My Old Friend: Injury

Ferry Field, the previous home field for Michigan football games, outdoor track and field and military training during World War II in Ann Arbor, MI. It is where Jesse Owens broke three track and field world records in 1935. The facility is now open to the general public for recreational use. I miss the crisp, early morning workouts with this beautiful backdrop.

Unfortunately, just around two months of working with TWB and Coach Johnny, my training was temporarily cut short due to bilateral hamstring tendinopathy. It came at a weird time when my training was in a controlled, easy, build up and hence I cannot blame over-training, hard workouts or high mileage. Injuries just happen. This one happened to be brewing for some time, and found the downtime in my training as its time to take advantage and rear its ugly head. 

I did the typical “run through the pain” training for weeks, and for weeks this held me up. I managed to run solid benchmark openers for the 3200m (12:14) and 5000m (19:33) as outdoor track time trials. I spent every morning hoping that I’d wake up and the pain would magically be gone. I’m sure everyone can agree with this next sentiment: we always hope that if we keep running through the injury, then maybe we are not truly injured and that it’s been misconstrued by our heads? Well the mind is a powerful tool (notice a theme in all my writing?) because the day I succumbed to my injury was when the pain came in raging and activities of daily living such as putting on socks became intolerable. For weeks, I kept telling myself the pain wasn’t as bad and I continued to numb the pain by overtraining those muscles and tendons to the point of masking it with the assistance of my body’s natural endorphins. 

Injuries are never easy. I know this is a filler sentence and statement. But it has to be written to get through my thick skull. I was at the tip of an iceberg with my training. Things were clicking. The new training Coach Johnny had written up for me was working great and my body was positively reacting to it. There were peps in my step on daily runs instead of the typical post-workout shuffles I would generally experience for days. 

With a worldwide pandemic and the approaching MIchigan winter, an injury couldn’t have come at a better time. There are no races on the docket and the outdoor tracks are soon to be covered with ice and snow. Winter running in Michigan does turn into a hibernation-style of running with the daily motto of “just get it done”. I have a small running group that stays respectful to the virus and we have chosen to continue meeting for runs through this pandemic. It has become my only form of social interaction outside of my workplace environment. It has been difficult to see the group texts come through my phone of planned group runs without being able to attend, but I try to be there for them as much as possible. As they've supported me in my workouts and time trials, I will be there to support them on their runs. 

So, tonight, I am stuck indoors on a stationary bike trying to “kill” my bike workout of 3 x 8 minutes hard. The room is humid and hot. The mask is suffocating. And my heart and legs don’t understand why it feels so much harder to raise my heart rate while biking. But biking is the only thing that doesn’t cause pain at this time and I am thankful for that. I am thankful to have this form of meditation, endorphin release and stress relief during this pandemic and injury. This morning, I supported and watched my friends finish their Sunday long runs and now it’s my turn to sweat.