Posted on Oct 25, 2008 under Cross Training - Bike, Injuries, Misc, News |
Well it will be 3 weeks tomorrw that I bust my hip, and it’s only been this week that I’ve started being able to walk more or less normally. The pain subsided a lot earlier in the week, but I’m not counting any chickens yet, as I went walking around town yesterday and the more ground I covered, the more I started to become aware of a little discomfort around the area – so had to slow my walking pace.
So it looks like a while yet until I can run again. In fact running is becoming a bit of a distant memory and I almost don’t think of myself as a runner any more 🙁
I’ve been doing some work on the exercise bike but need to work hard to get my lungs going at anywhere near capacity as the leg muscles need working up. I did manage to do 5 miles a couple of times, and much faster the 2nd time, but ended up with huge sore welts on my bottom from the saddle 🙁 So having to give that a rest for a little while now as well.
I guess all I can say is that sporting challenges very finely focus human motivation and the ability to triumph, but these are traits that nonetheless can be repeated in every aspect of our lives. Sometime the challenge is getting a PB on a race day, or running further than ever before. But at times the challenge is just getting through the day, or staying mentally strong to get over an injury, or coming through any of the other 100’s of trials and perils we face on a daily basis. 😉
Posted on Jun 17, 2008 under Cross Training - Bike |
On the road back from injury – what has surprised me is the devastating mental effect an injury can have. It is not like I am an elite athlete, and running is basically my life – I have no idea how it must affect top athletes in any sport when they are sidelined. But in my case, I took up running because of very difficult events in my life, as a better way of dealing my stress and depressive states than my usual addictions of the past (drink, drugs, all bad stuff!). So the running has been so good for me – but every time I start to get to new levels, I seem to get an injury. The first time I think was from not using proper shoes – I had some hip pain, but that didn’t come back once I got proper shoes. The next injury was from a gentle swim – groin strain from unaccustomed breast stroke – so I worked my way back and even managed to race. Then, I start flying ready for my next race, have a weekend on the coast, and fall in a boat and smash my ribs up… I tried a jog last week, but it was no go, so decided to rest – the ribs are painful in a morning but seem to get easier, for a time it was hard to take a full deep breath, but that is slowly improving…
Anyway, I did thirty mins on exercise bike today. At first my legs didn’t feel right, but as my ribs weren’t complaining, I made a go of it, and worked up a sweat, going fast when my legs could handle it, slowing when they protested, but kept going. I actually felt my body start to feel happier – sounds strange, but my moods and energy levels have been dropping since the injury, so body must have been happy just to get the blood pumping.
The good news is that the ribs were ok taking deep breaths, so at least I have a form of cross training to keep me going for now – my dilemma is whether to still aim to do the city of Manchester 10k (without much training) or just skip it. But I will monitor the ribs and see how things pan out.
