Let’s Talk about Injuries…
Tuesdays running tips > let’s talk about how to take time off from running and when to know when to take time off. Make sense?
Maybe not, so let me explain.
As runners it is so hard to take days off. Runners are tough and often times (most times), we push through a LOT of pain. Whether it is in our speed workouts, or that 5k, or the last 6 miles of the marathon (the hardest and best miles ever!) we push through because we are runners. We except that we are going to hurt and we just embrace the pain, instead of shying away from it. That is what makes us, runners, different. Set apart. And crazy tough.
But what do you do when that pain just doesn’t feel like normal “I’m worn out,” pain? What do you do if that pain starts feeling like an injury? How do you take the time off and recovery it, properly?
Let me dive into that, today.
First of all, if you are feeling anything either during a run OR AFTER that either changes your gait, your stride, or makes you limp, etc. STOP RUNNING.
It is so much better to take a couple days off then weeks off. Trust me, I’ve run through shin splints because I thought I was ‘tough,’ just to eventually have to take months off and have some pretty lousy running for about 6 months total. It’s no fun and no worth it.
So, if you are feeling any sort of pain that you speculate may be an injury take the time off. Usually, if I feel something (like I just had a minor injury last week) I take a 1-3 complete rest days. After those days and if the injury is feeling a little better without running, I test out an EASY and SHORT run. I remember the weekend I was supposed to run 15 miles for my marathon training (I had a slight injury) I only run 1.5 to test out an injury. It felt okay. So I stopped and took another day to rest and started back Monday. We, runners, need to allow ourselves to heal properly without messing up the injury again and again. I like to think of injuries like a scab. If you keep picking at it (running) it won’t heal completely.
This may mean for you, you take 5 days off, test out a run and feel amazing. If this is the case, ease back into running for the next couple days with smaller, lighter workouts and then get back on track with your training plan. If you take 5 days off (or whatever the amount of time) and still feel pain. Take another couple days off and test again.
This happened to me after Niah was born. I had a hip flexor injury that really slowed me down. So, I decided to test out a run once a week until I felt ZERO pain. It took quite a few weeks of running 1 mile a week, but once it healed I was able to start marathon training and eventually went on to run 2 half marathons and 1 full marathon that year. If I just ran through that pain, I don’t know if I would have been able to run as much as I did last year. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY – IT KNOWS WHAT IT NEEDS.
Once you return, take a few days to ease back into the training. And then, as long as you feel 100%, go crush that training plan!
I hope this helps you ladies as you enter your spring training this year! <3
Questions of the Day
- What are you training for?
- Have you ever run through a pain you shouldn’t have?
- Name your most recent running injury.