Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It's Always Something

I tend to write really looooonnnng posts. Well, not today. Today I'm here to gripe, to whine, to complain, to vent - in search of commiseration, empathy, compassion.

A climbing friend of mine, who is also my yoga guru, offered, shall I call it, a theory on injuries: In her view the body and/or mind can only deal with and acknowledge one injury at a time. So, once you begin healing from one ailment, another pops up, seemingly out of the blue.

But, often if you really mine your memory for clues you will realize that there was some little niggling thing pestering you from time to time, but it just sort of flew under the radar. Then, given clearance (the first injury starts letting up) the little-niggler goes in for the kill.

This is my life. As a runner and climber I seem constantly to be nursing some or other major or minor tweak. I can usually soldier on through it all, but that doesn't make it pleasant. It's not that I don't learn from my experiences - I do, as is shown by the fact that I don't seem to have the same injury over and over. I learn about the injury, possible causes, remedies, ways to avoid a re-occurrence and then I try to act appropriately. But then something entirely different rears its ugly head. And, the whole process begins anew.

I went for years and years without a running injury. It's tempting to blame it all on my 4 year-old daughter: "I was never injured before I gave birth to you!" - but that seems a bit harsh - too much for the poor kid (We already tease her about how we used to be able to do anything we wanted until she came along - now as she makes demands, she teases us back with a devilish glint in her eyes). Perhaps it's age. Perhaps it's because I'm running more and harder than I did for many years. One thing seems certain: I need to relax about it all or it's going to make me crazy.

So, I have a half marathon to run in South Dakota on Saturday. Perhaps on Saturday night I'll have a glass of wine and take the motel bible and smash the bejeezus out of this ganglion cyst that has suddenly appeared on my foot. Come on, talk me down off the ledge...or, cheer me on...

3 comments:

  1. I can empathize with running injuries. Most recently, I suffered a metatarsal stress fracture that sidelined me for 4 weeks. I'm in the rehab phase (week 5 post-injury) and am happy to be running, albeit jogging, again.

    I noticed the shirt in your profile pic is the Boulder Marathon. Initially I had registered for the full in September, but due to the stress fracture, will be running the half instead. Should be an interesting endeavor as the elevation in Minnesota where I live is around 1000 feet and Boulder is around 5400ft.

    Good luck with the ganglion cyst. I don't know of anyone who has had the condition so I can't offer any advice. Good luck in SD!!

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  2. Shannon - Perhaps I will see you at the Boulder half. I haven't decided on that one yet. I ran the full in 2009. The races basically covers my regular training territory. Expect to adjust to the altitude - and an important warning here; Drink LOTS of water!!!!!!!

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  3. Ditto, ditto and ditto! Good luck this weekend!

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