The mental torture of running injury
I've set off on my running journey (metaphorically speaking) three times in the last few years and each time I have been hampered by shin splints. I have taken all the advice offered, tried everything and still have the same issue. When I first started running I had issues with breathing and muscle pain and other niggles but I've mastered the breathing and my legs feel strong, I can still walk after a long run (long for me is 10k), now it's just that leg that stops me. I curse that shin, it mocks me when it should be on my side. Injury seems to be part and parcel of running but it's more than just the physical pain.
It was just over a week ago that I ran 10k with the lovely Running Fit West Yorkshire bunch. The following day every step sent a jolt of pain up my left shin, a now familiar pain. A full week later I could just start walking without pain. All the advice for shin splints is to not run, for anything up to six weeks or at least until it is no longer painful. The annoying thing is that you don't necessarily know that it is no longer painful until you actually set off running so you can get yourself all hyped up and kitted out and five running steps is enough to tell you to go home.
Every time you see a runner out doing their thing you feel a pang of jealousy. If the weather is just perfect and you're in the mood and all the conditions are right and the universe seems to be conspiring to ensure that you can run to your heart's content and the only thing stopping you is that stupid injury you wonder if you should just go anyway but then it hurts and you feel sad and angry. If you already feel sad and angry and that's the ideal time to go getting some endorphins going, it just doesn't happen because you feel more sad and angry.
Running injury is a pain in the wallet. I've spent more on various kit and physio sessions than anything else running related. Compression everything, kinesiology tape, insoles, ibuprofen...
There's the mental torture of feeling your fitness levels ebb away day by day, all that training going to waste. I know they say to cross train and mix it up but running was the thing I wanted to do.
If you are injured I feel your pain; the physical and emotional.
It was just over a week ago that I ran 10k with the lovely Running Fit West Yorkshire bunch. The following day every step sent a jolt of pain up my left shin, a now familiar pain. A full week later I could just start walking without pain. All the advice for shin splints is to not run, for anything up to six weeks or at least until it is no longer painful. The annoying thing is that you don't necessarily know that it is no longer painful until you actually set off running so you can get yourself all hyped up and kitted out and five running steps is enough to tell you to go home.
Every time you see a runner out doing their thing you feel a pang of jealousy. If the weather is just perfect and you're in the mood and all the conditions are right and the universe seems to be conspiring to ensure that you can run to your heart's content and the only thing stopping you is that stupid injury you wonder if you should just go anyway but then it hurts and you feel sad and angry. If you already feel sad and angry and that's the ideal time to go getting some endorphins going, it just doesn't happen because you feel more sad and angry.
Running injury is a pain in the wallet. I've spent more on various kit and physio sessions than anything else running related. Compression everything, kinesiology tape, insoles, ibuprofen...
There's the mental torture of feeling your fitness levels ebb away day by day, all that training going to waste. I know they say to cross train and mix it up but running was the thing I wanted to do.
If you are injured I feel your pain; the physical and emotional.
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