This week I’m focussing on dealing with long-term injuries! Injuries are really demoralising, you can feel upset and angry, sometimes it seems like you’ve done everything right and it’s frustrating when you’ve been to every physio you can, yet no one knows what it is or how long it’ll take to heal. You miss out on races and seeing people at training, along with the daily endorphins which they both bring. After a while it’s easy to start questioning your identity, whether you feel like an orienteer anymore, and I’m sure many have fears about performance ever returning to pre-injury levels. As I say, it really sucks. But I’m here to tell you there are realistic ways to keep yourself happy. The important thing is how you react to the situation.
Here are some things I have found helpful in the past:
- Treat the rehabilitation process just like training. Give yourself a focus each day. It’s a nice idea to plan something to do at the times that you would usually train, like your rehab.
- Control the controllables. You can still nourish your body, sleep well and reduce stress.
- Invest in rest. Often the quickest way to get back on your feet is to rest. Proper rest. Your body is trying to tell you something, try to listen to it.
- Cross-train if you feel like it but don’t ‘overcompensate’! You still need to train smart.
- Still try to get outside once a day and get some sun if you’re able. You might be surprised at the effect on your mindset!
- Visualise a healthy you. Don’t underestimate the power of visualisation.
- Remind yourself of what your body CAN do and all it does for you.
- When you wake up, think of one thing you’ll do that will make you happy today. As you get ready for bed, think of one thing you’re grateful for.
- Remind yourself of the big picture. This is just a small part of your whole life.
Some links that might be useful
The most common running injuries:https://www.runnersworld.com/…/running-injuries-a-z/
Exercises to prevent running injuries: https://runkeeper.com/…/6-exercises-to-help-prevent…/
Stress fracture and osteoporosis from overtraining and underfueling: https://www.fastrunning.com/…/anna-boniface-break…/11118https://athleticsweekly.com/…/bobby-clay-my…/
Dealing with injury depression:https://lotsahelpinghands.com/blog/how-to-battle-depression/
Tina Muir’s podcast episode on ‘Looking into the Mind of Injured Runners’ (Available elsewhere if you don’t have Spotify):https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Kx7F5VsiKNJsDCeYxzSsP…
The Run In podcast on common orienteering injuries, with Frida Forshällen (also available elsewhere):https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ClouloSSv8ncLwGqvyChj…
I hope you found this useful! Remember you can revisit these posts when you need them 
As always, here if anyone would like a chat 