Have Patience And Take The Long View When Injured. (Easier Said Than Done).
As a dedicated distance runner and racer I didn’t want to admit that I needed to take time off due to an injury. My Achilles tendon and ankle had been bothering me for months. It actually started during the winter. I thought I was being responsible by taking a day or two off every week. There was no pain while I was running and a couple days rest every now and then kept the pain manageable when I walked. But as we got into the spring, the pain in the mornings and soreness when walking kept getting worse. My dilemma was I had a few races on the calendar that I really wanted to run. Instead of racing the half-marathon I had planned in April I felt I’d be okay to just run it easy. But the 10k on July 3rd was a race I wanted to train for to compete. My plan was to nurse the ankle as needed to avoid major injury but still compete in that race and then take time off. So now here we are, a month post-race and I’m still sidelined.
Initially Overly Optimistic
Part of me was really hoping that two weeks off would be enough and I’d be back running in July. But I guess I knew that I was most likely looking at a minimum of 4 weeks off and probably more. It’s been difficult taking this time off running during the summer when I enjoy warm morning runs at sunrise. I wanted to keep a routine as best I could so I’ve been doing a lot more bike riding than I normally do. In fact, for the first week or so I was enjoying the change of pace. I’d forgotten how much ground you can cover on a bike compared to running!
Don’t Rush It
After a month of no running, I’m anxious to get back on the road and train. Unfortunately I can tell my Achilles is not recovered. It is certainly better than it was before the time off but it’s not totally healed. Just to test it I ran 3 miles two days in a row this week. It felt great to be running and there was no pain while running but the same ankle pains returned the next day. So, I’ll do my best to have patience and take the long view. In the big picture, I’d rather miss several weeks of running now than try to run through this injury more and incur some major rupture or other injury that could set me back months or years and end my racing totally. I’ll focus on other activities and continue to pray that things will work out and I’ll be back training and competing against the other old guys in races next year.