Now I am back to normal (fingers crossed) after my injury I promise to blog-no-more about injury and Physio, (after today) …. phew you say.
Between 19th July and 29th September I was barely able to run. It was a shock, having managed 5 plus years running injury free, and I assumed I’d be back running in a week or two. However it took a fair bit longer and although very frustrating (to put it mildly) it did teach me a few lessons about myself and running…
I realised that,
- Running is important to me (I missed it and cross training didn’t cut it for more than a week or two)
- Running gives me energy and motivation to get on with other things (away from the lure of the couch)
- Running keeps me happy (and nice – ask my sons!)
- Running keeps me sane (see above)
- Running gives me an outlet for my competitive nature (grrr)
- Running gives me ‘me’ time (an hour lost with my music and not a peep of the word.. Muuuuum?)
- Running helps give me an identity other than wife/mother/p-t worker (and lets me reconnect with who I was before all of the the previous)
- Running keeps me in shape
- Running has brought me new friends
And learned that
- My weight and waist-line are influenced more by how much I run than how much I eat and drink
- My foam roller should be my friend (twice a week on the ITB!)
- I need to do regular strength exercises to support my running (every other day squats lunges and the like)
- I need to stretch very regularly to support my running (daily, after every run and must not forget my glutes and hip flexors)
- I need to pay attention to my running form and posture
- I need to wear the right shoes/orthotics
- Regular sports massage and trips to the Physiotherapist are a worth while investment
- PBs are not the be all and end all (time to get real girl, you’re getting old)… (well until I’m back!)
- I’m looking forward to running a Half Marathon at an easy pace, just because I can! (I missed Run to the Beat) so I’m delighted to make my local, Royal Parks Half Marathon at any pace.
Whist thinking about this post I have had a clear out and ended up reading a back copy of Runners World (which I wont be ditching) and found a relevant article on ‘Adding Years to your running Life’ by Julia Buckley, April 2011. Many of he tips outlined were very pertinent and I have recently learned to adopt. As for the rest I will be re-reading and taking note…
fairweatherrunner 
October 7, 2011 at 8:47 pm
So glad you are back to yourself. I completely agree – it is the thing that keeps me sane. See you Sunday x
October 7, 2011 at 9:30 pm
You would get on very well with the physio that I saw, he’s a great advocate of everyone having injury prevention as part of their training plan. I won’t tell you what his reaction was to my response of ‘Training plan? Yes. Well. I won’t lie to you…..’.
October 7, 2011 at 10:15 pm
I completely understand, I was out for a similar period of time with my back… I’ve not had so much time off since starting running and now I’m back at it, I really want to make sure that doesn’t happen again!! Glad to hear you’re back and feeling better.
October 8, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Good luck with RPHM. Enjoy the pizza/pasta
October 8, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Great post, think there’s a lot in there that rings true with us all. Hope you have a great run at the RPHM 🙂
October 8, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Yay! See you tomorrow.
October 11, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Excellent post! I think that your post rings true for lots of us. Good luck with RPHM.