Be smart

The key to success is to know when to pull back. I don’t like to admit when I can’t do something. It makes me feel vulnerable & not good enough. I believed that if I stopped (or slowed down), I would lose all of the gains I have made in training. I was stupid. I still am for that matter. I won’t lose my endurance overnight.

A few months back, I strained my hip flexor. I took a week or so off from running in the hopes it would heal because I had a race to run. Two days before the race, I couldn’t run more than ¼ mile. I decided to go to the race & see what happened. It turned out to be fine. My legs cooperated & I had a great race. As soon as I finished running, it tightened up. Of course, if I had been smart, I would have stopped after that & gone to the doctor because my entire leg was a bundle of knots. But no, I was still able to run & the tightness was only present after I stopped, so everything was fine in my book. Wrong! The hip flexor led to quad problems which tightened up my hamstrings and so on all through my left leg. After 2 weeks had passed, I was able to get in to see my massage therapist. That visit began the first of 4 hour long treatments on my left leg. You would think that I would have been smart & stopped running to let my leg recover. I cut back, but I never really let on to people (including my coach) just how much it hurt. At the end of January, I had the fourth treatment on my leg – acupuncture, stimulation, ultra sound & massage. I felt great! The next day I had a solid workout & was pain free. I thought everything was fine & I was ready to get back to training at full speed. As the days passed by, my leg started to tighten up again, but I chose to ignore it. In early March, I had reached a breaking point. Up to now, I was able to run but as soon as I stopped, my leg would tighten up. This time while I was running, I had problems. At the end of my run, I had some pain in my back. The next morning, it was challenging to walk. I felt like I had pulled a muscle on the right side of my back and I had issues with my right foot. What the hell had I done? So I made another appointment at the doctors.  Unfortunately, my therapist is always booked solid, so I made an appointment with my doctor & prayed for a cancellation.  I walked in the afternoon of my appointment & my therapist was sitting at the front desk. She had a cancellation & was able to see me. I was giddy even though it hurt to move! Needless to say, after we talked, she was able to get to work on all the right places. My legs were so jacked up that as soon as she would release a muscle, it would tighten back up again. Turns out my right leg was so tight that it was pulling my oblique down & causing the pain in my back. I tried to run a few days later & it was a mess - I made it about 30 seconds and I stopped in my tracks. I finally listened to my body & told myself: Do no harm. It is a phrase I often hear from my coach, but I didn’t think it pertains to me (told you I wasn’t smart). You need to take care of your body. Don’t try to push through pain. Yes, sometimes there is discomfort, but pain is different. Take the time off when you first notice it, don’t let it propagate to other areas. Because I wasn’t honest with myself from the beginning, I have allowed this to drag on & on.  In the last two weeks, I have run just over 4 miles – no run was over 15 minutes as a test to see how it responded. My leg still has some tightness, but the time off is helping it relax. I have my 6^th appointment next week. I am hoping that I am able to get it to the point where I can manage it with my compression & foam roller. I learned my lesson - there is no benefit in ignoring angry muscles. I would rather take time now to recover than to do poorly in a race (or worse have to sit out).  Be smart enough to realize that a few days off will not impact the entire season, but ignoring things can do significant damage & change (or end) your entire season before it starts. Do no harm…