After doing a half Ironman in central Illinois on Saturday, Ryan had to work the Oakbrook Half Marathon so I decided I would use the race as my long run for the weekend.
Long story short, foot pain ensued and the physical therapist at the Athletico Tent after the race told me I had the beginning stages of plantar fasciitis.
Ironically, neither race exists anymore, which I am hoping will hold true for my plantar issues.
Yes, he puts in the hard work.
Yes, he eats (mostly) healthy foods to better his performance.
Yes, he focuses on recovery (and sleep—if only I could gain some of that!).
But the biggest key to his success is simply being able to be consistent.
Part of being consistent is NOT getting injured.
So, without further adieu, here are the things I’ve learned about “how to stay injury free” this past year.
Do the little things daily: foam roll, stretch, hydrate well.
Doing those things may seem simple and are often overlooked, but they all make a BIG difference to your muscles.
For example, even though I no longer have plantar issues, I still stretch and foam roll the heck out of my calves as they likely contributed to my plantar issues from the beginning (I have chronically tight calves).
Basically, work on the areas that are your weak areas and make them stronger.
Just because you don’t CURRENTLY have an issue doesn’t mean you should ignore things that have flared up in the past.
For example, I had patella tendinitis last Spring. I thankfully no longer have it, but I still do the PT work to strengthen those muscles in hopes of keeping it away.
Not the fru-fru kind. The deep tissue/sports kind. Having someone work on your muscles can be more effective than tools (foam roller, R8, etc.) as they can get into tiny little muscle areas that maybe tools can’t.
If you’re in need of a Chicagoland recommendation, let me know.
I know. A no-brainer. But for me, it’s hard.
I truly love teaching, but it’s simply not a 9-5 kind of job and I’ll always have work outside of the school day to do.
I’ve learned that I need to just set a timer and limit myself so that I’m not losing sleep (literally) over things.
Make your health your #1 priority!!!
I can’t emphasize this enough. If you’re in pain, or feeling something coming on, SEE A SPECIALIST (I can give recommendations for that now too, haha!).
I should not have waited as long as I did for any of my injuries (umm….my sacrum stress fracture was almost healed by the time I got my MRI done…oops).
So use this as your “kick in the butt” to get nagging things checked out ASAP. Take a sick day if needed, but trust me, if I had known one day’s worth of sub plans could have prevented my plantar tear, I would have made them in a heartbeat.
Happy (injury-free!) training, friends!!
And stay tuned for a BIG announcement!!!