Now a month into the new year, with 8% of the year behind me, I can reflect on where this year’s running journey might take me. A mere month ago I really couldn’t, as I had no running days in the log book for the previous two months. With a phantom knee injury having me seek physical therapy, I backed away from my usual return to running after an injury, which by the way was simply to start running again, I looked for a solution by way of consultation. Luckily my physical therapist is also my former co-coach for cross country, and we both know what the end goal is for my rehabilitation. To simply get back to running.
My running history has been punctuated by periods of injury, both in my youth and as a more mature runner. From the time I ripped the ligaments which hold your ankle bones in place and connect your lower leg to your foot during the state cross country championships, to my most recent specific injury of driving my big toe back into the joint at the ball of the foot, shortening the toe by about half an inch, I’ve had a series of compounding injuries that sidelined me and at times had me seek medical attention.
In my earlier days I certainly rushed back to training, sometimes running through whatever injury it was that I had acquired. A handful of times I wrapped an ankle in an ace bandage or two, found some flat ground to run on, and simply plowed through whatever the ailment was. I was conscious of not affecting my gait too much, or suffer the chance of creating another injury. At times I’d swear off running on the road, only to return when finding a soft wooded path wasn’t practical. Or the opposite, swearing off the trail, as the loose footing and hidden roots having been the latest reason for my running casualty.
In my later years, not able to “fake” not being injured, I was more apt to take some time off, finding other activities to try to take the place of running. People would often offer up I should add cross training to my repertoire, like mountain biking, or swimming, but when what you love is running, replacing that time with something you don’t enjoy really isn’t the answer. Some even suggested the treadmill, or elliptical, heralding the benefits without the chance of injury. But I consider banging my head against the wall a potential for injury, so I’ll stay away from those activities that mimic the act of running with no forward progress.
But this latest return to running is different from any other return to running I’ve done over my running career. I’ve spent the last four weeks building up to running, starting with four 4 minutes walking with 1 minute of running segments over twenty minutes every other day. Each week I run one more minute per segment while walking one less minute. Now finally up to twenty minutes straight.
The difference now is that I also have been incorporating strength work into my routine along with more specific stretching. Not that I never stretched before, but it was often overruled when the option was five minutes of stretching at the end or five more minutes of running. I was working with Reuben, Becka’s husband and co business partner in Elevation PT in Peterborough early in the program and he asked me about my stretching routine. I told him I was doing all the exercises they had assigned me. He then said no, I mean what was your stretching routine prior to seeking therapy. I said I didn’t have one. When he inquired why not I told him obviously I didn’t need one as I was able to run….
These are not the opinions I now hold, or so my physical therapist tell me. The current strength routines along with thee stretching is with me now for the rest of my running career, and if I decide not to, the simple answer is not much later I’ll lose my ability to run.
So for the time being anyway, I am finding ways to incorporate these activities in the open spaces in my day to day life. I don’t always get to everything as I’d like to, but I’m thinking about it, and might take five minutes out of what I’ve got going on in the office to stretch my calves or do some toe raises. And like I said, it’s working. Or at least enough that what I’ve got going on almost feels like, and kind of looks like running, and to be honest, I’m just happy with that.
This past Thursday, after swinging through to see Amelia at school, I headed over to Gilford for a maple symposium I was putting on as part of my job at Ag in the Classroom. I needed a place for a run, and as we’re considering a move closer to my work with some of the things we’d like to see in town we retire to, I parked the car across from the track at Opechee Park in Laconia with the intention of running by a potential house for sale. The snow from earlier in the week was still present on the sidewalks, making the trek a bit slipperier than might be best for recovery running, but I was careful of footing and simply took it a bit easier.
As I cruised the neighborhood, herky jerky from trying to find the best foot placement, I realized regardless of injury, I’d be looking similar in my movements though maybe a touch slower. With the wind coming off the lake, ice cream headache while running into it, I was working up a sweat in the cold conditions meaning I was getting in a workout, something elusive over the last couple months. As I strode out on some dry pavement I realized for that moment I was really running. And I was enjoying it.
I’ll see you out there.
