If you're gonna be a trail runner expect that at some point you are going to get hurt. How you manage that injury will help or hinder just how well you get better as a trail runner. I've learned this lesson several times over and finally learned to listen to my body.

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So how do you deal with an injury? What is an injury? I'll be honest, my first running injury I didn't call an injury. My groin just hurt and I didn't know why. I remember I wasn't able run for a day or two and then I was right back at it. If I had known then what I know now, I would have taken a much more focused approach. But even with my next injury, which ended up being a biggie I still had little to no idea what was going on just that I had some sort of pain that kinda went away while running.

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So what I've learned from that injury has served me well with all my others. First, at the first sign of pain, slow down. What I mean by that is do less miles, do slower miles, do some other activity that doesn't cause the pain; or do some combination of these. It takes 7 days for fitness levels to start dropping, so you won't be loosing any fitness if you take a little time off. If it is longer than 7 days switch activities drop back or stop running and do something else. It becomes this idea of you can pay a little now or you can pay a lot more later. So take a break!

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When taking a break doesn't work get a professional involved. Find a doctor and or a physical therapist who you can work with. Find one who doesn't think running is a bad thing and doesn't think doing a lot of miles is a bad thing either. Finding one can take a while. I've had a chronic pain injury for about 5 years. I went through 3 different doctors, first one just wanted me to get a shot of cortisol and buy inserts and didn't want to problem solve.  Next came the one who x-ray and found 2 different issues referred me to a physical therapist only after the meds they gave me didn't fix the problem wasting about 1 1/2 to 2 years. Fours years into this injury I finally found a doctor who didn't think I was crazy and began to offer solutions as well as telling me, such that I understood it, what was going on. From here I got better and in less than 6 months from that meeting I'm running pain free for the first time in 5 years. So find folks to work with who want to keep you running. I now have a doctor who specializes in running injuries and a physical therapist who is all about keeping me moving that I trust. 

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My biggest injury has been called 'insertional Achilles tendenosis' basically where my Achilles attaches to my heal was starting to come a part. I've been dealing with this for about 5 years. I learned about the Alfredson Protocol which deals with loading the calf muscles with the goal of making it bigger/longer. I took 12 weeks off from running, started going to the gym to keep my fitness up, got a personnel trainer to help me with my running form and started doing the Alfredson Protocol.  By the end of the 12 weeks I was nearly pain free and I've continued with the protocol now nearly 6 months later I'm 95% pain free. If I had know what was going on 5 years ago there's a chance I wouldn't have this bump on my heal from my body having to repeatedly try to repair itself with out resting.

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My other big injury has been from rolling an ankle. Most of the time a little roll doesn't slow me down, but I've had a couple of ringers that force me to take some time off from running and walking, like a week or two. But I did take the time off and ended up stronger because of it. I started doing near daily ankle work to keep them strong. 

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Recently I strained my adductors such that I wasn't able to finish a run. So at this point I've learned my lesson and I took 2 days off, searched for adductor strain stretches and started into getting back to running. I cut my miles totally off from running for 2 weeks, but took a 3 mile walked nearly every day. I cut my monthly miles almost in half. After 3 weeks I slowly started to add running back into my workouts. By the 6 week mark I'm basically back to my previous mileage. 

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Lesson to learn, take the time to heal up and get help when you can't figure it out!