Learning from Injury

Your post is timely... I have an MRI monday to confirm a disc hermination/bulge.  Pushing the accelerator peddle is the most painful thing in the world right now.  Very pissed. 

I hope you heal well and feel better.  Dealing with injuries sucks because you look forward to competing and pushing yourself and it all comes to a halt.  You have a very good outlook and I will definitely reread your post several times.  Good luck!

Edited by jsklarz 2009-08-06 12:47 PM

Well said Mike!

I personally believe that every injury has it's purpose.

When I couldn't run a step without extreme pain in 2006... it forced me to go work with a running coach. He worked with me for 6 months and I learned how to run again. I went from a heel strike to a mid-foot plant. Had I not been injured, I would have never gone to see him and learned how to run better.

In 2007... when I got an IT band injury a month before my HIM... well, I'm not sure what I learned from that injury. WAIT! I guess I learned that I had the mental power to complete my HIM with very little running during the 1/2 mary. I may have also learned that no matter what the circumstance, I can keep a positive attitude.

That running injury did lead me to think about speed walking... and I learned how to speed walk at a clinic in May 2008.

Thank goodness I did! Because at the IM marathon- my Achilles tendons hurt so bad from the bike (odd thing!) that I couldn't run a step. Luckily I knew how to walk fast!

Then in May 2009 I got a stress fracture at my stand alone marathon. Taking 6 weeks off was the best thing that ever could have happened to me! When I got back to running, after working out the cardio kinks (aka: sucking wind) I am running faster than I ever have! I have a new confidence with my ability TO run.

It also allowed me to focus on cycling and swimming! Which prompted me to go to Maryland to see family and to do a 3 mile OWS. No stress fracture- I never would have gone to Maryland!

I tell everyone I know who gets injured, that there is a purpose and meaning behind it. Even if they can't see it... yet.

Brava KSH!

It is an ankle injury from stepping in a pothole during a race (which is still giving me problems) that forced me kicking and screaming onto my bike and now has me training for triathlon.  Without it, I would have kept to running only.

Dealing with a lot of this stuff now.  On the shelf for indefinite time (seeing the doctor this afternoon, so should no more soon) with nasty hamstring pull or perhaps tear that I suffered in a fall three weeks before my IM.  Most of what Mike said goes for me...although I've been very careful on the weight gain front.  Learned that I can get through an IM with a serious injury...but whether that's a smart thing to do and what that decision really says about me is open to debate.  Not sure at this moment if I believe the finish was worth the downtime and (probably) scratching the next two races I've already paid for (total price of those two is more than I paid for my IM, actually)...I guess it was, or I would have DNS'ed it, but it is tough to sit and not train, to say nothing of not race.  At the very least, though, it is a good test of my commitment to healthy nutrition as a lifestyle priority...if I can go from IM training to inactivity without weightgain, I'll be plenty proud of myself.


Edited by tcovert 2009-08-06 1:02 PM

Timely for me as well...   Just able to swim a bit, nothing else. 

Also dealing with the weight gain, simply can't eat like we used to

I'd add to your list, there is more to life than training and tris.  I think being injured has forced me to back away from the sport and try to figure out how to get a little more balance in my life, and incorporate those things I used to love to do, but stopped when I "had to" get that 4 hour bike ride in on Saturday.

Very true.  I was an athlete growing up but once I got to college I stopped exercising completely.  After 7+ years off, I decided to get back into the game in October 2008.  I overestimated myself and collected some injuries including patellar tendinitis, from which I am still slowwwly recovering.  I took my fitness for granted SO much when I was younger.  Now I value everything I'm capable of doing and recognize that exercise is key to my happiness rather than being a chore to check off the list.  As you said, now my motto is mostly just to do this because I CAN.

Edited by happyshoes 2009-08-06 1:41 PM

i'm still recovering from surgery that i had in March to repair a ligament that i think i tore in April 2007 (treatments for what they thought the problem was masked the pain for almost a year, and then it was another year of the conservative route...). For the longest time, all i could figure that i had learned was that dancing in high heels is a bad idea.

Now i figure that i am learning patience and how to just BE. For the first time ever i am working out without a race in mind. i'm just doing what i can when i can.


Edited by TheSchwamm 2009-08-06 4:32 PM