Monday, September 26, 2011

Raise Your Hand For Anxious Athletes!

Before I begin this post I need to announce two giveaway winners.  One for Pretzel Crisps is Heidi Nicole from Run Around Aroo, this lady is adorable, absolutely check out her blog! The other is a bit controversial.  I had to pick a new winner for the Allied Medal Display because Jeff did not claim his prize (sorry Jeff, I tried).  Kim Knuff is our new lucky winner!! Ladies please e-mail within the next few days to 26.2runforfun@gmail.com.  Congrats to you both.  To everyone else, don't worry more fun to come soon, I promise!!!

In the meantime, it is just still me here when there is no giveaways, rambling on to whoever is nice enough to put up with my continued blogging - thank you I love you all so much for putting up with me.

This morning I was thinking about doing a post of this nature and this wonderful lady wrote something similar and I knew I had to jump on the bandwagon.  Well, for those of you who don't know I, like many, have struggled throughout my short running history with a bit too many injuries.  Nothing so serious comparatively thank goodness but enough to sideline me for months at a time!  When I first started running, I was not smart.  I was running way too much and not cross training which equalled injury number one, this was actually a blessing in disguise as it led me to my now PT/coach and made me much faster but I did lose out on two races and a whole 6 months worth of running because of a very bad case of runner's knee.  And then over the past few years I have enjoyed IT Band Pain and Foot Pain.  Not fun.

This summer, I struggled with my foot and my ankle.  But since mid-August, things have been going ok...knock on wood - I am scared even putting this down knowing I might regret, so I am not really saying it aloud, so it is ok (insert crazy antics to calm me down here). But after 18 this Saturday, I am definitely a bit sore.  My hamstrings have been sore the past week and now my right hip flexor is a bit sore and painful (at least I think it is my hip flexor, it is mainly my right side hip right up by the IT Band, is that the hip flexor?!? lol). I have been doing all the right things I hope - endless stretching, dates with my foam roller, cross training, Aleve - the works just in case.  Because honestly, I have the biggest case of being a nervous nelly or an anxious athlete right now more than ever.  There is a big part of me that knows all of this tightness, soreness and some pain, at times, is normal.  For goodness sakes, I just ran 18 miles in tons of humidity and it was my longest distance ever.  But this does not stop me from being overtly neurotic and paranoid. 

We train for months, if not years (in my case) to toe the line at our first marathon and honestly it is a challenge just even getting there.  I watched a documentary once on people trying to train for their first Marathon and it said only 1/2 of those people will make it to the starting line.  Why?!? Because running is HARD, it is injury inducing, it is tiring!  And ultimately, whether we like it or not, we will not always make it.  I did not make it last year.  This year, I feel that it is finally my time.  I have been looking towards this point for the past 3 year plus and I want am going to make it.  Enter Miss Paranoia. Every little tinge, every feeling, every bit of soreness, I am like uh oh, what is that??! Is that normal?!? Should I call my coach?!?  I don't know how my husband is going to survive the next 35 (YES ONLY 35 DAYS) of this.  I am hoping my Coach/PT visit on Wednesday will come and not aggravate my nerves. 

But I am also treading the fine line of knowing what is pain v. soreness/tightness. I have experienced awful pain and this is not that. Particular I just feel tight around the side of my hip.  Any stretching suggestions would be great.  But I continue to waiver about where that line is - am I ok? Is this normal? Someone please help this crazy runner off the ledge here ;)

Does anyone ever feel like this?  What do you do to calm yourself? Any good stretching advice for me?

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