This week I kept to my promise (to myself) to begin cross training to build some aerobic fitness back before I run. With work being so crazy the last few weeks (I haven’t minded because it’s kept me busy), I’ve spent a lot of time sleeping versus going to the gym. I’ve needed the extra sleep honestly. I didn’t feel pressured to cross train before work but it felt good to get some cardio workouts in again. Nothing was stressful or strenuous…just easy workouts to build up some base fitness.
Monday: 1 hour easy elliptical
Tuesday: 1 hour cross training AMT easy
Wednesday: 30 minutes elliptical and core
Thursday: off
Friday: 1 hour elliptical
Saturday: off
Sunday: 1 hour AMT and core
As you can see, my working out was kind of all over the place. There was no rhyme or reason of why I chose to workout when I did. I just did. I didn’t set my alarm and if I woke up with extra time then I went to the gym. If I didn’t wake up earlier enough, I accepted it and moved on with my day. My goal this week was to actually get to the gym a few times and I did that.
I was talking to a coworker (who is trying to qualify for the trials). She is also injured and we were just chatting about our injuries and our response to them. We both chatted for a while about how this stinks but both of us have mentally let the injury go. We have both let the pressure of recovering quickly go.
We both have no pressure to hurry back into fitness and let our lives revolve around running. It was a really great chat. With every other injury I’ve had, I’ve felt pressure to get back into shape quickly. I’ve come to realize that running is life long if you care for yourself. It’s really awesome to hear the insight of such a high caliber athlete feeling the same way as I do. This general topic is something I’ve really been thinking a lot about lately and will post about soon.
This meme seemed appropriate for fall training.
That being said, tomorrow I have a doctor’s appointment for my foot. If everything goes as well as it has been, I will get to run one mile tomorrow. One easy mile and if it doesn’t hurt my goal is to run 10 miles on Tuesday, 12 on Wednesday, get my long run on Sunday and taper for Wineglass full marathon on October 4th (kidding).
If my one mile doesn’t hurt I might run another mile on Wednesday. (Edit to add: My foot doesn’t hurt at all right now when I walk or stand on it). When I do get back into running it will be on the conservative side. If all I run next week is one mile then that’s one mile more then this week. I want to set myself up for a good spring season and getting back slowly is the key to that.
I don’t foresee myself running high mileage until December at the very earliest. That being said, I could ramble about this and my doctor could tell me tomorrow I need to wait a few more weeks before running. I’m not confident that will happen but I’m not a doctor.
Questions for you:
Did you race this weekend, how did it go?
If you’ve been injured with a stress fracture how did you get back into working out?
I didn’t race and I haven’t had the injury, but I love that you’re back on track 🙂
I am very excited for you to run tomorrow! I feel like between all our texts we went through this injury thing together and it feels great to see you beat it and get back out there. Good luck with your appointment!
I agree Kris! I’m always excited to chat and bounce ideas off with you. You are such an inspiration to me and I’m always glad to have your support!
Good luck at the doctor!
I had a self-inflicted stress-fracture from playing soccer barefoot back in undergrad. It was from kicking the fence rather than the ball, but details aren’t important.
At any rate, I injured myself the last days of the spring, but sillily thought it was okay to continue running after a week of rest. It was very painful, but I kept it up through the summer because I couldn’t imagine not running. Again, more pain.
Yet when I returned to school in the fall, I decided I really needed to take a break. I shifted all my running energies into swimming. I joined the swim club and learned to freestyle properly for the first time in my life. I had free coaching! and I took advantage of it. Waking up in the morning to run was replaced by swimming, and I got to where I could swim two miles in the hour of practice.
Not only did I fully recover, but I didn’t miss not running and learned new skills that I can always fall back on.
My weekend was good. I ran a race on a trail and ate a ton of pancakes afterwards, so that’s always good. I’m going to an art class with a friend this evening which should also be fun.
I hope everything is okay and you get to run the mile tomorrow. When I came back from my injury I did walk/run for a few weeks while I was building mileage. I kept cross training with spin and BodyPump as well. It’s really good that you’ve let the mental pressuring of the “comeback” go because I think that’s something I have struggled with as well as other runners.
I saw that race! It looked so amazing! A race with pancakes? Sign me up 🙂
Yup, I had 3 pancakes at the end and they were delicious, also a very great cause for the race as well.
No racing for me this weekend Hollie. I had a rest day yesterday and today I had training run #4 on the course of my upcoming race @ race pace. It’s funny you have a Frozen meme in your post today. As I sat in my car after my run Let it Go started playing on my iPod haha. I ran today’s run with you and Kris in mind. I miss having you both out on the roads with me in spirit. When you both are out there and posting training reports it pushes to work harder. I can’t wait until you are both healed
I think it is so important to gain perspective on life (& running) and your attitude is so good! Inspiring to me too – and it always helps me to remember that exercise should enhance my life!
Oh oh, and good luck on your one mile run! 🙂
Good luck at your appointment!
I cross trained the whole time with both rounds of stress fractures, so I had kept some fitness. With getting back into running I followed the plan my coach gave me both times. The first round it started with 3 very easy miles on the first run back. I ran 6x days per week for the first 2x weeks and then back to 7x days. The second time around I ran 20 minutes every other for the first week and slowly added days and time.
Love that you have a sense of humour about the whole recovery process! Hope the appointment goes great and you get to run the mile 🙂
No races for me this weekend, and it’s probably just as well :/
I’ve never been able to let injuries go, and paradoxically I think that’s partially why I’m prone to so many of them. I always try to come back too soon, and sometimes just run through injuries that no-one else would be stupid enough to…stress fractures being one of them. I was forced to rest in the end because the pain became too much to bear, but my obsession with the short-term endorphin boost that running provides is so seductive and addictive that I can never see the long-term implications of my actions.
You’ll have a great comeback…I just know it. Plus, you’ll be running for the rest of your life, and it’s all down to your admirable attitude.
hoping for good new tomorrow 🙂
I know you don’t want to worry about healing as fast as possible but I hope you do just so you don’t have to worry about it any more.
Thanks Aja! You are the best 🙂
I had a major stress fracture (femur, complete fracture, no one knew why and it was misdiagnosed) and I had 4 weeks of nothing but pool running, 2 weeks of biking, and then could run again. But the only reason it was just 6 weeks off was because it was already in the stages of healing by the time of diagnosis, since I had been taking time off due to pain. Like you, I spent most of the early parts of injury doing nothing, since I was scared I would delay healing.
I used the bike at the gym and read while on it to pass the time. It wasn’t intense, but it was something.
I’ve read a lot of interesting articles in the gym this month. It hasn’t been the most exciting of events but it gets me out of the house 🙂
Keeping my fingers crossed for you tomorrow, Hollie! Hopefully everything goes well with the doctor and 1 mile run 🙂 And I really admire how you’re dealing with this injury. Sure, being injured sucks, but there’s no use in lamenting over something that you can’t change… especially since there’s a whole heck of a lot of life and running time left.
Hope the appt goes well as well as the 1 mile! No pain while walking is a good sign although of course running is a whole new bag. Sounds like you’ll be back soon though 🙂
You had me going when you said you were going to run 10 then 12 miles. In my head reading it I was saying…umm Hollie you’re nuts! So glad though that you are getting to get to do something and start the process of building back. I’m really excited for you!!
I’m glad someone enjoyed that commentary! Ha.
Hope it all goes well buddy- thinking of you! (that sounds so creepy).
Crossing my fingers for your one-mile debut later today! You’ve been incredibly patient and responsible about this injury, so I hope the karma gods take this into account. 🙂
Thanks Carrie, your support is awesome!
I literally had to reread that sentence where you said you were going to run 10 miles on Tuesday. I thought you were being serious. Funny though. Not that unusual in the blogging world!!
I hope it went OK (if you’ve done it already). I think your approach to this is brilliant. Very refreshing and something I could definitely learn from.