Not Running: dealing with illness and injury
This post is sponsored by adidas, who make running gear that reminds me I belong outside on the trails and not on the sofa.
This year has been, more or less, a washout when it comes to my running. Last year I started racing and apart from the odd twinge, nothing happened that stopped me from running. Perhaps I even thought that I’d nailed something in my training, because all runners ever talk about is getting injured, and I wasn’t. This year couldn’t have been more difficult.
This year, I’ve downgraded distance in one race, had to cancel entries to three and not entered several more that I’ve wanted to do because I know I’m not in the right state for them. It’s been so frustrating that now it feels as though my racing life is cursed. I’m being dramatic, but that’s how it feels.
A pattern emerges
Late last year I started training for the Grizzly, a 20-mile trail race that takes place on rollercoaster-like cliffs and deep valleys. By training, I mean using the incredibly steep hill behind my house as a warm-up, often setting off for the runs with numb and having been sat down at work for the previous eight hours. Not ideal, but I don’t get injured, right?
The first indication that all was Not Right was a bout of achilles tendonitis that I sometimes ran through and sometimes didn’t. Then came shin splints, which flared up now and again throughout the first eight months of the year. I raced through them three times, which didn’t help. In September, I managed to spectacularly sprain my shoulder, leading to withdrawing from an upcoming triathlon. Just after I went for my second run during the recovery from that, I came down with Covid for the first time.
And that leads me to now. My lungs and energy levels are returning to normal after Covid and I’m raring to get back out there. The hardest part of this isn’t going to be fitness – I ran 8km off-road just before I got ill and it was fine – it’s going to be pacing myself, focusing on warm-ups and strength training, and not running fast straight off the bat. All things I’m historically bad at, and I know I’m not alone.
Staying positive
Earlier this year I interviewed the ultra-runner Beth Pascall for XTERRA. I wasn’t talking to her about some incredible win (although she’s had plenty), instead I was talking to her about being injured. She was at the tail end of almost a year of rehab for pelvic injury, one that had stopped her not only from running, but even from walking for a while.
One of the hardest things Beth found about her injury was simply staying positive when she couldn’t get out running, cycling or hiking at all. When you don’t know how long your recovery will be, it’s hard to see it as anything other than an endless, dark abyss. She stuck to her rehab plan though and pushed her patience to the limit, and now she’s back racing again with a much greater appreciation of injury.
The plan
This year has been so frustrating and I’ve only made it worse by being impatient, so with that in mind, I’m going to lay out some rules for myself. I can’t create a rigid training plan because the moment I do, life gets in the way and throws it out of whack. Instead, I’m going to tie each run to a corresponding amount of complementary training.
For every run, I’ll do a warm-up and cool down, then a short session of strength training and a yoga session in the same week. This is based off nothing scientific particularly, more like the condensation of having read approximately one million articles on this kind of stuff. If I tie these things together, they’ll support each other.
The gear
I’m super happy to say that adidas are sponsoring this blog post, which means I get to run around in some wicked gear this winter. My main priority is finding shorts that have decent pockets. I’m not kidding, this is important. I run with my phone for routing and taking photos, so I need a pocket that can hold it plus ideally one that has a sweat-proof backing. Recently, I’ve been wearing the adidas TERREX trail running shorts and their Own the Run short tights. If you’ve seen my latest video, you’ll know that my usual and previously beloved running shorts are completely see-through, something I did not know until recently.
When the Own the Run shorts arrived, the first thing I did was put them on and bend right over in front of the mirror. Could I see what underwear I had on? Nope! Combined with my adidas sports bra and Serious Hair, I can now be sure that I’m not mortifying any passing hikers whenever I bend over to tie my shoelaces.
Not only are these shorts not see-through, they also have a pocket I can get my phone into. Win.
