Eight things to keep you sane when injured

Image by StuffEyeSee via Flickr

Today’s post is by Sylvie Desroches, who blogs at Marathoner in Training. Sylvie, like myself, is currently not running due to injury and shares some ideas she’s had about what we can do with all that spare time and frustration:

When I started my running journey, I didn’t think much about injuries. Sure we got the injury prevention talk at the running clinic, shown the proper stretches and so forth. But what to do while injured? You’re on your own with this one baby…

So one day you find yourself injured, and it’s a serious one — not just a sprain or a pulled muscle. You’ve been told NO RUNNING for a few months, maybe more. This is a no brainer because you can’t run, it hurts too much. You pause and start to feel lost. Panic slowly sets in as you think about all this free time you now have, and not being able to feed your addiction. You ask again and again… what to do??? Well, plenty, as I have discovered since being diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis a month ago.

Activities:

1. Stay active! But before heading to the gym, check with your health-care provider (physiotherapist, physician, chiropractor, etc.). He or she will be able to tell you if it’s ok to hop on the elliptical, or take a spin class, or lift weights. Doing too much too soon could slow down your recovery. But if you can, it’s a good idea to keep your fitness level up.

2. Running community: Don’t detach from the running community because you can’t run. Stay involved, be a running nanny or volunteer at local races, or even better, be the coach your friends always wanted but never got the courage to ask. You can make them accountable to you so they won’t skip training runs. In other words, live vicariously through your running friends!

3. Food intake: Running makes you hungry and runners can, sometimes, get away with eating a little more calories than the average person. Be careful, your appetite won’t decline as fast as your fitness level. While off with an injury is a great time (opportunity?) to take out your healthy cookbooks and experiment with a new recipe (or five). Again share with running friends.

4. Learn: Learn something new, be it a language or a new skill, like beading, knitting, anything that you want. It will take your mind away from the “I cannot run yet,” and you will be more patient with the enforced no running healing period.

5. Maintenance: Update or create new playlists. Download free Podrunners. Organize and sort through all of your running clothes and gear. Clean or redecorate your place. The main goal is to stay busy with activities.

6. The future: Don’t give up because you will have to take a big step back when you start again. Plan your comeback. If you’ve been given an approximate timeline that you should be healed by, start checking out 5k races that would interest you. Then go over your training plan. Visualize yourself running. Write out a plan, talk to others who have come back off injuries and see if they have any tips for reintegrating training post-injury.

7. Be kind to yourself: Allow yourself to feel sad, angry, and disappointed that you are missing out on a goal race that you’ve been training and planning for. It’s normal! Pamper yourself with massages/pedicures or shopping for the perfect running gear for your comeback race. Make it special.

8. Stay positive: This can never be emphasized enough. Yes you WILL have moments of “why me,” and torture yourself thinking if you had done this or that differently you wouldn’t be injured now. The reality is that a very high percentage of runners WILL get injured. Sometimes there is no avoiding it, and getting an injury is NOT a failure. It’s the body giving you feedback and an opportunity to re-evaluate your training. Something needs to be changed. Use this time wisely and you will come back a stronger, and hopefully wiser, runner.