Injury Woes

Injuries are an inevitable part of running in many ways – the sport is so high impact and over time it will expose your weaknesses. Social media is a highlight reel so we see mostly finish line photos and epic training days. Most athletes get injured during their careers, but it often quickly becomes a time to take a step back from things like Instagram and Strava. For good reason, too – it sucks to see your friends and competitors crushing miles and winning races when your weekly mileage has plummeted. I think we forget that this is often part of the process as an athlete, so I made it a point to be transparent about that here. Throughout my short-ish running career, I’ve been pretty lucky to have been mostly injury free with the exception of minor things here and there. Until now, my worst injury was a tricky case of peroneal tendonitis that caused me to pull out of the Eugene Marathon in 2022 and take almost a month off of running. This injury now, while not too severe, has caused me to take a huge temporary step back in training and racing this spring — and that stings.

If you read my Big Alta recap, you know that I was dealing with some posterior tibialis pain leading up to that race. I was able to race and had high hopes to make it to Chuckanut 50k three weeks later. After Big Alta, despite several days off running, I could tell things were not getting better and that recent race effort would only carry me so far. Ultimately, I decided with the help of my coach and PT, to let go of Chuckanut and commit to healing this thing for good so I can get back to training at full capacity and prioritize my big goals later in the year. I’m super bummed as I feel like I was set up to do well at Chuckanut, not to mention it’s a race I’ve wanted to do for years. But honestly after making the decision, I felt a wave of relief to not have the uncertainty of racing or not weighing me down. All that to say, even since before the Big Alta, I’ve been on that heavy cross training grind and navigating what feels like the never ending emotional and physical rollercoaster of injury. Wrapping up a few of my thoughts over the past few weeks here.

Injury hindsight is 20/20.

I had this same injury last year, so when I felt it pop up in January, I thought I knew all the right things to do. I was more stubborn this time around though, when I should have just taken a step back at the first onset to let it calm down. Instead, I kept training as usual and was in denial that it was headed in the same direction as last spring. When things would flare up, I would take a day of cross training to be able to get through a long run the next day. That worked for me for awhile, until it didn’t. I’m frustrated with myself because I did exactly what I would have told my athletes not to do.

Tendon injuries are deceiving little buggers.

A classic tendon injury will often start out a bit sore and stiff at the beginning of a run and progress to feeling great the rest of the time. This makes it so difficult to know if or when you are doing too much on it, since you likely won’t know until it becomes sore in the hours after the run. This explains why I was able to race Big Alta at full effort and it felt great the whole time, but in the hours and days after I was reduced to a hobble. My PT consistently reminds me that rehabbing tendons is all about load management. Oftentimes, these injuries don’t require (or even respond well to) full rest but you need to find the right balance of load in the form of running, PT exercises, and cross training that the tendon can handle while it attempts to heal. For weeks, I was doing too much running and calf exercises with too much weight, preventing the tendon from being able to catch up. Now, I’m on a routine of short runs every other day, lighter PT exercises, and cross training in between. In conjuction with PT and very, very low mileage, I’m also getting shockwave treatment done once a week on the area which hopefully should speed up the tendon healing process.

Find joy in cross training.

In times of injury, I am so grateful that I do have other activities I enjoy outside of running. Admittedly, I’ve spent many days on the indoor bike and elliptical as outside riding or skiing hasn’t been an option with a few big storms in the Reno/Tahoe area. Those days in the gym do not bring me much joy but they serve their purpose. Being able to bike or ski outside, though, reminds me to always keep those things in my life, injured or not, because they make me a better athlete and it is so nice to not have to pick up from square one with a brand new sport every time running doesn’t feel great. 

The emotional side of injury.

Honestly, injuries can easily send me into a negative mental spiral. So much of my identity is wrapped up in running and it can feel tortuous to have to take a step back. It sucks to have to reframe or rework racing goals, but honestly most of all I just love to run every day and it’s frustrating to not be able to do it the way I want to. I also have a newfound, self-inflicted pressure being a ‘pro’ now where I feel like I need to be on a constant linear progression of improvement. Always getting faster, training more, racing better. I know realistically that training is not linear, in fact just progressing through life isn’t even linear. It helps me to reground in doing the things that are in my control at the present moment. Also, I think that it isn’t always productive to say, “well other people have it worse” – because yes, that may be true but it is also okay to feel your own emotions of frustration and disappointment. But, I’d be remissed not to remind myself that there is a lot of suffering in the world and my little tendon injury is absolutely nothing in comparison. I know of runners dealing with much more severe injuries that have taken them out from activity all together for months at a time. At the end of the day, I know this will get better and I’ll be on the other side of it soon, but for now, I’ll still be grinding on the bike, skis, and god forbid – sometimes the elliptical.

Thanks for reading :)

If you’re dealing with an injury or setback, big or small, know that you’re not alone! Take a break from social media, get outside for some of your cross training if you can, and keep the belief.

<3 Klaire