that agile. The nice thing is that this takes about fifteen minutes and you can do it at home, on the phone, reading, while you're on the TV, etc.

After 30 days, people can genuinely listen to their bodies without their big brains getting in the way.