Ramblings of an Injured Runner

You learn a lot during breaks from running.  It's almost like going to visit an entirely different culture as you go from one extreme to another.  You go from eating whatever you want, using a lot of soap and deodorant and always feeling pressed for time to being able to take a few extra deep breaths, wake up feeling more refreshed and have to eat less tasty food.

For four weeks my bum hamstring (or biceps femoris) has put me on the disabled list.  Normally, when I'm hurt or taking a break or whatever, I don't really think about running anymore.  I still keep up with what's going on with my running friends and troll Lets Run a little bit but I really don't think about my own running very much.  I wear a lot of hats and when the running hat is off, I forget about it.  And I definitely don't have the desire to try and cross-train to maintain my fitness.  When I fall off the saddle, I usually dust myself off and start over again.

But this injury has yanked on my soul because I was hungry (literally, as well as motivation wise), training well and ready to make a statement.  And just when things were starting to go well, it came crashing yet again.

These past four weeks have reinforced some things I've already learned and taught me some new things.  And since I'm spending less time running, I can spend more time writing this kind of crap.  But here's what I've realized during this current injury...

Abs are made in the kitchen (unless you do a lot of endurance training). The thing I quickly learn during all planned running breaks and running injuries is that for me, cardio is king when it comes to losing weight and burning calories, regardless of what you Facebook friends are trying to sell you. And not just random running around, doing burpees and a bunch of other random crap for thirty minutes, but long-extensive stuff. It's also great for lowering your testosterone levels!

And when you are doing nothing at all, you quickly realize if you want to keep those abs you worked so hard to get, you have to control yourself in the kitchen. Eating over 4,000 calories a day during hard training blocks isn't always easy and if I'm not careful, I lose weight pretty quickly. It gives me an excuse to down a healthy hefty amount of junk food.  All in the name of recovery, right? But when my metabolism is literally cut in half, my abs are quickly traded for a muffin top. I have no qualms stating that I'd be fat pretty quickly if I didn't run.  So hopefully, I can run soon because I don't want to have to live a life of chicken and vegetables.

Almost six years ago.  And I put on another 10 lbs. after that picture (even though I was lifting and jogging a few times a week) which was also about 35-40 pounds over my racing weight

You feel like a lonely, single person on Valentines Day when all your friends are in committed relationships. Now, don't get me wrong.  I have several single friends who are very content with their life and the freedom it entails.  I'm talking about those anti-Valentines Day people who's rants only show their own insecurity and need for dependence on others.

A few weeks ago, I liked checking Strava and seeing how people were doing.  Now, I hate looking at that thing.  I even have stayed away from Instagram a good bit.  I don't want to read about your stupid runs when I'm still completely bitter about not being able to do my own. So hopefully no one feels shafted that I haven't been giving them any "kudos" on Strava (disclaimer: the athletes that I coach are exempt from this bitterness and I continue to live some of my running glory through them). Normally this isn't an issue at all but for some reason, this bum hamstring has resulted in me becoming quite senile lately.

You can function with a lot less sleep. I'm a night owl, who lives in a house full of early birds. I wake up at 5:15am during the school week and usually head to bed around 10:30, regardless if I'm training hard or not training at all.  I should probably go to bed earlier, but I like having a couple of hours to watch the shows my wife hates and mentally unwind a little bit more.  When I'm training hard, it takes a lot of coffee and tea to not feel like zombie during the day and I always tell myself that I need to go to bed earlier.  But of course, I never listen.  But when I'm not running, I actually feel pretty normal the next day and can function really well off of 6-7 hours of sleep a night.  And I have even traded my caffeine heavy coffee for some classy, loose tea. 

You have a lot more free time. The math is easy.  Training takes up about 10% of the day and when you don't train, you get 10% of the day back.  Lunch breaks are more about eating lunch and I can go home and relax a little bit rather than rushing to run after school before picking up Kate at daycare and then heading home for dinner.  I would hope the extra time would make me more productive but it doesn't. And so I don't sound like a bad father, yes I play with my kids with the extra time but I'm also a little bit more lazy as well.

Hopefully in a few weeks, you'll see a leaner, encouraging, overly sleepy and pushed for time runner!

Lessons Learned from an Injured Runner

Since being on the disabled list, I've learned a lot of things.  Some are obvious, while others will hopefully make me a better runner in the future.  But here's what I've learned about being injured, in no particular order.


1.  You have a ton more free time. Well, technically I wouldn't call it free time, since there's always stuff to do.  But freeing up 2-3 hours a day gives you much more time to do stuff you need to do (cleaning and yard work), stuff you want to do (spend time with my family) and catch up on new TV shows you just started, such as The Sopranos, which may sneak into my top 5 all-time TV dramas.

2. You have to watch what you eat. Man, this is my biggest struggle.  When I'm running a lot, I just eat whatever.  Eating is a habit/hobby because I constantly snack throughout the day, whether I'm hungry or not. Food is fuel, right? Yeah, I get grief from some coworkers, being in I'm a school with only two male teachers and over 50 ladies and hear about how they wish they had my metabolism.  Rather than say, "you could if you ran over 100 miles a week", I just tell them I have to fuel the furnace.  But right now, the furnace is broken. I'm literally burning 1/2 as much calories a day than I was when I was running. But I still find myself in the constantly snacking habit, which has resulted in a few gained pounds and I went from having some abs slowly sneaking their way in to having them jiggle.  Since I should curb that as quickly as possible, I need to have the willpower to shut it down.  But being I'm a fat man in a skinny man's body, it's tough.  So I've resorted to eating more filling things like non-fried chicken and those things people call vegetables.  Maybe in the big picture, my injury will work out for the greater good because it will force me to eater cleaner, which will hopefully carryover to when I start running again. But I definitely learned that it's very hard to not gain weight when you're not exercising.  Two thousand calories isn't much food!

3. I'm pretty lazy. Sorry, no cross training for me.  If I tried, it would probably hurt my hip but even if it didn't, I just don't have that much motivation to head to the gym and sweat away on the elliptical machine.  Maybe one of those fancy ElliptiGO things would be fun but I'm not doing my cardio indoors.

4. Out of site, out of mind. In college, I would freak out while I was injured.  I constantly worried about how much fitness I was losing, how I would get back in shape, etc.  Now, I don't care as much.  Yeah, I felt like I was a couple months away from being in sub 63 half-marathon shape and taking some big scalps at the 25k Championships in May.  And since I'm a few months away from turning 33, I don't have very many peak spring racing seasons left. But life goes on and when training hard and running big races are temporarily out of the picture, I lose a lot of focus.  When I'm training hard, I'm training hard. Most of the time, I don't want to head out the door twice a day.  It's mentally draining and there's other things I'd rather be doing.  But I make myself because I understand each run has a purpose and if I slack off, my goals won't be met.  I live a busy life, so when running isn't a priority, I forget about it. Right now, I don't have much motivation to resume training and when I do, I'll start back over and build for the fall.  And this time, I won't race my marathon with a moronic race strategy.

"Runners Knee"

After my Rocket City Marathon fail, I planned on running the Mississippi Blues Marathon. I was really fit and wanted to take advantage of my fitness. Unfortunately, I got a bum knee and had to miss a few weeks of training, which further rained on my winter marathoning parade. 

I'm a really analytical person and like trying to find the cause behind things. I wasn't sure what caused my knee problems. Overpronation? Weak quads? Tight rectus femoris? However, I found the most help from a poster on letsrun.com that gave me a ton of detailed, in-depth information about my injury.  She felt it could potentially be a secondary issue as a result of something else.  Having a kink somewhere in your kinetic chain can have a rippling effect and cause pain in a totally different area. 

While you can't diagnose someone or something over a computer (unless you're on Skype with your favorite medical professional), she thought an anterior tilt of my pelvis could have been playing a role.  That rung a bell because I've always felt like I lean too far forward when I run.  As a result, my hip flexors and glutes don't do their fair share of the work, which wreaks havoc on my illiotibial band and hamstrings, both of which were chronically tight.

After starting some core type work, some psoas and hip flexor stretches and focusing on running more "tall", with a more aligned pelvis, my injury slowly disappeared.  My hamstring and illitiobial tightness also went away and now when I run, my glutes actually get tired.  Those first few weeks of regular training, they were constantly tired and run-down because they were finally being activated.  Whether it was a neuromuscular or muscle strength issue, I don't know...But at least it went away. 

To make a long story short, here is a great post about runner's knee, which debunks a lot of myths about the issue and looks at the real causes:

http://runningwritings.blogspot.com/2012/03/injury-series-uncovering-role-of-hip.html