Last Sunday whilst attempting to put a flatpack desk together for my darling 12yo boy I managed to put my back out – by that I mean as I reached for the next piece in the flatpack puzzle I twisted and reached awkwardly and managed to aggravate an old back injury. Needless to say, the bloody desk lay abandoned on the floor as I crawled off to have a little cry! Yes, I actually cried – more because I can still remember so vividly the last time I managed to do this rather than the pain. I was working in Dubai for two weeks and endured 2 weeks of pretty much agony and no running for the best part of a month!
On Monday I managed to get an appointment with my wonderful chiropractor – she who put me back together after the Dubai incident and she who I see on a regular basis to keep everything aligned and in place. After Dubai I started to take the whole thing more seriously, I am no spring chicken and I had been riding a wave of injury free running for a long time and the whole Dubai thing brought me back down to earth with a bump. Since then I have been really good about rolling and stretching and managing niggles and have even been doing strength sessions twice a week the last few months and feeling really good for it.
And then this. And I am right back where I started and my lovely chiropractor is telling me that under no circumstances can I run for two weeks. And even then I need to ease myself back into it. Needless to say I have spent the last few days in a bit of a funk coming to terms with the fact I won’t finish my lockdown run streak and worse still I may not be able to reach my mileage target for the year – so close but no cigar!
The first few days after aggravating my back are always spent doing everything very gingerly and slowly – sitting down very carefully, standing up very carefully, everything done with the utmost care so as not to worsen the injury. Twice this week I was late to school to collect the little girl, I left home at the same time but was clearly walking at snail’s pace rather than my usual blistering blast past everyone pace.
This weekend I have reached the point post injury where three things happen:
I start to wonder if I will ever be able to run again and ponder what my life will be like without running, what will I do with all that spare time, how else will I deal with all of life’s stresses and strains. Will I finally morph into permanently angry mum? Anyone else become this morose when they are injured?
I realise my back is starting to feel a whole lot better and try running a couple of little steps whilst I am out walking the dog – just to, you know, see how it feels. Yup I have reached that dangerous point where I am most likely to succumb to re-injuring simply because I am at the point of starting to feel a bit more normal!
I make all kinds of wild promises to myself – I promise never to neglect strength and conditioning work ever again if I can just get back to running normally.
I need running, it really is my headspace and I am a better person for running and taking time out of running makes me appreciate this even more. Injuries happen and healing from injuries require time and patience but heal I will and yes I will be able to run again! One thing is for sure the less patient I am the longer it will be before I get back to running so still not running this week I promise!
Oh and yes I would be better off if I never neglected strength and conditioning ever again!
Much love xxx
P.S. A very lovely friend came and finished putting the offending flat pack desk together much to the boy’s delight!!