Doug Freese wrote:
> Pretty soon there will be an end of year request to declare your running, weight loss and all
> around positive goals and aspirations for next year. So how about some reflections on injuries for
> this past year.
>
> In general did you have one or more injuries and what was the diagnosis?
>
> Did it slow you down or knock you out and how long?
rehabbing AT (from last year) which is function of foot/ankle issues - that's something that's going
to happen regardless of what I do without addressing the flexibility / functional strength issues.
And the ankle is noticeably improved this fall, but still has a ways to go if I want to spend much
time running up 20-30% hills. No lost time for it from running this year (problems were from field
work), although I may have done a couple runs shorter than planned.
couple minor ankle twists - tripping over rock in dark; doing one too many laps of plyometrics and
landing a little short when jumping over mats. Probably slowed me down for a 1-1.5 wk, but part of
that was in high winds (70+ mph) so I took that as a sign from above to not run
hip area (flexors, upper ITB, pyriformis) - the trigger: probably 1 too many times up the mountain
in conjunction with other things, like field work. The underlying cause: underlying muscle
imbalances that my PT had identified a year ago and I also recognized during snowshoe running, and I
hadn't adequately strengthened yet. Again, some of the time that I was down coincided with when I
don't run anyway (field season recovery), and may have slowed me down a couple months. OTOH, I'm
doing more this year than I did at same time last year.
>
> See a vet?
Not this year. Last year my PT taught me to fish, rather than giving me a fish, so to speak. Any
issues I had this year, I could deal with for the most part with the exercises he gave me last year
when he recognized muscle imbalances.
>
> Take your best guess at what you think caused the injury.
underlying cause: muscle imbalances and not always recognizing early enough when they were going to
be an issue.
What did I learn this year in my experiments of one?
While the cross-training class and the longer hill running were definitely challenging for some of
my foot/ankle issues, they were also therapeutic. Sorta, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. It
was a struggle last winter trying to balance things. I managed to balance my field work and some
running, frequently hills, through most of the summer, and it wasn't until almost the end when I
messed up.
BUT I now feel I have a *much* better feeling for what kinds of workouts really work for me and my
goals, and some were probably beyond what I should be doing right now. I learned a lot about
mountain running and tried some different techniques for both up and down. While I did find some
edges of my current envelope, many were a lot farther out than I would have thought, had I not
tried. While I messed up a couple times, I feel I have a much better knowledge of biomechanics,
muscle weaknesses, etc. that need to be dealt with and am learning how to deal with many of them,
BUT it will always be an ongoing learning process. I've got a stronger foundation to build on going
forward now and hopefully can avoid the same mistakes. (probably find new ones)
My body and brain communicate much better than they used to, although there's still an occasional
breakdown. My achilles speaks quite well with my brain although it's been very quiet for a couple
months. Hence, it's easier for me to stay back away from those edges of envelope until it's stronger
(prevention *much* easier than fixing). With the other issues, I sometimes found myself on the edge
before I realized it since they hadn't been challenged by my running in the past. I would rather
find these things out now, when my running is still interrupted by field work (=recovery, usually)
than when I can run more consistently. While some setbacks were involved, I can focus on specific
strength this winter - AND know why I'm doing it.
This year I'm alternating between doing the xt classes a few weeks, then doing more endurance work
for 1-2 wks rather than letting the xt class dominate, which reduced both endurance and some
strengthening. I also throttle back a little during the class to reduce the recovery time - enough
so I can get 2-3 workouts in between. I'm working on form and fixing the muscle imbalances, which
wouldn't have been pinpointed had I not tried some of the things I did this summer. Hopefully, this
will act as injury prevention in the future.
I'm starting to get a much better handle on how to juggle running, mt biking, field work, skiing,
snowshoeing, swimming, and cross-training. Generally, don't do more than 2 or 3 in one week
but
also recognizing the overlap/differences in the different activities.
Dot
--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope
