I’m a klutz. I’m one of those people who will wake up with a bruise and not know what it’s from. If I’m opening a package with any kind of hard plastic I’m sure to wind up with a cut trying to pry the thing open. I have no coordination and so I’m a runner…even then I have enough trouble staying erect.
You'll also never catch me in a shoe with heels over 1mm...FACEPLANT!! 😛
Injuries stink and they come with being a runner, but the injuries or pulls, strains, niggling pains that come from a NON-running related event burn a million times more. Mostly because we have no one to blame but ourselves. (well, usually…getting hit by a car really sucks and in those cases there are others to blame…lol…well, kinda lol.)
The falls, the trips, the blood, the cracked bones, these can and do happen in life and as a runner when a ‘life injury’ keeps us from our favorite past-time it burns something fierce. I knew a runner who was taking the garbage can to the curb one dark night, slipped on some ice and ended up landing right on her tailbone. She had the Olympic Marathon Trials coming up mere weeks away and she thought she had broken it. Her tail bone ended up having a really bad bone bruise that healed up but she still couldn’t run for a few days.
Sorry, yes to post this one again...but gotta get my mileage out of this because it's true! Haha.
I’ve fallen plenty of times running, to the point where I’ve been a bloody mess and gravel in my palms but I got up, finished the tempo run, then had the delight of washing the caked, bloody mess with disinfectant. Fun. Thankfully I guess my body’s just used to self-abuse due to idiotism and for the most part I’ve been lucky that most of these falls and other life injuries haven’t curtailed my running on too many occasions. Again, outside of the car debacle.
I recently just did an article for Competitor about getting injured while you’re injured: ‘Cross-Training 101: Avoiding Over-Training When Injured’. It’s possible to injure yourself in a new way, or re-injure yourself, when you’re already hurt and cross-training. Trust me, those sting too because you think, “What the heck, now I can’t even run for longer because of my cross-training routine?!”
It’s happened to plenty of us, my hip flexors like to scream at me when I’m delegated to the elliptical for long periods of time. There isn’t any activity that simulates running exactly, running is running. So while there are plenty of other options that can mimic it and give you a workout that will maintain that strength and endurance, they are all using slightly different muscles to do that.
The article also covers over-training while cross-trainng…oh, the over-zealous injured runner taking out all their fury out on the machines. They then end up over doing it and digging themselves into a hole of fatigue. Again, been there, done that, not fun.
We don’t live in a bubble…sometimes life and other activities can wind up leaving us injured and unable to get in those precious miles. (one of the main reasons, outside of fear, that I’ll never get on a skateboard…that’s got disaster for me written all over that!)
Accepting those running related injuries is manageable, but the other ones, they can unleash a runner’s fury like nothing else! Beware fellow klutzes, be safe out there. 😉
1) What was the last non-running related injury that you had? Or, what was the last ‘life injury’ that somehow left you mangled and forced to curtail your usual workout routine?
2) Are you a klutz and tend to wind up abusing the heck out of yourself by sheer accident?
3) When cross-training, what’s your usual go-to and have you ever injured yourself while cross-training?
I usually go the elliptical route and that wakes up my hip flexors; aqua-jogging also does that to them. But I know this so I give those hip flexors some extra TLC while I’m injured.
OHH man this post is like my life lol!! I’m a huge klutz, and that’s why I will never wear heels and I’m hesitant to do stuff like downhill ski and skateboard haha. Actually two weeks ago, I accidently slammed my chair down on my big toe and couldn’t walk on it for a few days – thankfully it was just tissue bruising (and I totally lost the toenail haha), but like….yeah, dumb. And I read the article on competitor and it’s definitely true. There was also an article about Lauren Fleshman in RT this month, and it was like “she cross trains 45-75 minutes 5 days a week” and I was like…”oh damn, that’s way less than I was doing” EPIC FAIL! no wonder I was struggling to get back to running, my body just couldn’t keep up with my excessive XT. It’s hard to remember your body’s trying to heal! PS what do you do for your hip flexors? my issues were totally due to the elliptical & pool running, but obviously bike and run aren’t really helping the healing process…I’m at a total loss lol.
haha…power to the klutz clan!! 🙂 oh, for those hip flexors, i do my best to stretch them (gently, not to the point past pain…gotta be careful not to just irritate them more!) throughout the day. ice them also, and give them that TLC. 😛 the foam roller and self massage can help too, but only do that AFTER a day or so at least that the flexors start really being sore, u just wanna be sure not to irritate them further.
I am a klutz-deluxe and face planted the floor yesterday because I tripped over my puppy = fat lip, gashed head and 2 very bruised knees along with arm strain from “trying” to prevent the fall. How I manage to stay on my feet running is a mystery to me 🙂
awww, i hope u’re feeling better soon!
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