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

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?

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

  1. oh man. can totally relate to this post and absolutely love it. I missed running every single second when I was injured…then the weird thing was that when I was able to run again…it took SO long to get over being frustrated that I could not just start running where I left off so I gave up for a while…it was a vicious cycle but I think right now I am in a place where I am appreciative…of how tough it is on my body, the fact that I am able to run, my body's limits, etc.

    I am loving the bike though…it feels like a great alternative to running right now. When I was injured though I became obsessed with strength training 🙂

  2. awww what a sweet entry!
    And yeah…"life ain't always beautiful". :).

    I love love love the bike, but luckily haven't been injured since high school (I have ankles like a horse…think that's why…)

    First thing in the morning…put in contacts…I'm blind !

  3. julia, so happy that u've made it over the 'hump' of feeling like u aren't where u want to be and being smart about working back into it. ya, it's a little bit of a cold slap of reality those first runs back…but thank goodness muscle memory does work to our advantage and comes around rather quickly! (even tho it might not feel nearly fast enough! haha)

    thanks margs! 🙂 haha…thank those sturdy ankles baby! i am constantly feeling like the only person around who isn't a biker too! 😛

  4. I'm so sorry you are injured 🙁 Get better soon!!! You will be back before you know it! When I was injured last year, I got into spinning, but it wasn't the same…

  5. Ahhh I hope you're better soon! 🙁

    I love to spin and elliptical! Not the same as running at all, but it works when my shins are acting up.

    First thing in the morning I made a piping hot cup o' joe and suck it down so that I can act like a human 🙂 Not a morning person!

  6. thanks you both!! but i have to say i'm sorry i musta given the impression that I'M the one who is injured, *knock on wood* i'm up and running right now but it's our bloggy friend who is injured at the moment and her post was a reminder to me to not take for granted being injury free!

    that said, haha u crack me up, kristine, and i'll know never to bother u before ur joe! and thank u so much for stopping by keri…u're post on inspirational quotes gives us some new places for a pick-me-up. 🙂

  7. I'm so lucky that I haven't been injured (knock on wood) and I feel super bad whenever I read of my blogger friends is injured 🙁
    My favourite cross training method? Not really a fan of the elliptical or the bike but I suppose the elliptical is the lesser of the two evils. I have been known to whine through an entire cross training session on the elliptical (because I'm a two year old like that…)
    The first thing I do is check my emails to see what my beautiful boy in the states has emailed me over night 🙂
    Hideous half marathon photo on the way 🙂

  8. My go to is the elliptical also. Much like you, me and water are not friends. I do not look graceful doing the doggie paddle around the pool. My bicycle got bent somehow recently so that is not an option and getting a new one or fixing it is not in the budget.

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