Interesting.

The only thing that would worry me a bit is that border between going ahead and continue working out and havind to stop. For me the "extreme hurt" thing before realy stoping is maybe way past the point I would want to stop.

I always run on "tired/hurt" legs. It's normal to do and ok if you listen to the body. Hard and slow patterns I think are best. After a hard days run I followup with a light day. This has allowed me to raise my mileage fast from 40km/wk to over 75km/wk somewhat consistantly in addition to the regular biking >250km/week. The slow thing run thing is interesting after a hard workout.

Here is what a 3-time kona finisher and doc told me on my blog:

"......recovery runs, when kept very easy are like a massage on the legs. Open up channels and collateral vessels which helps clear out remaining toxins from muscle breakdown (micro breakdown, on a cellular level). Studies have shown the the maximal muscular damage occurs 12-36 hours after the completion of a long workout or race. Blood CPK values (a measure of muscle breakdown) peak around 24 hours AFTER a long run/marathon.

Additionally, the light stimulation on the muscles/tendons will help re-set the golgi tendon organ in each muscle. This leads to the muscle being re-calibrated to a more relaxed base level, which is why this stuff seems to loosen you up. Yeah, recovery runs and rides are important for preparing for the next key workout."

BTW, the golgi tendon senses muscle tension and the rate of change of muscle tension.

Great article and I absolutely agree...Have kept moving everytime I've been injured and it works...and slow recovery workouts are a blessing I think...How many folks you know who always go hard even in their "Easy" workouts? How long are they around?

I think the overall attitude of the article is good, it means that orthopedists are looking how to best heal an injury and are actually listening to patients a little bit more. I've been to orthopods who are overweight and obviously don't understand exercise and tell you to take 2 months off and come back then if it's not better. To me that pretty much means the doc isn't listening and is taking the easy way out. Obviously the important thing is that it isn't always the correct approach and to be able to truly heal you have to be able to listen carefully to your body; but staying as active as possible during recover can not only help you recover faster, but it can also help to prevent other injuries when one returns to full time training.

I had a pinched nerve in my lower left lumbar spine and was in immense pain when I bent at the waist (couldn't sit for more than 10 minutes) and because of that then all my surrounding muscles started tightening and spasming. I discovered a week later that I could actually run comfortably and would start to feel better for hours at a time afterwards. My PT I was working with this loved it, and had me run to warm up right before I saw her, so that I could be warmed up enough to get some mobility in the area and it could help her stretch me out and do more exercises. I would notice on the days I didn't run that I would be extremely stiff all day and feel worse, so I started walking, running or swimming every day and I think this took a large chunk off of my recovery time. So I definitely understand the opening paragraph of the article.

I think the CTS article makes a valid point about the NSAIDS. If you're running with an injury you want to make sure to keep in touch with the level pain and not mask it, something that could potentially aggravate the injury and make it worse.

I think finally it all depends on the severity of the injury and how well you interpret what your body is telling you before deciding to run hurt. Then too, there are some injuries, like AT, that you just don't want to mess with and should take the time off.