What jumps out at me is the number of those that are related to overuse or overdoing it... I'd say the biggest things to learn are moderation, the value of rest and recovery, and the importance of listening to your body. I don't know about you, but I hope to be in the 70+ age group someday :)

Just to give a personal perspective...

I always read your posts and it puts me in mind of how I was while in, and just after college. In short it was a time that I injured myself a lot (someday I'll have to post about the square that is seared into my leg from a hurdle), and always trying to come back too early and/or too much from injuries.

One of the biggest things I found that's helped me, is taking those extra 2-3 weeks after an injury and keeping them easy. I'v ehad doctors tell me time and again that the injury isn't healed once it stops hurting, it's getting to the point where I can truly finish healing as the inflammation, swelling, rubbing, whatever is reduced to a point where you don't notice it. At the same time your body has been used to dealing with pain that if you were starting with a fresh perspective, that pain would still be there.

Subconscious realization and ignorance....we get used to a pain threshold and anything under that threshold seems "normal" even when it isn't necessarily so.

Almost every injury I've had over the last 10 years have been overuse injuries. The hardest thing I found making myself do was simply taking time off and not doing *any* training. Play around in the pool, go on walks, ride a cruiser bike around with friends, but not train.

...and I don't mean a couple weeks. I'm talking about a good month or two. For Coeur d'Alene and the nagging knee injuries I made it six weeks...enough time that if I had a broken bone it would be healed, and I can be relatively sure that anything else is as well.

One of my big worries: what's my biking, swimming, running, etc going to be like after that time off? Is it a bit less than when I started my break...yeah. Have I already recovered to where I was running before simply because I'm running completely pain free, starting out at a lower mileage, and working my distance back up carefully...very much yes. I haven't had this much fun running in 2-3 years, simply because what I'm doing now is pain free.

Well, the universe is not without irony! After giving you a hard time about the thread name and saying how I haven't been injured in a long time I went out for a 5+ hour brick and woke up that night with a screaming IT band! :mad: Ow!

I'm on Aleve and rest as punishment for tempting fate.:)