The Boston Marathon is officially less than 11 weeks away; I can’t believe it! It’s definitely going to sneak up on me and scare me half to death. My trainings been going pretty alright…not great, but not terrible.
The first few weeks of training I wasn’t feeling that great so I laid off the runs. About a week ago, I fell skiing (overly confident down a black run with TONS of powder <– stupid) and twisted my ankle. I actually came home that evening and everything felt fine so I went for a 3 mile run (<–again, stupid). Once I got home though, my ankle was killing me. Killing me to the point where I couldn’t walk on it. It actually really worried me. I briefly thought we needed to go to the doctor immediately but decided to sleep on it first. Luckily, it feels a lot better so I think it was just a nasty roll. But since it hurt so bad, I didn’t do my 12 miles on Sunday.
So, needless to say I’m a little behind. Since I’m only a few days behind, I’m going to pick up where I should be this week: 3 miles, 6, 3, then a half marathon! Of course, this is assuming my ankle feels okay.
The thing about running injuries is, every runner knows what’s best for them: no running. Unfortunately for most, this is not an option. That is the last thing you want to hear especially when you’re training for something you’ve been looking forward to for a while.
I’m honestly usually not very good at taking breaks from working out when my body needs it. My patience doesn’t last very long. The minute I feel better or “fine” I’m out running or lifting weights again. Not this time folks!
My fall actually really scared me….I think enough to realize that I’m not invincible and I could easily hurt myself to the point where I can’t run at all. That means no Boston. I would be so upset with myself if the reason I dropped out of Boston was because I wasn’t using my head skiing (or doing anything else). It’s simply not worth it.
So, I took the time off that I needed and eased back into the running. I went for a walk on Monday and everything felt fine. Yesterday, I did a 3 mile jog/walk and again, everything was good. I was curious how it would feel after the run and luckily, I felt nothing.
I’m no doctor, but I’m thinking I just twisted my ankle and it needed some time to heal. It feels pretty good now but I actually declined skiing today sort of out of fear I’d fall again. Obviously, I don’t have to go down black runs, but falls aren’t just limited to blacks. Falling in skies is the worst.
Anyway, for now I’ll try to focus on keeping my body healthy if I’m going to successfully complete Boston. If that means less skiing, then so be it. As far as exercise is concerned, priority number 1 is Boston.
Have you ever experienced an injury that forced you to quite running/working out? How did you deal with it?
I hurt my hamstring this past summer. It was bad enough that I had to stop running COMPLETELY for almost 2 months and, obviously, had to drop out of the race that I had been training for. Even walking to/from class was a task, even sitting down and bending over. It was terrible. But, it was during that time that I learned that I LOVE weight lifting. I’m back in action and training for my first marathon now.
thats a good point though…that you find other things, new interests when you can’t do what you’ve always done. good luck with the marathon! which one you running?
Oh man, so scary! I’m so glad your fall wasn’t worse than that. I would feel the same after – nervous over another injury but you’re doing the right thing by pulling back on certain activities that could be injury-prone (like skiing!). I’ve come back from injuries before and it always left me a little bit timid at first to get back out there for fear of re-injury, but at some point, you just gotta trust your body and go for it, right?
I’ve been injured a few times and had to take time off. It’s so tough mentally!
Glad your injury is going to hold you up from the race. Just keep at it the best you can! You can do it!!