General Joint Stress

[swoosh]

Lots of the events in track and field put stress on your joints. I'm a little worried about the effects of this when I'm old. While I obviously am not going to stop competing I'm wondering if there are things I can do now to keep it from getting out of hand.

[Spikes]

The only things that I can think of are to wear good training shoes that will help to absorb the shock, and to make sure that your muscles are as well conditioned as possible. The muscles themselves will help reduce the shock, and so having them strong is going to help.

[grasshopper]

Definitely making sure you are getting good support from your shoes and not over training or pushing yourself past your endurance level. And stopping when you are injured. Alot of people with chronic pain seem to have been injured and not stopped or stayed of it long enough to completely heal.