Is it a Niggle?

The September issue of Runner's World had a feature on the six Americans who ran the marathon in the Olympics last month - Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Adbi Adbirahman, Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, and Desiree Davila.  They talked about training, motivation, injury prevention, racing, and nutrition.  They listed mistakes they had made, along with lessons learned in past races.

Under Injury Prevention, Kara Goucher had this to say:

Classify Your Pain
Niggle is a big word in the running world.  We all have these little niggles here and there.  Maybe the back of your knee is sore, because you tweaked it somehow.  Or your hip is sore, because you did squats in the weight room.  Something that carries on for two, three, even four days, that's okay.  But for something that goes beyond that time frame, or that is causing you to run differently?  That's not a niggle, that's an injury.

I've definitely got a niggle going on this week.  I stepped off the curb funny on Monday and haven't had a good run since.  My weekly mileage will show that tomorrow.  I'm just trying to keep my niggle from turning into a full blown injury...