Published April 8, 2026 · Updated April 14, 2026
Running the Bayview Ravine and Y&L: the 3 biomechanical errors that cause injury
Endura Chiropractic · Lawrence Park, Toronto
The Bayview Ravine trail system is one of the best runs in North Toronto. From the Alexander Muir Gardens down through the ravine to Pottery Road, you’ve got elevation change, soft surface, and enough tree cover to make a February run bearable. The problem is that the same features that make it a good run also make it a common source of injury — especially for runners who’ve built their base on flat pavement.
I’m at Yonge & Lawrence. This is my neighbourhood. I know the routes, I know the hills, and I know the injury patterns that come from them.
Here are the three biomechanical errors I see most often in Lawrence Park runners — and what’s actually happening when the knee, heel, or IT band starts talking.
1. Descending without hip control
“Dr. Devon Savarimuthu, DC, CSCS, says: ‘Most IT band injuries on trail runs aren’t about the IT band — they’re about what the hip isn’t doing on the descent. Fix the glute, and the lateral knee stops screaming.’”
The Bayview Ravine descent from Lawrence Avenue is steep and uneven. On a road, your braking force is absorbed over a longer stride. On a trail descent, it concentrates quickly — and it lands on the lateral knee if your hip abductors aren’t doing their job.
What goes wrong: The glute medius can’t control how the thigh rotates on the way down. The IT band picks up the load instead. After 20–30 minutes of this, the outside of the knee is on fire.
What it’s not: An IT band flexibility problem. Foam rolling the IT band doesn’t change the hip’s ability to control load. The tissue that hurts is the passenger.
What the fix looks like: Strengthening the glute medius in the exact position it breaks down — hip bent, thigh moving inward. Not clams. Not bridges. The patterns that transfer to running.
2. Heel-striking on an uphill
The Alexander Muir Gardens to Lawrence segment and the Yonge Street hill up from Bloor are both places where heel-striking becomes expensive. Most runners who train on flat roads have a heel-dominant foot strike. On an incline, that strike pattern reverses the ankle’s natural shock absorption and drives load into the Achilles and calf chain.
What goes wrong: The Achilles absorbs more load per stride than it was conditioned for. Plantar fascia tension increases because the calf never fully lengthens through the stride. Medial tibial stress (shin splints) follows in runners with high training loads.
What it’s not: Just a shoe problem, though minimalist runners can make this worse. It’s a combination of foot strike, calf eccentric capacity, and training load that accumulates over several weeks.
What the fix looks like: A combination of calf eccentric loading to build tendon resilience, and stride mechanics work that shortens ground contact time on inclines. Most importantly: a structured load management plan that doesn’t try to fix everything in one run.
3. Overstriding on flat sections
The Y&L neighbourhood routes — Yonge south from Lawrence, any of the streets east into Leaside — tend to be fast and flat. Fast and flat is where overstriding shows up. The runner extends their lead foot out in front of their body’s centre of mass to reach for more speed. The heel hits the ground in front of their hip, and the knee takes the braking force.
What goes wrong: Every time the heel lands in front of the hip, the knee takes the braking force. Over a 10K that’s thousands of those impacts. Runner’s knee (patellofemoral pain syndrome) is the result — pain at the front of the knee that’s worst on downhills or stairs.
What it’s not: A knee problem. The knee is where the pain is. The driver is foot strike relative to hip position.
What the fix looks like: Cadence work. A 5–10% increase in stride rate (steps per minute) typically reduces overstriding without any conscious mechanics change. It’s one of the few running gait interventions with consistent research support. (Heiderscheit et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2011)
What to do when a trail injury doesn’t resolve in a week
Most acute running injuries will calm down with a few days off. If the pain is still present at 7–10 days, or if it’s returned in the same spot after previously resolving, that’s the signal that the biomechanical pattern hasn’t been identified or addressed.
The Bayview Ravine will still be there in four weeks. Getting a structural diagnosis before the spring race season builds further is a better use of that four weeks than hoping it resolves on its own.
Related reading
If you’re a Lawrence Park or North York runner dealing with a recurring injury:
View our running injury page or call directly — you’ll speak with Dr. Devon, not a receptionist.
(647) 951-5841
Dr. Devon Savarimuthu, DC, CSCS is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (since 2015) and Doctor of Chiropractic at Endura Chiropractic, 3440 Yonge St, Lawrence Park, Toronto. He leads the Endura Community Run — a free weekly run for patients and neighbours in the neighbourhood.
Clinically Reviewed
By Dr. Devon Savarimuthu, DC, CSCS
Doctor of Chiropractic and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist at Endura Chiropractic in Lawrence Park, Toronto. Last updated April 14, 2026.
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