A Road To A Speedy Recovery

            Nothing nixes a running season better than drinking boxed wine at the beach, deciding to play soccer afterward and receiving a swollen, purple sprained ankle from an Australian rugby-player wannabe’s execution of a flying scissor-kicking slide tackle. That’s what happened to me. Whether it’s been because of over-training, a freak accident or stupidity (as it was in my case), we’ve all encountered injuries while race training or simply exercising for good health. Being forced to sit inactive, leg elevated or having an icepack balanced on any number of body parts, can be excruciating, boring or can even create running atrophy.

My ankle’s healing time could have been vastly reduced had I cared for it better and not been so impatient as to try running while black-and-blue blotches still stained my skin. After recovering, I weighed an additional 15 pounds, feeling chunky and sluggish, and lacing up the runners was the last thing on my mind. To avoid this situation, healing quickly and hitting the roads with pre-injury vigor, here are some no-brainer suggestions from two trustworthy coaches and myself to set you straight.

Identifying a stopping point:

The important things to remember are the proverbial sayings, “Time heals,” and “You’re better safe than sorry.” There’s no point in continuing training if you’re just going to make your injury worse. My former University of Oregon club running coach, Tom Heinonen, says, “The five most dangerous words are ‘maybe it will go away.’” Listen to your body. Ask yourself if the injury needs special attention. If you’re thinking about it, chances are it does. Get it checked out. If the doctor gives the green light, hit the roads with caution. Be sure you’re not ignoring pain or lying to yourself to fulfill a compulsive habit. “Sometimes you can get addicted to [running],” Heinonen says, “and then there’s the potential of getting hurt because you can’t say no.” Remember, you’re your own boss, and if your body continues to protest get it checked again. Not all doctors are perfect.

Joe Henderson, author of “Marathon Training,” “Long Run Solution,” and current instructor of 10 kilometer running courses at the UO, is no stranger to injuries. A runner for 50 years, 63-year-old Henderson, once suffered from rectocalcaneal extosis, or in layman’s terminology, a hard calcium deposit on his heel that sawed halfway through his Achilles. In 1972, Henderson’s injury began with minimal pain. He ignored it for months and soon he could hardly walk, let alone run. “I hurt myself by not recognizing there was a speed limit to running,” Henderson says. “My racing totaled 20, 30, even 40 percent of my weekly mileage. With post-surgery hindsight I saw this was way too much.”

If you’re a serious runner like Henderson or just really concerned about keeping that sexy to-die-for figure, you should already know that there’s no get-in-shape-quick scheme despite what the magazines at Safeway or exercise books on Barnes & Nobles’ sales racks might tell you. If you’re hurting, chances are you’re pushing the envelope, and if you say, “Hey, I can push harder,” sorry, buddy, not everyone is a world-class marathon runner. Henderson learned this lesson the hard way. “The majority of running must be easy,” he says.

Dealing with the injury:

When you’re bunked with an injury and itching to get out the door, relax. Without fixing your gimp ankle, stress-fractured tibia or pulled hammy, use of the injured article should be suspended immediately. This doesn’t mean supplementing an equally stressful activity. Heinonen, UO’s former women’s track and cross-country long distance coach, once had an athlete who made this mistake. She had hurt her Achilles and the doctor told her she couldn’t run for a week. Instead, she marched around with a bag-full of rocks to keep her legs strong. “That’s misunderstanding,” Heinonen says. “That’s compulsive behavior.” Another injured athlete once told Heinonen, “I thought that missing two days was bad. But I found out that missing two months was a lot worse.”

When groping for solutions like these athletes, Henderson suggests keeping the injury in perspective. “Everyone who runs gets hurt eventually, and almost everyone gets better soon.” Injuries are generally “self inflicted,” he says. “Usually they result not from ‘accidents’ but from the Big Four mistakes – running too far, too fast, too soon, and too often.” Your throbbing leg is indicating this, and it’s primetime you become receptive.

But training hasn’t stopped even if you’re stuck in a two-month rut. Your recovery has now become integral to your regimen. Only now you’re not doing distance or speed training; you’re doing recovery training. So take a chill pill. On second thought, take some vitamins: a little C, D or B, maybe some calcium. You’re body is looking to soak up nutrients. Give it what it needs. But again consult an expert because too much is never a good thing, unless it’s healing. Injured or not, training breaks down muscle, leaving your body in permanent recoup mode. That mode likes icing. It reduces inflammation and stimulates recovery. So pop some Flintstones, flop in front of the TV and slap on a bag of frozen peas and carrots.

Alternative Activities:

While you’re at it hit the gym. There’s no reason you can’t keep your heart pumping if you’ve got a bum leg. A little upper body strength never hurt. You’re arms aren’t there to just flop around. They generate momentum. Put a little meat on them so when you’re all patched up you can pump those arms like The Little Engine That Could. 

Pumping iron is just one of hundreds of alternative exercises to keep yourself active. If it’s conducive with you’re injury, take your friends snazzy road bike for a spin. Strap on a floater and hop in the pool and spin those legs. Take up table tennis. Believe it or not, you can work up a sweat doing that too. And believe me, you’ll keep your competitive edge. Use training time to start journal writing and analyze those deep thoughts. Examine your weaknesses and your strengths. Running is as much psychological as it is physical, if not more.

There is life before and after running, and there’s certainly in between. Fill that space. “You have to find something to devote yourself to in a major way and you have to be a pretty broadly interested person,” Heinonen says. The point is this: challenge yourself and break barriers so you stay confident. Nothing will kill your enthusiasm and discipline more than a prolonged injury. Whether competing with yourself or someone else, keep that competitive edge sharp.

Getting Back on the Horse:

            You’ve now been plumping up on the couch for weeks or months. Your legs feel like anvils and on your first run you suck air like a Handy Vac. Cheer up champ, you were once on your way to having a steamy early-2000s-Back-Street-Boys-music-video-body and you’ll do it again; you’ll run sub six-milers again. But don’t for a second believe you can right away. “We remember, sometimes inaccurately, how smooth and effortless the runs used to feel,” Henderson says. “We now seem to work harder to run slower. This can be discouraging. We need to remind ourselves that we're starting over. We need to look back to the starting-over point and avoid making comparisons with who we were at our best.” Take your time. Go out during your favorite time of day and pitter-patter to your hearts content. After injuries I run at midnight. The air is cool, the stars are out and streetlamps are glowing. Take it all in. Walk if you want.

            Heinonen suggests having “really modest goals to start with, knowing that it’s going to feel lousy. The hardest step in any run is the first one. Because you’ve got to get dressed, make time and arrange you’re eating.” Simply putting on your running clothes can be the hardest part. Commit yourself by setting appointments with other runners. “If you’re unfit just having somebody to talk to makes you forget how you feel,” Heinonen says. “Having a partner is the best way to get going again.” If your now portly belly is poking out beneath your sweat-soaked Dri-Fit running tee and you’re not feeling too stylish, buy some new shiny runners to get yourself jazzed, anything to get yourself excited and out the door.

            Injuries aren’t the end of the world, and they’re learning experiences. “Each runner has to make a lot of mistakes on his or her own before they figure out what’s an appropriate level of running given what that person’s goals might be,” Heinonen says. In the end ask yourself, what are my goals? Are they worth risking injury? If so, meet me at the soccer field with some boxed wine before your run and I’ll introduce you to my Australian buddy and his aerial slide-tackling scissor kick.