[Marc Vaughan]

I know there are a fair few decent runners here - I'm having real problems balancing my running with my love of playing soccer.

I've done a few (3?) half marathons and one marathon in the last year and was up to what I'd consider a decent pace for shorter races (5k's circa 8 min miles and 10k's sub 10) but have dropped off (now down by a minute or so a mile on my pace last year) largely because this year my soccer seasons haven't had a break because I've been organizing pick up games between seasons ...

This is great as I love soccer, but I'm finding I'm picking up minor knocks and strains a lot - I run 3-4 times a week (currently just 2-3 miles a throw most times with the occassional 5-6 miler thrown in) and play soccer twice a week for between 1-2 hours, any ideas as to how to encourage my body to accept this abuse more easily or should I just accept that the two aren't overly compatible ...