Getting injured and building up
Full disclosure, I’m terrible at this sort of thing, and working to be better about consistent writing.
It’s been an interesting couple of months. While training for the Rock and Roll Marathon - Nashville, I incurred a fibula stress reaction at the end of September. It didn’t hurt, but threw off my trajectory for running in that event. Given the 2020 event was postponed AND THEN went virtual, I wanted to do everything in my power to run it. After receiving the official diagnosis, I went to a Physical Therapist to identify weak spots in my form and design a plan for tackling the event. Around the same time I picked up a Trek Domane AL2 to maintain / build fitness while my leg recovered. While it wasn’t easy, these were some of the best training days and weeks of my 6 years running!
Race Day
Once race day came along, I was nervous. Even after talking with a buddy about it, I knew that it was going to be hard and a challenge. What marathon isn’t a challenge?! On top of everything else, I didn’t have my watch, headphones, or phone the entire event. That was a wild experience, because I had not done electronic-free running in months. I won’t lie and say it was easy, but it was a truly wonderful experience! I got lost in the action of moving and paid careful attention to how my body handled the miles and pacing. It definitely helped to have runners to pace along the way and talk about our journey to that starting line.
What I’ve learned
| State | |
|---|---|
| Being injured | Sucks |
| Being injured before a major event | Double sucks |
| Not knowing how to cope with both | Even worse…? |
It was a huge adjustment after getting injured. Not only was I struggling with “Am I going to be able to run in November?” and “What do I do now that I’m injured?”, but also adjusting my personal expectations. Looking back, and leading up to the race, I realized SO mauch of my worth as a runner was placed into my speed / performance vs just having fun. Running without all the electronics helped solidify that and I’m grateful for it!
No matter what stage of life you’re in, always remember: dig into the process and settle into the effort. Performance will grow with time and you’ll appreciate it even more in the end.