Read This If You’re Injured

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

Haiiii guys,

I have a grade one hamstring strain that’s really been a drag to deal with. It isn’t painful enough to be totally debilitating but it’s pretty annoying and I’ve stopped running for a few weeks so as not to make it worse. I had a few dark days of feeling blue and was turning the corner to feeling relatively positive when I crashed my motorcycle. I’m mostly fine; I sustained a sprained wrist, some gnarly road rash, and my body is very sore. Setbacks don’t always come one at a time, do they?

I haven’t had to take a break from running in over a year. I maintain a fairly structured workout plan that includes yoga, strength training, mountain runs, and easy runs. I hit nearly 2,500 miles in 2020 and was feeling a bit bulletproof which is exactly the moment shit usually gets fucked. We are less indestructible than we’d all like to think.

The first time I sustained a major injury I was 21, and had been running for many years. I had a laberal tear in my right hip that took me away from competition for over a year. That was a difficult injury to sustain because at the time, my life revolved around running. I was a Division 1 athlete who, prior to injury, was fast. Most of my friends were runners, and running took up the bulk of my free time. Suddenly, that was gone. My…