Many runners I know, including myself have been injured from time to time.  It always happens when I have a lot of races and running planned never when I have lots and lots of time to heal.  My latest injury is a quad strain.  Back in May I felt like I pulled something in my quad, so I went to see my orthopedic to have him take a look at it and sure enough it was a strain, he said it could have been a tear that was getting better, but to him it looked to be a strain.  So I started physical therapy and I was running less, but I had races on my calendar, pretty much ever single weekend, so it would get some rest, but then I was back at it.  I came away from a few races limping.  After my second leg of the Ragnar Relay I was limping, but with the stick, foam roller and stretching it felt mostly ok, I would run walk and some days it would be fine and some days it would hurt like hell.  It’s bugged me on and off all summer, and so now I’m in the middle of a two-week running break.  Lots of stretching, walking and foam rolling/stick/other torture devices!

2 rollers, addaday and the stick. All are Charlie approved!

Almost 3 years ago I fractured my leg, my left leg… it took months to get back to running.  So I’m trying to be patient and taking time off but as most runners know its so so hard to take days off, I’ve done a bit of cross training, a little yoga but what I really want to do is lace up my running shoes, put on my running gear and head out to the lakefront for a 2-6 mile run.  I’m hoping for a pain-free fall, so I’ll take the time off now.  Before the end of the month I have 3 half marathons and 1-2 5ks all in the next few weeks.

I fractured my leg on Christmas Day 2010, walked on it for 3 weeks before seeing a doctor. I didn’t run for around 6 months after the fracture.

Resting is hard, but I’d rather get better than get worse!  Hopefully I’ll get a run in this weekend and be ready for all the races I have coming up.  I won’t have any PR’s this year, but my goal is to finish every single race with a smile (yup, I’m always smiling!) and feeling good.  I want to be a runner for a long time, no need to push through an injury, time to heal so I can be out there doing what I enjoy!