The Thrill is Gone

I'll admit to stealing the title from the hit song by that name, but it seems to fit for now.

Two weekends ago I finished off three hard weeks of training. The training felt great up until the Monday morning afterwards when I woke up with extremely sort glutes. That translated into a limp for all of last week. A physical therapy (thanks Mike at Neuromuscular Strategies) session last Friday revealed that I probably strained both glutes. The dry needling from physical therapy was effective enough to have the limp go away, but the glutes and a few other spots are still sore.

By necessity I've slowed down and am getting some good rest. In that I can feel my reserves building again. I can feel the rebuilding of the body into a stronger runner! I know when this passes, I wll be stronger again!

Even with slowing down, I've done some running in the past 10 days and it's not the same - yeah part of the thrill and flow is gone (for now). My endurance is greatly diminished, speed is gone, muscles feel weak, stride is short, breath is choppy. Not that running has been no fun, but the flow and pure fun I've had for months has changed.
Despite some of the setbacks, my full moon run last Wednesday was breathtaking!

While I don't like being sick or getting injured, for me it can signal that I've hit an edge, and gone beyond it. In some ways this is actually good because if we always stay in our comfort zone, we never know what's possible. If we pay attention when we get sick or injured, we can learn some valuable information about our bodies and life. It's also an opportunity to slow down and rest, to rejuvenate the body and soul.

It's been nice to sit and read a little more, and to do all the things I know are good regardless of injuries including applying arnica skin cream, giving self-massage, stretching and yoga, jumping in a hot tub. What's not to like in all that!

For now, the thrill is perhaps diminished, not gone. I don't know how long it's going to take to recover - maybe another week, maybe three or four. I know I'm building a stronger body right now, I know I'll have more experience to draw from. I think most importantly though is I know the thrill will be back - and it will be sweeter than ever!