Here is the third installment of Sarah’s road to recovery and her return to running. Read Part 1 and Part 2 to get caught up.
Age: It’s a blessing and a curse when it comes to running injuries.
A curse because, well, the older we get, the more our bodies rebel and develop injuries. And a blessing because with age comes the wisdom with which to view an injury. That it’s (most likely) temporary, no matter how firmly entrenched it seems at the moment. Aging has given me the perspective to see that things do truly change, even if the change seems glacial (see: potty-training; learning a new language; weeding a garden).
Co-host Amanda and I touched on this topic in the intro chitchat of last week’s podcast: She’s injured from a nasty spill on a trail run, and I’m finally (finally!) coming back from several bulging disks. I shared that, for me, the toughest part of my injury was the uncertainty each new day brought. I could go to bed feeling relatively pain free and mobile…and wake up with pain shooting down my inner thighs and wincing as I made my way to the bathroom.
Yet now I’m able to reflect back on how dire my situation was, say, last Mother’s Day when my husband had to call our then-16-year-old son to pick me up as I couldn’t hobble the half-mile from the restaurant to our AirBnB in Bend, Oregon.
Even as recently as last month, my back/inner thighs seemed to be backsliding (no pun intended!), and I pressed pause on my return to running. I had worked my way up to four non-stop miles yet they never felt 100% right: When I’d slow down to wait at a busy intersection or resume running after stopping to change podcasts, I’d feel a bit like a cowboy getting off a horse after a long ride. Slightly hobbled.
Last week I eased back into running. (For some reason, pickleball has never aggravated my back so I’ve been able to play for four to six hours/week, along with swimming and strength training.) The three miles felt markedly, delightfully different than my April miles: No tight hips, no sudden fire-bursts of inner-thigh pain, and no hitch in my giddyup when I stopped or resumed running. Perhaps best of all, as I told Amanda on the pod, no residual discomfort or compromised movement for the rest of the day.
During those three miles and afterward, I felt like my old self. Not old as in my DOB on my driver’s license or the age category I might one day check again on race registration forms, but like my former self. My pre-injured self. And I was able to reflect back even just a few weeks and see the progress I’d made.
I’ve still got a ways to go. Like my back, my pesky left knee is calming down considerably (thanks to wearing my trusty GO Sleeve Knee Sleeve whenever I feel a twinge, which happens most often after pickleball, never after running). I ran 2.25 miles the day after that feel-like-2021-self, and I was even able to crank up the pace ever so slightly. And thanks to the wisdom I’ve gained over the years, I know my recovery is still probably going to be two steps forward and one step back—but at least that results in forward progress!
Woo hoo! Pickleball GOLD! Glad to hear your return to running progress is moving in the right direction.
[…] sweat trickling down my torso and legs—but I was aware of the exertion. Especially during my return to running after a long bulging-disks-related layoff. I was grateful beyond words to be running again yet I […]