Recovery Redux
Injury keeps us on our toes. Or off of them! Regardless, we can never be sure when it will happen. Injury can come quickly, such as twisting an ankle in a pothole. Or it may be building slowly. For those, we may have a notion of what triggered it, but don’t know for sure. What we do know is if we don’t take care many injuries can become chronic, often leading to other injuries. Not a cycle we want to get into.
A week after running a fairly hard half marathon, I went for my first longer run, a relatively easy seven miler. Nothing from the race suggested I had stretched the limits. I had water-run a couple days and was easing back into training, thinking I was on a good recovery path. The terrain for this run was somewhat hilly and I wore my lighter training shoes, but the first six miles felt good. However, in the seventh mile, I felt a twinge in my upper calf, probably the gastrocnemius, the large muscle that attaches to the bottom of the femur. I water ran the following day and then StairMastered the next. The calf was still a tad tight and sore, but I thought running might help work it out. So, I started out on what was to be an easy five miler. But after three miles, the calf spoke up and let me know it would be better to walk in. Which I did. Now it’s back to the water for at least a couple of days.
Why do these things happen? And why do they tend to happen more as we age? These questions are related. Injury has always had a way of creeping up on us, often from a muscle imbalance or weakness we haven’t addressed. Or from doing too much, too quickly and not allowing for sufficient recovery. As we age, it seems we should be wiser and learn from the past. And maybe focus more on flexibility and strength work. Perhaps we do. But our bodies at age 60 or 70 are not what they were when we were 40. So, what we can take on has changed. In concept we know this. In practice, we might fast-track things here and there.
Whatever the case, when we’re injured we find ourselves where we are. In reality, there is no other place to be. Patience becomes the watchword, and exercising patience can help us from becoming a patient. For that reason, it’s good to have options. Some like to swim, others cycle. And maybe it gives us time to put in more strength work. Whatever we do, injury reminds us to keep the long game in mind. If we handle things well, we’ll be back in short order. And avoid becoming a patient!