Dealing With A Running Injury
Not just physically, but mentally
Injury is the pits.
Along with keeping us away from the physical activities we love, injury always seems to pop up at the most inopportune times — right before a race or athletic event, during the middle of a quality training program, or, worse yet, after recovering from another injury.
This begs the question:
What should you do when injury rears its ugly head?
- Physically, how do you recover?
- Mentally, how do you cope?
These are important questions to ask and if not thoroughly examined, your chance of relapse (re-injury) increases dramatically.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’re running along your favorite route and something feels a bit off. A new muscle spasm, some ankle stiffness, or slight knee discomfort. You shrug it off as no big deal.
“I’m just tired,” you say to yourself.
“Nothing a little stretching can’t fix.”
“Maybe I just need a day off”
And you carry on with your run.
The very next workout — Plantar Fasciitis. Iliotibial Band Syndrome. Runner’s Knee.
