This week I talked to several runners and got some pretty awesome advice, and I have decided not to go to the doctor. I know that the doctor will just tell me not to run and that it will heal on its own. So that is my plan, no running for 6 very loooooooong weeks. Although I am very upset about this, I know that I am the cause of this. Once again I pushed too hard and hurt myself. One day I may learn patience but so far that word has not made it into my mental vocabulary.
I am aware that I will go absolutely insane if I sit around for 6 weeks and do nothing. So came up with a new plan, which is to hit the gym every morning after taking my daughter to daycare and do some upper body weight training and then jump on the bike. I am still too embarrassed to try swimming in front of people; I tent to flop around more like a dyeing fish than an athlete. So I will wait till the weather gets warmer and we can uncover our pool so I can practice before I try it at the gym. Since swimming and biking are my only two options for cross training right now, the bike will just have to do.
On a side note, I got my new Spira shoes this week. What a way to celebrate not running by getting a new pair of running shoes right. Talk about being crushed when the mail man dropped them off. I have such a hard time finding shoes that fit and so am worried that by the time I can actually run again that I will miss the opportunity to return these that I took them for a 1mile run last night while my daughter was in swim lessons. They felt pretty good, but my leg started to hurt so I stopped and got on the bike instead. I know that 1 mile is not enough distance to really try these shoes out and so I wonder if I take them out for a two mile run next week how bad that might be for my leg. The thought has also occurred to me that I am dragging this out so that I can still get some running done. Yes I am addicted and know that not running really sucks and the thought of it, well let’s just say I don’t like to think about not running. So here I am a runner that can’t run. I guess I will have to change the name of the blog to Midwest Biking Mom.
How do you all get through the weeks of no running when you are faced with an injury that requires you give it up for a while?
9 comments:
I know for me when I had my injury i jumped on the elliptical and did that for as long as my body would let me. And I did a ton of upperbody and then when my knee got better I started walking again.
I really hope that you get to feeling better!!!
I'm sorry about your injury. That just sucks! Swimming, biking, and the elliptical are all great ways to cross train!
Ditto Jenna...I love the elliptical when I can't run. But I'm a punk. The minute I feel the least bit sore I run to the elliptical for fear of an injury. So I don't know how good it will work if you already have one. I think you have a great plan, and you know I'm always here for you if you wana bitch and moan...u can call me up any time and shove me out the door to do a long run for the both of us! ;-)
aw, tracey, that sucks! and the new shoes, that is added insult to injury! but, i wouldn't keep trying to run to try them out - you might then need 8 weeks or 10 weeks of rest, compounding that fracture. could you just wear the shoes while you walk around your normal day, see if they hurt? or, just figure you'll have a cute pair of runners to wear out & about (i bought a pair of nike air pegasus and 2 weeks later bought asics...the nikes are my nonrunning runners so i don't wear out the asics).
I'm so sorry, Tracey! Think about the future, the break will be a good thing. I'll suggest some challenging but non-weight bearing activities to keep you busy in the mean time: cross-stitching, chess, bird-watching. Ok just kidding! Actually aqua jogging is really great. I do it when I'm injured and feel like it keeps me in decent shape. Good luck, don't go crazy!
So sorry. I have had several stress fractures over the years. The worst one I ever had was in my hip...I couldn't run for a year. After that I started strength training, and have been "fracture free" for 10 years. There is something to it. Hope you heal quickly! Good luck.
If you need a smile during your injury recovery, check out this post that compares a running injury to a break up:
http://discombobulatedrunning.blogspot.com/2009/09/love-on-rocks.html
It cheered me up last year when I was out of running for a bit .. Hope you heal up soon ..
I'm really sorry to hear about your stress fracture. I'm actually recovering from one right now. I lasted 4 weeks before running again, which is longer than I thought I would make it before losing my mind. I wrote a couple blog posts about it, but didn't want to get too depressing.
Anyway, good luck and just remember that as boring as ellipticals are, they held assuage the need to run.
Ran (he he!) across your blog from Reyna's and wanted to let you know that my mom, a kick arse runner, was dx with a stress fracture and she started taping it with some horribly expensive tape EVERY time she ran. If you're interested I can get you the name of it...I know she found it at a run where somebody was showing how it helped for knee problems, torn meniscus, runner's knee, shin splints...etc, she thought she'd try and viola it worked. She also took two weeks off using the bike and elliptical mostly.
Post a Comment