In case it isn't so obvious, the title of this post is meant to be read with tongue in cheek. Common sense tells me that resting an injury will help. It's just stubbornness that didn't want me to listen.
The quick background to my 'injury' is that I rolled my foot (ankle) on a run about a month out from my first half. It was the outside part of the foot that hurt. I iced it and did what I was meant to do, ie. RICE. I rested it for 3 days and then went for a run when it felt ok. The mistake that I made was going for my long run as my first run back. I am fairly certain that at around the halfway point of that run I (subconsciously?) eased off the sore part of my foot and so leaned in, if that makes sense. And lo and behold, caused another pain to surface.
It meant that I limped each morning when I hopped out of bed and limped for around the first km of any run.
But I was 3 weeks out from my first half.
I couldn't rest now! So I kept running.
I finally partially admitted defeat and went to see an acupuncturist. I didn't notice any real improvement though. (In his defence he was great. I simply think I left it too long after the fact to get the benefit)
Then I went to see an awesome physio (Physio Plus) and he confirmed what Dr Google had told me - it was posterior shin splints. A good massage and strapping and it was feeling a lot better. I saw the physio once more the following week and got it massaged and strapped again. It made a massive difference, and I was as ready for the race as I could be.
The half went great (that's on another blog post here)
But then, as expected after pushing myself on the day, the pain was back. I had promised my husband and physio that i'd rest for at least a week once the race finished. I had good intentions to do so but, well, running is fun and, and.... I don't know, I can't think of any good excuses to write here!!
So, 2 days after the half I did a very slow recovery run/walk. My leg was a bit stiff, but ok I thought. Then I went back to my outdoor group on the Thursday and it included a small run at the start and finish (max 1km each time so very little), but I limped.
That night, after much consideration, I decided that a self imposed running ban was in order. My leg hurt and it wasn't getting better.
Everything that I'd read on posterior shin splints (or any injury for that matter) said that in order to get it better the treatment had to include rest.
My mind and body had a bit of an argument about this...
Rest, arrgggghhhh, nooo, don't make me rest. Anything but that.
My head won. Logic tends to be the victor in most of my rantings.
Seven days of no running at all is really hard when you are accustomed to going for a run every day or every second day. But I knew I had to give resting a chance. I did squats and planks and went swimming to fill in the time.
And yesterday, after my ban of 7 days I went back to my outdoor group. It included going up an down some hell-ish local stairs (I so wish I had a photo of them so you could see i'm not exaggerating here), prisoner squats and, just when my legs couldn't get any more jelly-like, there were some lunges thrown in to finish me off.
I walked when I had to and I did extra stretches at the top and bottom of each stair set.
I was proud of myself for being so sensible. HA!
I got home and iced my leg, just to be safe. And then I iced it again another 3 times up until I went to bed. And it felt good.
This morning I woke up, no limp. Yay. I'm not going to say it was 100% but it's way waaayyyy better, and so I'll say 90%. Pretty good.
But I was still scared. Scared to write this, scared to update my Facebook page to say "I'm back", scared to post this link...
What if I jinxed myself.
And guess what....I did jinx myself a little!
In between starting to write this post this morning and finishing it now (at nearly 6pm) I thought I'd ice my leg one more time, just for good measure
Silly me though, I didn't concentrate when I was doing it. I rolled the ice pack back and forth and in doing so the tea towel that I had wrapped it in came away. So now when you Google the definition of stupidity you may see this image...
I am so mad at myself and yep, feel pretty dumb.
(And yes, I have burn gel and gauze dressing on it as I type)
But I always try to find the positive in everything. So, what's the positive? Um, actually I don't know. Maybe it's just a lesson learned and that's enough. Because if my leg is good enough to run on then nothing else matters anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment