It’s a
lonely walk back home after pulling something.
You usually
have you runs organised that they start and finish from the door so walking
through the town for more than a kilometre in full training gear just doesn’t
feel right. It also doesn’t look right. Who dresses up in running gear to walk
around the town, that’s what clothes are for!
But then my
left leg doesn’t feel right so I don’t have many options.
It seems
like “New Way of Dealing with Injuries” was only a slightly less crappy version
of the “Old Ronan Moore School of Dealing with Injuries”. Having stayed off the
running for a couple of days following a calf strain I decided I would go on a
slow long run. So the plan – meet the friends at our local town ‘park’ the
Porchfields - run a lap there and if all feels fine go a little longer – and
take it from there.
Deep down I
kind of already knew it was the wrong option. If indeed it was a calf strain,
which to my non-medical-but-reasonably-informed-due-to-past-injury mind is
basically a small bleed or worse still, a tear, then rest and proper recovery
is the only solution. But like all runners I have a training schedule to keep
to, miles to cover, races in my head, etc, etc.
So after 12
slow kilometres of careful optimism just as we were about to discuss the last
chunk of today’s run it gave way. A sharp pain deep in the calf that brought me
to an immediate halt.
We are still
months off the marathon but when you get injured all you can think of is the
training that you won’t now be able to do. The races you will have to pull out
from. The effort you’ve already put in that you might now lose as you lay-off
running. It is a hard thing to admit to – setbacks, because they set you back.
However sometimes you have to endure them to come out stronger.
So I’m going
to try and stay positive. Rather than wallow in the frustration of not doing a
warm-up and injuring myself last Tuesday I have to think that it’s good that it
happened now, so I won’t allow it to happen closer to race-day. Instead of
being angry that I decided to attempt a run so soon after such an obvious injury
I need to be glad that I finally have woken up to the fact that the only way to
deal with injuries is the “Proper Way”, which is what I’m going to start doing
now. And rather than feel out of place walking back through town with running
gear on, I’m glad that it didn’t happen 10 kilometres from home in the rain.
Still, what
a load of b…….!
Yesterday’s Training – 12 k Slow Run
It was meant to be longer
but then injury and setback as a short sharp pain hit the same left calf I hurt
last Tuesday. Training came to an in end immediately and I limped home.
Disaster!