Posts in the Injuries Category at , Page 6

I’m Ice Cold, Baby — All About Injuries and Preventing Them

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Cait — 12 Comments ↓

*Cue Vanilla Ice here* Side-tangent for a moment, does anyone remember watching him in that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie…oh, good times.

Now back on topic: ice. I’ve said many a time that injuries in our sport are a necessary evil that always sort of lurk in the back of our minds. At least for me, anytime I feel a new niggle, twang, soreness, whatever, there is a little knot in my stomach. Inner dialogue: “Oh, it’s nothing….what if it’s not…I’m sure it’s nothing and just forget it…but what if it turns into something…don’t think about it and it won’t exist…what if I can’t run tomorrow…you will, shut up…”

I get a little depressed when I'm injured.

The thing is, as ridiculous as it sounds, the doom of being forced out of running due to an injury has built up to monstrous proportions in my mind. Forget Halloween, it’s the injury boogeyman we need to be worried about. Cross-training of course is readily available, but we know how I feel and I’d rather be running…of course something is better than nothing, but you know what I mean.

So in the end, we know that the injury boogeyman could be lurking around the corner, BUT we do all we can to outsmart him. Here’s a few things to stay ahead of the game:

*Ice it, Baby. I’m not going to lie, ice has little magical powers in my mind. The best thing to do is if you have anything that’s sore or bothering you, get ice on it as soon after your run as possible. Ice for up to 15 minutes at a time on one spot (any longer you could risk some nerve damage); you can ice multiple times a day, just keep an eye on the clock. Though, don’t ice right before you are about to workout, that would not be smart and you would most likely end up pulling something! Oh, and by the way, what works well for tricky spots is to fill dixie cups with water and freeze them; then just peel down the paper and rub that ice on there.

*Diligent Stretching. Wow, this is a case of ‘do as i say, not as i do’ because I know I’m a bad girl for not stretching more; I do a little every day but not as much as I need to. The more flexible are, the more resistant to an injury you’ll be. That said, DO NOT go stretching crazy on a muscle that is newly sore or you think you pulled/strained. In fact, for instances like that, you want to give the trauma area at least a day of not stretching it (ice it instead) and then the next day you can gently start stretching…but only to the point of no pain. Just hold the stretch longer and work into it.

*Self-massage. Spoiler alert, check out the December Issue of Running Times because I wrote a whole article on this. But self-massage works like stretching, you want to do little bits of it on a consistant bases to ward off an injury. Again, don’t start massaging a new injury with the intention of ‘treating it away’ because the tissues are already inflamed and you’ll irritate them more.

*Ibuprofen. These are my magic pills.

*Be smart. In the end, be honest with yourself and know when to cede. I’m the queen of pushing it, but think about the consequences. If it’s a big race, ya maybe you can risk it, but if there is no reason to push it then err on the side of cautious. Here is the rule I play by: if the pain hurts when you start running but then as you get going it goes away/gets better then you’re probobaly fine. But, if it works in the opposite way, and the pain get worse the further you go then you should ease up and cross-train.

*Make frieds with cross-training. As much as it may sting, that cross-training can still keep you in great shape and like I said, it’s so much better than doing nothing. Supplement with it, and I’ve found that even so much as just a few days of the lower impact exercise can work wonders on a spot giving you a beef.

On that note…as our oh so smart friend said, “Ice, Ice, Baby.”

1) Do you get mini-anxiety attacks when you are faced with a potential injury?
I have nightmares of the injury boogeyman chasing me.

2) What are some of your tips for assesing or warding off an injury?

3) Anyone racing this weekend?

What NOT to do When Running — All or Nothing is Not Smart

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Cait — 2 Comments ↓

At least I didn’t step in it! Yes, this girl with no coordination was at least able to dodge the steamy pile of horse doodoo on the bike trail today. My friend, no so lucky in the poop department and he wound up with a splatter of birdie variety. Heads up.

On that lovely opening, I had a run around the lake today and while it really only has some rolling hills it felt like mountains. I honestly have to do some serious hill work. But for this girl, of the past seven days, six of them were not on the treadmill. (Yesterday I did a little quasi-tempo effort on the treadmill. I call it quasi- because while it felt hard the pace is a nice slap of reality too…lol.) So, total miles outside works out to be: 66.

Would I recommend ANYONE do that? No. Listen to what I say, not what I do. Also, one of the main reasons I had to run outside was that my treadmill was being moved so I couldn’t get on it. Like I said, there are differences between inside vs. outside running and if you are only used to doing one, jumping full bore into the other is just plain not smart. What I would tell people is that you should gradually switch from one or the other; or if you are a science person, titrate the ratio.

If you don’t? A sore tushie, hams, and calf muscles. Actually, now it’s that I’ve got twin psoas tightnesses going on. [These are really deep muscles on either side of your stomach/abs.] The funny thing is I feel them the most going downhill, so just further proof I need hill work. 🙂 Actually, I’m lucky it’s just sorenesses; like I said: DON’T go all or nothing, and that really applies to anything.

For example, if you are just starting to build your mileage, don’t go from 15 miles per week to 30. Stupid move. If you’ve never done a 400 repeat in eons, don’t go to the track and bust out 20 your first time out. Not smart. If you’ve only been running on flats, don’t go to a super hilly trail and only run there until you think you’ve mastered hills. Ouch and not a good idea.

Why? You’ll wind up injured, overly sore and not want to run at all, or mentally set yourself up for failure. Instead: the rule of thumb is to only up your total weekly mileage by 10% each week. If you’re just starting to integrate faster workouts into your routine, start out with doing some faster strides at the end of some of your runs or in the middle as pick ups. From there it might be smart to move to fartleks and tempos before gutting out tough track workouts.

Finally, with hills it’s not just that you’ll be sore if you haven’t done them but your entire body will be a little thrown out of whack; most likely your form will be altered because you aren’t used to doing them and that can lead to pulling or tweaking something. Also, running downhill puts an exponential amount more stress on all your bones/tendons/ligaments/muscles than just regular running and they will make you sore too.

Summing up here? It’s all about easing into new stressors…or, for science folk, titrating. 🙂

1) What did you do today? Did anyone race?
No race, just 11 and change on the trail…sans horse doodoo. Then I had a lot of fun cheering my sister on at her soccer game! It was a tie, but at least they still have their no losing streak alive.

2) Do you find yourself breaking rules, or doing things you would never suggest anyone else do?

3) Anything exciting coming up for you?

Runner Buddies Unite! We’ll kick the butt of stupid injuries and make the world a better place ;)

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Cait — 8 Comments ↓

As per usual the day started off with this: debate about rolling over again and spending more time with my pillow (Since I’d already done that a few times I knew it was time to peel myself out of bed…lazy bones!!), swing myself over to the laptop, loaded up the emails, and then go my blog crawl on.

One of the fist posts I came across was over at The Hungry Runner Girl and Janae was talking about her current running situation…or more that because she’s coming back from another injury the lack of actual running. Trust me, the girl is still training like a champ it’s just of the cross-training variety.

But the thing is, and I myself can fully relate, as runners, even if we’re logging hours on the elliptical, bike, pool, weight room, whatever, we still feel like slackers. Heck, we could be a drippy sweaty mess and so obviously putting the work and effort in, but it just doesn’t ‘feel’ the same. It’s then really easy to get down on ourselves and sucked into that whole ‘I’ll never get back to it’ black hole.

(Injuries flipping SUCK!)

But Janae was doing the smart thing: she had her vent session (totally warranted and I think we ALL deserve those now and again, because the thing is, sometimes in life things just plain suck!!) but then she looked at things from a rational perspective and got proactive.

I tell people to have a window of letting yourself sort of ‘wallow’ in whatever the suckiness is in your life, get it all out there, but then stop. You have to purge those feelings because you can’t ignore them, but then you HAVE to cut it off because if you don’t shut that window you’ll never pull yourself out of the depressive cycle. From there you need to be as positive as possible, even to the almost-it’s-getting-annoying point.

(I hope you enjoy the little toon I have, maybe it can put a smile on your face, but feel free to pin it up and throw darts at it when the last thing you wanna see is a rainbowy unicorn trying to force you into staying positive! hehe)

I try to be a positive person about as much as I can, but trust me that’s not always easy and I’d be lying if I said it’s ALWAYS completely genuine. The thing is, I have to make myself think positive…fake it til you make it…and in this instance it’s okay to lie to yourself. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

Going through injuries, and just bad times in life, is really tough but if you don’t try to look for the light you might not make it through. And if you do, when you come out the other end you might look like a rat that crawled through the sewers. I use humor, I make jokes about anything and everything, I still like calling myself a gimp and am thinking of having a shirt made up that reads: Kankles 4 Life!

Getting hit by the car aside, I’ve had other obstacles in my life (usually self-imposed) and shiznit, we ALL do, but as dark as it seems at that time the world goes on. The sun will always rise in the morning…not saying you won’t want to curse that sun, but it will come up regardless.

Back to my Hungry Runner Girl friend, before I continue to veer off course like mad, runners get injured. Our sport is one of the most demanding on the old bones and bod, unfortunately injuries can come up out of nowhere, they can come at the worst possible time, and they can come at you wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am-right-after-the-other. Spending weeks, months, seasons on a cross-training machine can feel like he!! and it can demoralize even the strongest of folks. Honestly, I think coming back and battling through those things are what can really make you mentally stronger AND make you all that more hungry when you finally get back.

When you have running ripped away from you, you start to appreciate it more when you do finally get it back. And you will…trust me, it might feel like forever but you will get back.

But then when you are able to run and haven’t had an injury for awhile (lordy you never want to admit that though because you feel like you’re only tempting fate!!!) you can sort of forget that and start to take those miles for granted again. So, when I read Janae’s post it was a little reminder to me too, that I still need to remember how grateful I am for being able to run. (PS-that was only after I of course was sad for my at the moment injured runner friend, and I KNOW she’ll get back to tearing it up very soon!! Hang in there, girl!)

Not that I forgot that, but just that you know how everyday life is, when you have something around all the time it’s easy to just sort of expect it to be there tomorrow. Yet a little refresher is sometimes needed and so today on my run I was really present…I really enjoyed it…and I remembered how much I worked my butt off to get back to being able to do it.

So, I hope all you out there had a great workout today, regardless of if it was a run or if you busted your bum cross-training. And TRUST me, if you are injured or cross-training, that by NO MEANS robs you of your runner status…and it also does not make you a slacker, you can seriously kick your own butt in plenty of non-running ways. 😛

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I still wanna see those nasty-@$ running shots I KNOW you people have out there…hehe. 🙂 Please, don’t be shy and send some to me so I can do this fun little montage thang! 😉

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1) What is your favorite cross-training method of choice?

I’m all about the elliptical. I’m like a cat and hate the water and my butt goes numb on the bike after about T-minus 30 seconds.

2) How do you stay motivated through an injury if the time seems to stretch on for ages?

I’ve done things like making picture collages that I’d put on the front of my elliptical to look at and playlists that keep things fun, but there are always times when you wake up and want to burn that elliptical or bike to the ground…just kidding. No, but the best trick for me is to take it day by day, workout by workout, and not even think about tomorrow or how much ‘longer you’re in for’ because then it does seem like it might just stretch on forever. Focus on that single workout and do the same thing tomorrow than the days have a way of slipping by.

3) What’s the first thing you do when you wake-up?