Someone once said that life is made of a lot of small details. And that those details are important too. Well one of the details that makes me realize I'm going off to the hills is that my watch is not into watch mode anymore, but in altimeter mode. Since I've been back from Kyrgyzstan I've seen that altimeter mode only once...and not a single time for the last month. OK, except those moments when I just wanted to see how "high" I was. And that's because for the last month I've been "fighting" against an injury.
Injuries are a bad thing and I'm sure nobody enjoys them. This time the injury seems to the be IT band, and the so called "runner's knee". I said it seems because it's been a month doing therapy and stretching taking some pills and stuff but the damn thing is still there. It's not the first time I get these sort of injuries. Last year during the Jungfrau marathon I got in serious trouble with one of the tendons in the back of my knee. That time it was probably me being a bit stupid. I felt pain in the tendon 3 weeks before the race, but decided to go for it in any case. During the race the pains came back after a few kilometers. And then I kept going because they were bearable. After 21km an when it starts to go up the pain was close to be unbearable. At that time I asked myself: "do you want to stop now and maybe spend only a few weeks recovering, or do you want to push it to the end no matter what and then spend months recovering?". Guess what....it took me 6 hours to get to the end of the marathon. I was literally dragging my leg as I could not bend the knee anymore. And I was also stopping at all the first aid section to get some temporary relief. I was close to cry for the pain at some point and I had to stop several time just to get the pain away for a while. But I kept pushing and pushing until the end...I didn't care about my tendon and about anything else. I just wanted to get to the finish line. And so I did. Afterwards doctor, physiotherapy and stretching took me back to good shape.
The year before, again during the Jungfrau marathon I injured my Achilles tendon. This time it happened during the race but while I was running I did not feel anything and I actually enjoyed the full race. It took me 4h 42m to get to the end of the 42 km with almost 1900m of vertical ascent. Quite good considering that it was my very first marathon and my very first race over 10Km!! I felt some pain in my tendons at the end, but the day after I still wanted to go hiking for the whole day. You know, it's sunny outside, and staying at home looks like a crime against nature. Afterwards again physiotherapy, stretching, gels and creams...and I finally got better. The year before there was something else, but not during any race...and I can't remember anymore what it was.
What can I learn from all this? Respect your body! Your body knows what to do and signs of pain means something is not right. I thought I learned this after the first injury, but reading back my history I probably did not. And after this last injury I have my "new year's resolution" saying that I will do stretching every day and I will do exercises to make sure all the muscles that are important for running are always in good shape. I bloody well will do! I'm pissed off of spending two months or more each year recovering from injuries. If they came from something else like an accident it would be different. All of my injuries always came from me overdoing stuff, believing I was some sort of "invincible runner" and not caring much about the small signs my body was sending me. But this is over............................last famous words :) ?
Let's be fair, one month "off work" is not such a bad thing. But I love my knees as if they were my own kids and seeing one of them struggling to heal is not the best. But hey, only death has no remedy (not yet) so it will get better!
This post is not matching with the title of my blog, this is no adventure. But I was missing a bit writing in here. However, for you reader that kept reading until the end, this is what keeps me going during my morning routine of stretching. In my opinion, the best piece of music ever recorded.
ECHOES - PINK FLOYD - LIVE AT POMPEI
