A Better Run Ahead!

Is it March 11 already? Yep, clocks moved forward and heading towards Spring! I can totally give up one hour sleep in exchange for more daylight in the evening! I know, I know most of Winter felt like Spring anyway, but its still nice to have it be officially Spring soon. Pretty sure weather is ready for it….

This means I am 6 weeks out from Free State 40! Its slowly getting closer. Training has been going well..but I hit a little set back this past week. My right posterior tibial tendon was more than a little cranky and causing some arch pain and an inflammation. A precautionary X-Ray showed no breaks, so just a little break to let the inflammation go down was what the doctor ordered. So I could either run through since it wasn’t too bad but I could potentially be risking a break in the tendon..so as much as I didn’t want to I opted to take the small hiatus to let things heal! I focused on strength training, alternating with moist heat and ice to let some blood flow to the area and things have gotten better. I also got a pair of 3/4 SmartFoot orthotics to help with some arch supports so there would be much less pressure on the tendon. Yesterday was way too nice of a day not to be outside so I headed out with plans to simply power walk, BUT the minute I hit the dirt and walked about a quarter mile my legs were itching to go..so I let them! It felt oh so good! I had been working practicing my trot as Coach calls it and that is what I did! There was still a little tenderness as I was wearing the supports, but things felt so much better! One loop done and back to the trailhead, but legs wanted a little more..plus it was too awesome out to be done, so I added another half a loop! Post run ice and today things are feeling much better!

Now why did I feel the need to go over all this. Yes I know this is a running blog, but its funny how training can sometime be so much like life and I just read too many stories this week of a injury just overwhelming people. Some training days its great, some training days suck...but its all part of the journey. Its so easy to let injuries get the better of you and feel frustrated, pissed off and depressed. You work so hard to train for a specific event, things are going well and then something happens to derail you and its incredibly frustrating! You wonder how come you end up getting hurt every time things seem to be going well. Yeah this is all normal and I’ve been there more than I would like and it’s annoyingly frustrating…but the KEY is to feel all that and then get past it and work on getting better! Work on the things you can do to get back on track and then let your body do its thing! You can only control so much!

If running has taught me one thing its that sometimes things don’t always go your way even if you do everything right! Injuries happen, bad runs happen, stomach issues happen, BUT the main thing is to learn, overcome and push forward! For such is the two-sides of the running coin…and such is LIFE! Don’t let the bad days be it work or home, crap other people do that you may not have control over, sickness and stress get the better of you! Don’t brush them aside or try to simply forget them, recognize the problem, take steps to get things resolved as much as you can and what you can’t control…try not to stress over!

This is just reminder for anyone who cares to read this and maybe agree (or maybe not) that in life and running shit happens, but as long as you can learn, overcome and push forward there is always a better run ahead!!