After my recent achilles injury (the first of my short running career), I realized yesterday that I have been running in fear. I think that I have known this all along, but it has gotten out of control.
Don’t get me wrong. A certain amount of fear is good for a runner. I know that I am not beyond getting a run ending injury, especially as I add speed and miles. So when I say No FEAR, I don’t mean being stupid! I mean that I’ve gotten to the point where I am so fearful of getting hurt that running isn’t fun anymore. I spend much of my run literally doing mental checks of my body and making sure there isn’t something happening for which I need to stop my run.
So I am changing my attitude. I will run and be careful, but not to the point of fear. I will still soak my foot after my run and tape up, but I have decided to enjoy running again. If I feel something that hurts, I’ll be careful, but if I stop at every ache and pain, I’ll never make my goal of a September marathon.
It is a new day!
Yesterday was hot. TJ said real feel was 90, but I think with the heat radiating off the road, it must have “felt” hotter. I use the Weather Bug app on my phone and as I saw storm clouds gathering, I kept checking the app for lightening. It is really cool. There is a part of the app called “Spark” that will tell you how far lightening is away from you. It started 11 miles away and by the time I hit the 5 mile mark on my run lightening was 4 miles away. I texted TJ to come home and I went inside. 5 minutes after TJ came in the door the storm hit. I love technology.
Monday is a holiday so I am taking tomorrow off. It is supposed to cool off and be a beautiful weekend.
I am going to enjoy running again!
No FEAR!
278 to Boston 
Good post. I think we all run in some fear of injury and to disregard that would be foolish, but it shouldn’t be our driving force.
Thanks. It is a balance. However if you live in fear, you might as well walk (not that there is anything wrong with that) 🙂
We all need to remind ourselves from time to time that in the end running, like all sports, should be done for fun.
Micah and I will be doing the Memorial Day race in Boalsburg on Monday. It’s a four mile course with two pretty big hills. It’s very festive running at the birthplace of Memorial Day. Hopefully my Achilles will hold out.
I know it will be fun. I wish we could be there. We are running another 5K next weekend, just for fun.
Let me know how your race goes. For me, soaking my foot in a bucket of ice water after each run has been a huge help with my achilles. I have almost no problems anymore with it. Maybe you could try that.
Good luck. Say hi to everyone. See you in September.
I’ve been icing my achilles too. It seems to help. I’ve also started the exercise from the blog you sent. The guy at Rapid Transit had told me about it a while a go, and I did it for a while, but stopped because I think I over did it. I’ll let you know if it helps.