Injuries are a part I hadn't thought about. Common injuries in that part of the body are: shin splints, achilles issues, plantar fasciitis, calf pull, compartme

Injuries are a part I hadn't thought about. Common injuries in that part of the body are: shin splints, achilles issues, plantar fasciitis, calf pull, compartment syndrome, and stress fractures. I know of at least two athletes for each injury who have either missed training time, an entire season or a career. Injuries are incredibly common in track and field: and make no mistake, there is no emotional-movie-style strength that allows an athlete to overcome their injury due to sheer force of will. Track and field is an 100% sport: if you aren't at 100%, you aren't going to win. A lot of the sport is managing and preventing injury, especially at the elite level. While I would reason that "upper leg" injuries like hamstring, glute, hip and quad pulls are more damning and common than "lower leg" injuries (especially among men), and that upper body injuries like arms and abdomen are nearly unheard of, being able to write off an entire class of injuries is a huge bonus. I also didn't mention strength over time benefits: the ability to have a consistent power output of a critical part of your stride (the toe push) that is unaffected by fatigue is very helpful.