Injured!?

I made it through my Fall running season. I even made it throught a rainy, windy cold marathon that was as the newspaper termed it "on one of the 5 best sleeping in days all year".

Worse than the rain, cold or wind was the fact that my pace was no where near what I wanted to run for that race. I thought it was the cold or the rain--it turns out I was injured. Somehow, maybe out of sheer cussedness, I finished the marathon. I think it really was because I thought that it would take longer for someone to come and get me and take me back to the start than it would for me to gimp on in.

I thought I was tough--maybe I was--maybe I was kind of stupid too. I amaze myself at my capacity for denial when it comes to my own body. I am one of the first people to encourage someone to go to the doctor or PT, but apparently the last to go when it is my own issue.

After the race, I could hardly walk. I knew my feet had issues, I blamed the cold and the miles. I blamed myself and the fact that I missed about 5 runs out of my training schedule.

Basically all the injuries I had been trying to ignore came to their worst during the race. My feet felt horrible, my legs cramped, my piriformis screamed--thankfully the cold was my ally and I couldn't feel much of this during the race. This literally brought me to my knees and I reached out to get help feeling better for my next marathon.

I'm glad to say that finally I'm getting the injury treatment I need. I'm finding help for all of my issues and realized that they had been plaguing me all season if I had bothered to listen. I said that I was tired, or started out too fast--really my body was trying to ask for help.

Often I'm scared to go in for an injury because I think I'm going to be told that I shouldn't run or that I need surgery. I turns out I need some deep tissue massage and orthotics--maybe a heel lift too. I'll write more about the specifics of my injuries on my personal blog later.

I didn't need to tough out my pain, I didn't need to wait, I needed to make an appointment. If you have a nagging pain, something you really don't think is that bad--make an appointment!

Life Gets in the Way

It seems like whatever race season I pick, life gets in my way

I have a job that requires occasional late evening work. Usually I like this because I can use it to have flexibility with some other areas of mylife--a late evening can make a short Friday, for example.

Sometimes though, I end up on a stress project where you are working 12+ hour days, evenings and you hope and pray that your weekend stays free. This happened to me last month--right at peak marathon milage!

I did the best I could, but the lack of sleep, stress and long hours took their toll. I did my 16 miler--my Father In Law came to town--there was a weekend with no rest!

I couldnt' do my track workout with my group, so I did it on my own. I missed the rest of the runs that week due to work and more work, plus the needs of my family. I did my 18 miler which was pretty good, but had horrible leg cramps during the run.

I worked through the next week, staggering through the track workout on my own again. Once again I missed all my cross training and runs for that week, started getting sick too. The 20-22 miler was up for that week--I ran it by myself and suffered in the nearly 90 degree heat for the last 10 miles--I did 21 and walked the last 1.

I like running because I learn a lot about myself. This time I learned that I have to accept what I get and I can't always just push my way through training. I also learned that I really hate missing dinner with my husband and daughter in order to get my run done. I would fix dinner for them and then nearly be in tears as I headed out the door. I knew there was no way that I could do speedwork after dinner, so I did this--I hope I don't have to do it again.

I'm finally feeling better, just in time for my marathon. I guess what I want to say is that this happens--usually at the worst possible time--and that you do the best you can.