Injuries Stink!

This year's Bass Pro Conservation Marathon was successful. We went into this race with a non-PR mindset. We never intended to shoot for a PR. Our goal was to run it at such a pace that it would springboard our confidence into next year. For those of you that have been following my training and racing, you know that this was my 5th marathon since June 2015. I ran in the 2015 Grandma's marathon (Jun, 2:40:19), 2015 Twin Cities Medtronic Marathon (Oct, 2:39:50), 2016 Los Angeles Marathon (Feb, 2:42:45), 2016 Grandma's Marathon (Jun, 2:36:40), and finally 2016 Bass Pro Conservation Marathon (Nov, 2:44:57).  Needless to say, I'm a bit tired from the amount of training it's taken to get those results. More so than being physically tired, I'm mentally worn out.

Headed towards the Bass Pro marathon, my training was decent. I wouldn't say it was stellar by any means though. It became a chore to get out there daily and just get the runs in. They typically went okay once I got myself motivated enough to do them, but that in itself was enough of a battle that I knew it was going to be time to take a rest and recovery break once we got through the race.  I like to have the feeling of looking forward to my run, rather than feeling like it's something I just have to get in.

I scheduled myself 5 days off with absolutely no running following Bass Pro. It's amazing how quickly that goes by sometimes. By Saturday, I was actually excited to get up and go for an easy 3 mile run. That's a first time in months I've had that feeling. I made it about 2 miles before I started feeling some discomfort in my heel. I stopped, stretched lightly with some active isolated stretching and then continued the rest of the way home. Unfortunately, I could tell something just wasn't right. I worked in the yard all day bagging leaves and when I awoke on Sunday, I had enough discomfort in the heel that walking normal was pretty much impossible. It was official, I had reached a breaking point.

It's very frustrating when injuries occur. I'm a chiropractor and work with others all the time that are dealing with running related injuries. Unfortunately, you can feel like you do all the right things, and then still end up with an injury. That's just a part of being an athlete. I'm not trying to diminish it by any means because being injured always stinks. However, with rehab and giving the body just a little assistance, healing occurs and a return to activity happens.

It's been about 5 weeks since the injury first started and I'm getting back into things. I'm by no means 100% yet but I'll continue with the rehab process for the next 10 weeks to continue building tendon strength. I try to view this as a blessing because it's giving me a little extra time to get things done around the house (small home renovation project underway again😄 which should be the last major project at this house).

I'll keep you posted on my progress as try to get myself ready to run (not racing) the Phoenix marathon in February. YIKES! It's only 11 weeks away! I hope I can get in shape by then! :)