The New York Marathon was yesterday, but I wasn’t there to celebrate finishing my first marathon, the race that I spent months preparing for. Injuries are always tough, but when an injury wrecks months of training and postpones or perhaps prevents the completion of one of your life goals it’s an extra-bitter pill to swallow. If this has happened to you, I am so sorry. We are going to get through more » Read more
How to Keep Spirits High When VO2 Max Tanks: An Injured Runner’s Guide
“We all have had injuries and disappointments. It is a part of running. It can bring us down and at times be overwhelming when we see how far we have to go. But I encourage you all to take your time, stay inspired and focused. Instead of stressing about how far behind we are, we need to focus on the progress we are making and continue to make.” – Kara more » Read more
The Niggle Conundrum: Can I Run Through It?
A few weeks ago, Salty, Allspice and I had a conversation about whether or not Allspice should continue running through a niggle she had developed. This led us to ponder the classic runner’s dilemma – it hurts, but can I run through it? Because most of us who love to run would give up any material good we own rather than miss a few days of training, many times we more » Read more
5 Ways to Speed Sprained Ankle Recovery
POP! OWWW! As your body hits the ground after you fall off of a rock while cross training, and you know damn well your ankle is badly sprained, you can’t help but being pissed. At least I couldn’t. Hi, my name is Molasses, and I have a problem. No, it’s not alcohol. I can drink just fine, thankyouverymuch. It’s the sprained ankle that sidelined me just after I decided to more » Read more
Crossing the Line: Admitting You’re Injured
When we’re training hard, something’s gonna hurt. The whole point of training is to break our bodies down to build them up, so being 100% pain-free is simply not going to happen. Maybe you wake up with a sore heel every morning or hamstrings that like to complain when you push a little too hard on the track. Maybe you run home and strap the frozen peas to your knees or more » Read more
What Do You Do When the Injury-Free Runner Gets Injured?
When you have run for years without injury, and then get sidelined due to (frankly) your own stupidity…. Well, it sucks. I can’t sugar-coat it. I have been running for fifteen years. I have been (to my schedule’s ability) training and marathoning for eight years. I am not a huge mileage beast like some of our Salties, as I have a full time+ job, 2 kids with busy schedules and more » Read more
It’s Not a Fight, But Sometimes Your Body Wins Anyway
When I first started running, I believed two things that turned out not to be true: First, that running would make me thin, and second, that there is no such thing as a bad run. Filthy, vicious lies, both of them. First: Running, in and of itself, will not make you thin, not without an accompanying reduction in calories, a sacrifice I’m apparently unwilling to make past 11 a.m. on more » Read more
Losing Myself: A Runner Who Can’t Run
I miss you. I feel so alone without you, like my entire identity has been stripped from me. You gave me so much: friends, happiness, freedom, strength… And now you’re gone. I know nobody is at fault here, but I can’t help feeling sometimes like I could have done something to prevent this. I could have taken better care of myself. I could have been more committed to you, maybe more » Read more
Meet My Alter Ego, Anxiety Girl
I think everyone has a running super power. Mine happens to be planning and analyzing just about everything. Researching race reviews? Check. Figuring out my goal pace and my ideal splits? Check. Helping to plan a 5K, be in charge of making tutus for a 12 person relay team and making information packets for my spectators? Check, check and check. (I will admit that the information packet may have been a more » Read more
A Runner’s Guide to Inflammation
Did someone say INFLAMMATION!? AHHH! Quick! Get some ice! Get some NSAIDs! Elevate the problem area! Hurry! Wait…why are we hurrying? Relax, dear runner. Inflammation doesn’t have to be a gremlin in your body. In fact, if you take care of it well and don’t feed it after midnight, Inflammation can be a protective little guy who helps keep you running right. Read more
Overcoming Injury And The “I’m Back” Run
“I’ve been waiting weeks for you. Yeah, it was only three miles. And it was slow. But it felt so right. My legs felt light. My lungs felt fresh. Everything came together. Tonight, I had an “I’m back” run.” -Friday, May, 11th, 2012 An “I’m back” run is just that. Whether you are trying to come back from a nagging injury or even mental burnout, it’s comforting to know that more » Read more
Diary of an Injured Runner: Real Rock Bottom and Acceptance
Every injured runner hits rock bottom. Sometimes it takes several false rock bottoms before you hit your real rock bottom. It’s hard to know what real rock bottom is until you’ve started to climb back out of it. It’s one of those things that you can only know in retrospect. I think it takes hitting that real rock bottom to accept the realities of the injury and to start moving more » Read more
Diary of an Injured Runner: Half Full
Have you ever had one of those moments when you suddenly realized what a big whiny baby you were being? No? Just me. I was afraid of that! Seriously, though I think I just experienced one of those moments. As all my dear readers well know by now I’ve been struggling with what I like to call a stupid stupid butt injury. It’s been a long drawn out saga and more » Read more
Diary of an Injured Runner: Detox
As I lay on the x-ray table at the orthopedist’s office today, the tech made a crack about crazy runners, “you runners, you’re like addicts!” True ‘dat! One of the biggest hurdles I’ve encountered in my quest to heal is letting go of running. I’ve managed a few days off here and a few days off there, but I really haven’t taken any significant stretch off to let my body more » Read more
Diary of an Injured Runner: Denial
Hindsight is 20-20 as they say. Now I can look back at the previous months and even years and see how I built up a tolerance to pain and how the pain slowly built up so that it went virtually unperceived for a long time. By the time New Year’s Eve rolled around I was in pain always. Every run I was dealing with a tight upper right leg that more » Read more