That mild groin pull from yesterday…well by last night it was really throbbing and sore. Today I made the decision not to run again. Ugh! It felt like having to make a decision to move cross-country to take care of an ailing great aunt or something. I actually cried last night as I bargained in my head “if it doesn’t hurt in the morning then…”. Well this morning my friend texted me at 7:30am (I’m off from work on Thursdays and would normally be running at that time). He asked if I felt like going to IHOP for pancakes. Well look at how the universe works? My favorite “i feel sorry for myself” food is pancakes! So I immediately said yes and off we went. I went with just regular pancakes. A stack of 3. (450 calories without butter or syrup). Something happened somewhere between the last pancake bite and our drive home…I realized that:
a) there are people with truly debilitating ailments right now. I remember how a fellow blogger is in the midst of an extremely long flare from Crohn’s disease.
b) not being able to run DOESN’T mean I can’t be active at all
c) those pancakes were delicious.
So I decided to get into my running attire (like a true dork i put on the exact outfit I wore to my most recent marathon where I PR’d), strap on my Garmin, drive to my favorite running route along the beach and……WALK! That’s right I walked out the small-stuff-that-felt-like-big-stuff-but-was-really-small-stuff! And I sweat probably just as much since it was 82 degrees with a 1,000% humidity. I am lucky that this injury is still mild enough that it isn’t causing me to limp or anything so that I could walk.
After a lovely 4.25 miles and a few quick inhales of the intoxicating honeysuckles, i was on my way home feeling more in control and less stressed about the not being able to run stuff. I’ll do this again on Saturday and once more next Tuesday and then hopefully I’ll be back in action for next Friday when i’ll be visiting the Left Coast for vacation!
So my words of wisdom today are this—have a moment or two to acknowledge what it is that making you anxious or stressed. Feel it for a bit. For me it was the good cry before bed and the simple act of friendship with conversation over breakfast that got me to feel it. But then grab hold of that feeling and squash it like a bug by coming up with a plan. A good solid plan to stop the downward spiral. For me that plan was a long walk. I might not have been huffing and puffing but it was the best mental workout i’ve had in a while. And that is sometimes more important that the physical part.
Question: Where is your favorite place to go to unwind or decompress?
Sally! great post! i’m feeling the same experience right now…some weird muscle popped in my calf 2 weeks ago and i could barely walk, let alone run. Then, after a few long, super hilly walks a few days later…i decided after 6 days it was time to run again. WELL, that lasted about 5 days and then during a work Kickball game…yep, same pop, same pain. My Universe said…”i’m not ready for you to run again fool. Settle down. Slow down. Enjoy the earth, ground into my soul with your feet by walking, yoga, and some meditations.” At first i said, “Universe, you don’t know what’s right for me…Kris knows best.” However, after realizing that i’m not the center of the world, and i don’t know what’s best, i slowed down. My body (and more importantly, my mind) are thanking me. And i’m grateful for some of the gifts of the injury: a great neighborhood to walk in, legs that can walk, the beauty of the birds that fly around me outside, and for knowing that i’m never alone. The Universe is with me at all times. thanks for the blog! love your spirit and energy.
kg
That’s exactly it!
hope the calf heals soon but in the meantime keep enjoying everything else the universe has made you so aware of. I love what you said about the universe.
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