On Being Injured (Again)
tl;dr:
I signed up for the SF Marathon (this would have been my first marathon), then overtrained, got injured, and am currently recovering. I’m probably going to defer my registration to 2020 and become a cheering squad this year.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
This is a cycle I’ve been through over and over again. I literally wrote about this in 2015. Being injured massively sucks. I can’t exercise the way I usually do, and I don’t get see my running buddies.
Specifically what happened
Since the beginning of 2019, my left big toe started feeling sore on runs. In April, after officially starting to train for the SF Marathon with my running club, the combination of getting new shoes with less toe support (Altra Escalante 1.5s) and pushing myself really hard in track workouts caused it to get much worse. Once normal running became painful I stopped training.
How I’m recovering
I’m staying off my toe as much as possible and going to physical therapy (shout out to Soma Sport and Physio).
I get to do cool toe exercises like toe scrunches (put a hand towel on the floor, then use your foot to scrunch it up). And picking up marbles from the floor using my toes.
How I’m going to prevent this in the future
This is a pattern for me: I start a training program, go out WAY too hard, get injured, then spend months recovering.
In the past, my primary running goal was to go as fast as possible. This led me to train too hard, leading to the injuries above.
In the future I want to focus on running sustainability and long-term mileage. Breaking 1:30 in the half marathon isn’t worth if the same habits lead me to be injured half of the time.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress. In the meantime, I’ll be resting, recovering, and riding my bike.