A popular phrase I’ve heard about a million times in the past month from some pretty knowledgeable people – my doctor, my coach, my friends who are experienced runners.
A phrase that makes wonderful sense – I mean you SHOULD listen to your body, right? Why wouldn’t you? Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?
Well, as most things in life, sometimes those things that make the most perfect sense are the hardest things to actually do.
I’m trying, though. I’m really making a concerted effort to listen to my body and not push my knee farther than I should. It’s not as easy as you would think it should be because I have constant thoughts of, “I can’t miss anymore training. I have to build back up on my miles. I can’t slack even for a second for the rest of my runs!” running through my head.
But I have to stop thinking that way. I have to just listen to my body. Even when I don’t necessarily like what my body has to say.
Like tonight. Tonight my body told me to cut my run short.
My knee felt good after Monday’s short 3.5 mile run. My knee was a little achy after Tuesday’s longer 5.5 mile run. Tonight my knee waved the white flag and surrendered after some of the crazy hills around the 2 mile mark, and it was getting really painful toward the 3 mile mark. I hated to stop because I’m already behind on my mileage thanks to the 2 weeks of training I missed from the initial injury. But tonight I honestly wasn’t all that worried about the miles. I was much more afraid of reinjuring things and not being able to train again for a while. So I listened to my body and cut tonight’s mileage short in order to be as ready and healed as possible for my 8 mile run on Saturday.
My coach was strangely proud. He has been watching me closely in training, just waiting for me to dive back in before I really should. He was happy to see me actually listening to my body and not trying to push through tonight. He was also quick to remind me that by listening to my body and stopping short tonight, I wouldn’t have to listen the ever dreaded “told you so!” from him after pushing myself harder than he would have liked. Yeah, yeah, thanks Coach. You win this one. For now…
So tonight wasn’t the best run, but there’s always Saturday. I may not be able to run the full 8 miles without walking, or I might survive running the whole thing but it might be slower than my usual snail’s pace, but I’ll do my best, listen to my body, and hopefully my knee will hang in there with me.
Keep on running,
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