Ten things I learned from being injured

It's the one thing we all dread the most as runners - getting injured.  I've had my fair share of niggles over the years, it comes to be expected when trying to balance high mileage, high intensity training and racing, with a full time job and real life.  In fact, if I didn't have any niggles, then I'd probably be worried! There is always such a fine line between training hard and getting injured/overtraining.  The latter of these I already had the misfortune of experiencing last year - now it was time to face the injury part.  I'll write another blog at some point about the actual specifics of the injury, but in a nutshell: running a 100k road race when I'd already tweaked my back, seemed to end up with me herniating the lower disc in my back, causing excruciating pain, having to take 2 over weeks off work in a (prescription) drug haze, taking about 2 months before I could actually walk more than 10 metres without having to sit down, and having 4 months of zero exercise....

Lesson 1: Goals and perceptions change
At the start of the year, my greatest achievement was running 144 miles in 24 hours.  Come June, it was being able to walk the 10 metres to the bottom of the road.  By July it was being able to walk for 2 miles.  August, it was being able to jog for 2 miles.  Today I'm back up to 20 miles and wondering how likely it is that I could make Barcelona 24 hour in December....

Lesson 2: Its sh*t being out injured - but just get over it!
When you have a serious injury, you know yourself that its just f*cked up your whole year.  For me, it meant missing out on several races, the most important one being the European 24 hour championships in France this month - a race I was relying on to qualify for the Worlds again next year.  But I knew I had two options - either to 1) mope about and feel sorry for myself, drink too much wine, and hate all other runners (which to be fair, I have done a fair amount of), or 2) just accept it, be happy for everyone else that is running well, and look on them for future inspiration. I've had my fair share of ups and downs over the past 5 or so months, but on the whole I've found the best way to deal with it was to try really hard to channel out all my negative emotions.  Ok, so I hadn't just won a 100 mile race, but I had just managed to walk for 10 minutes, the longest I'd managed in more than 2 months - so really focusing on these achievements and knowing that every small step was (literally) one step closer to getting me running again.

Lesson 3: Eat, drink and be merry
Unfortunately, going from running 70+ miles a week to not even walking a total of 7.0 minutes a week, coupled with overenthusiastic, self-pity induced wine consumption, meant I did put on a "bit" of weight over my 4 months of inactivity. When I started running again, at first I beat myself up a lot about it - I should have used my enforced time out to really focus on my nutrition once and for all, drop all the extra weight, and really get as lean as I could. But then I realised, this was the first time in  years when I hadn't actually had to train for anything. I might as well just make the most of it and eat and drink what I wanted guilt free. Now I'm running again I'm being a lot more careful, and when I start proper training again, I'll be even stricter (or at least thats the plan....but anyone who knows me, knows that my healthy eating plans always start on a Monday...)

Lesson 4: You find out who your real friends are
The thing about competing at ultras is that if you want to be any good at them, you have to dedicate the majority of your time to training for them.  That means the majority of people you end up having as friends are also ultra runners. When I got injured, I stopped hearing from quite a few people that I had run with in the past - they didn't message me to see how I was doing, they didn't visit me when I couldn't walk.  Only a handful of people really made the effort, and for that I am so grateful. I even tried to push some of them away (e.g. when I was going through my "I hate all runners" phase) but my real friends were the ones who understood what I was going through, gave me the time I needed, and still stood by me and made the effort to stay in contact.

Lesson 5: Friends are important
Ok, so you're injured, it looks like you are going to be out for months , no-one can tell you when you might be able to run again, and all those months of training are now down the pan - I'm not denying it, it is completely sh*t. However, while I really think its natural to give yourself some "crying" time, its not healthy to just hide away all the time and cut yourself off.  I've had major issues with depression over the years, and running has always been the mechanism through which I've coped. When I first hurt my back and couldn't really walk, one of my friends came and got me and took me to stay with her so she could look out for me.  Five months later, I'm still living in her spare room....but over those five months, the majority of which I couldn't run, I haven't once slipped back into the darkness. And that's because I've had her constant company and support, without which I know I would really have struggled. So surround yourself with your real friends - runners and non-runners.

Lesson 6: There is more to life than running
Ok, I'm not sure if I do actually believe this wholeheartedly.  But being out for several months does give you time to put things into perspective. One of the hardest things I've had to deal with while I was injured, was finding out that one of my best friends, also an ultra runner, was diagnosed with hip dysplasia  So while at the time I didn't know when I would be able to run again, she had just found out that she could never run again.  Kind of puts things into perspective. There was one evening when I was staying at hers, shortly after she was diagnosed, that she was really struggling and was so upset trying to get her head around it.  Early the next morning I heard the the front door close, and when I looked out the window, I saw her head off on her mountain bike. Instead of just lying in bed the next day feeling sorry for herself (which admittedly, is what I would probably have done - and is what I did do on several occasions at the start of my injury), she had headed out to do the one thing she still could - mountain bike. I am still so inspired and proud of her every time I think of that.

Lesson 7: Core core core
I've had so many back niggles over the past 4 or so years.  Constantly tweaking my back and ending up with it all stiff and not being able to bend over properly or touch my toes (even not being able to touch my knees!).  I've just always run through it though, and although painful and stiff, it's usually worn off after a week or so.  So when I tweaked it again lifting boxes 2 days before the ACP 100km, I really didn't think it would be an issue to run (although I guess its' never a good sign starting a race not being able to bend over far enough to tie your shoe laces...).  The rest is history.  One thing that the surgeon, physios and chiropracters have all consistently stressed to me following my injury, is the importance of core work.  I've never really spent time doing any core work or stretching, its just always been about the running.  But today, the plank is my best friend. I've started trying to do weekly yoga and pilates classes, and stretching properly after my runs, and I've really found that it's starting to pay off.  I've also spent time working on trying to improve my running form to take some of the stress off my back that has been caused by my dodgy running style.  And generally just trying to be more conscious of my posture when walking, sitting and running.

Lesson 8: Social media should be avoided when on a low
I'm sure that most of us already know this, but when injured and feeling particularly low, it is not a good idea to look at Facebook.  Especially when the majority of your friends are ultra runners.  And its not a good idea to log onto Strava after several weeks, "just to have a look", especially when you get a whole lot of "uh-oh" messages ping through.  Way to kick someone when they are down.

Lesson 9: Weekends become very long when you are injured - learn to use that time and discover new / rediscover old things
Usually in the run up to races, my weekends are spent doing long back-to-back runs, which often also includes driving time. All of a sudden being injured meant I wasn't sure what to do with myself at weekends.  It made it hard to motivate myself to get up in the mornings - I didn't have a purpose, I had nothing to train for and therefore nothing to get up for.  All my friends were ultra runners and so they were all off training, and I had no "normal" people to call up and do things with. Sad as it sounds, I actually looked forward to going back to work on a Monday, as I missed that structure that training gave me. All of a sudden I had all this spare time on my hands and I didn't know what to do with it.  Being injured really emphasised to me the importance of making time to keep in touch with other friends and to keep up other hobbies.  And so I took time out to visit one of my best friends in Denmark.  I picked up my guitar and started playing again. I started reading books again.

Lesson 10: There is such a thing as muscle memory!!
People always talk about muscle memory and I a) never really knew what they meant by it and b) didn't  really believe there was such a thing. But there came a point in my recovery, when I'd been walking 3 miles every day for the last couple of weeks, and even managed a couple of sessions on the cross trainer at the gym, when I thought I'd test out a wee jog/walk on the grass to see what happened.  I planned to jog for 10 metres, then walk for 10 metres, and do this for 10 minutes. I ended up jogging for 2 miles. 2 miles!!!! Previously I wouldn't have even justified pulling on a pair of trainers to do that distance, but today I was over the moon!!  And amazed that my legs had remembered what to do (although it did feel strange).   After a couple of week I was up to running 10km, and my legs didn't feel half as fatigued as I imagined them to after not having run for so long.  Today I'm still a million miles away from being race fit, but I'm so much further on than I could otherwise have hoped for at this stage - and its all because of muscle memory!