Introducing Your Marathon Physio: Lucy Macdonald

Your marathon team physio, Lucy Macdonald shares how you can make the most of her support over the next few months and kicks off with her top three tips on how to avoid getting injured.

She mentions in this video that you can contact her directly on lucymacdonaldphysio@hotmail.co.uk, via this website (where you can also find lots of free running exercise videos) and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @octopusclinic.

If you have not yet received the handbook Your Marathon: Your Physio please drop her an email and she will sent it to you. If you are interested in the course of videos Your Marathon: Your Physio please click here. 

If you would like to watch her latest videos on please click on the following links: 

running shoes 

DIY training diary

Lucy’s favourite running exercise

Muscle strains and muscle pain

Why your tendon pain is not getting better (Achilles, Plantarfascia – sole of foot, Knee, Hip, Buttock, Hamstrings)

Plantarfascia pain – pain in the sole of your foot or heel, AKA plantarfascitis or plantarfasciopathy

Shin Splints

ITB pain – pain at the outside of the knee

I have a running injury, will I be able to run the marathon. With three months to go.

Hip and groin pain in runners

To book email lucy@octopusclinic.com, call 02075838288 or book online now. 

For more information you can use the search tool at the top of this page or go to check out our running exercise videos.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @octopusclinic.

If you are interested in the course of videos Your Marathon: Your Physio please click here. 

Video transcription:

Hi, I wanted to introduce myself, re-introduce myself to some of you which is great to see. I am Lucy Macdonald, your team physio, and I am here to support you over the next few months. Today I wanted to kick off with some top tips, my top 3 tips on how to avoid injury but before I do, I also wanted to let you know how you can make the most of my support over the next few months.

So, I have 20 years’ experience treating marathon runners and I’m really keen to make sure that all the knowledge that I’ve developed over the years I share with you to get you round your marathon and make sure that your marathon goals and dreams come true.

So, first of all, number 1 – make sure you get a pen and paper and you scribble down my email address. The email address that you’ll see on the bottom here is actually my personal email address lucymacdonaldphysio@hotmail.co.uk. If you forget you can always get in touch with me via my website Octopus Clinic. So that’s number 1. You can email me and I will give you free advice about your injury, tell you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. The second way is to read the Your Marathon Your Physio handbook that I’ve created. There is a month by month breakdown of all the questions that people have asked me over the years so I think you’ll find it really useful. So make sure you get your hands on that. Again, it’s completely free because you’re running for such a great cause. Now just as a little plea, please can you not share it with anyone, it is for you and your fellow charity runners. There is a lot of ? on there so I’d rather that you kept it to yourself and made the most of it yourself. Third thing is that I will be sharing videos every week at least once a week. At the beginning it will be more frequently, on various topics about avoiding injury and optimising your training, so follow me on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and then you can make sure you catch those videos. If you want them all in one place, I have created a little video course, again called Your Marathon Your Physio, so details about that below.

Right. top 3 tips on how to avoid injury in the next few months. Number 1 – make sure you put on your marathon training programme where you’re going to have time for your rest, recovery and sleep. So, having seen hundreds and hundreds of injured people, there’s a common theme, that’s that if people are not sleeping enough, not spending enough time on their recovery and rest then that’s when they become injured. So that’s number 1, I will be talking more about how you can optimise your recovery and rest throughout these videos, but by all means drop me an email if you want me to tell you more about that now. So number 1 – rest and recovery.

Number 2 – your runs should be about quality, not quantity. By that what I mean is don’t be really massively obsessed with distance, make sure that your runs are sort and sweet. One of the ways you can do that is with interval training. If you’re interested in that, again, there’s another whole video and section of the handbook on that. But again, get in touch if you want to know more about it now.

The third is to understand what’s good pain and what’s bad pain. Obviously the process of training can be uncomfortable and that’s because what we do is we damage our bodies very slightly and then our bodies adapt and become stronger and fitter and that process can be a bit uncomfortable. However, if we do too much of it, we end up getting injured and affecting our immune system and therefore getting ill and that’s obviously going to get in the way of you completing your training and your marathon. So, make sure that you can learn the difference between the two. If in doubt make sure you see a physio, I’m obviously going to say that because I want to make sure that what you’re doing is safe. There are certain injuries that may not be excruciatingly painful, but can carry risks with them. They are the tiniest minority of injuries, the vast majority of injuries you do not have to rest, you do not have to stop running ok? It is very unusual that if you come to see me, or one of my colleagues, it is very unlikely that we will ever tell you to stop running. What we will do is we will modify the way that you’re running, modify your training programme, give you some running drills, that kind of thing so that you’re able to continue running but running safely. So that’s really key. If you are ever told to stop running, either in terms of training or in terms of running the marathon itself, please make sure you contact me first and I will just double check to see if there’s any way that you can safely continue. It is all about safely getting you round that marathon in a few months’ time. You can do it. I’ll be here to support you with my team of merry physios and osteopaths and I very much look forward to seeing you next week.

Again, stay in touch, all the details at the bottom of this video and I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye!