I'm back!

Hello Runners!!!!

I'm back (if anyone cares)


It has been quite a while, almost 8 years to be exact since I last posted a blog entry.  My goal with this series of blogs will be to help runners struggling with injuries to see the "right way" and the wrong way to recover from serious injuries.  I put the term "right way" in quotes because there are multiple right ways to recover but I will explain the way I used for recover this time as opposed to the last time.  I didn't put the term "wrong way" into quotes because if you are trying to "train" through a serious injury to stay fit you are doing it wrong, plain and simple.  (side note- I am talking about serious injuries, in my case a sacral stress fractures both times.  I am not talking about something like Achilles tendonitis/tendonapothy or runner's knee which do require special care and treatment but you could possibly still modify your training while treating.

Let's take a journey back to November 2013.  I had been running well that year with the "usual" tightness/soreness you get from long runs or hard workouts.  Then my life changed.  My wife and I lost our first child 6 months into pregnancy.  Needless to say nothing prepares you or feels as empty and hopeless as the loss of a child.  After a few days of being in a fog and not knowing if I could go on with life, I decided I needed to get some running therapy in and see if I maybe take my mind of the indescribable pain I was in.  When I got done with a 6 miler my body was killing me.  My left glute and lower back were so tight.  I took 4 days off.

For the next few months I suffered with the tightness in that region with some days being way worse then others.  And some days I didn't have any issues.  I did go see my general practitioner and see sent me to physical therapy.    I was told it was a tight piriformis and I needed to stretch more, work on my HORRIBLE lack of mobility, and heat/ice the area.

Even though I did what they told me it wasn't getting better.  Yet I kept running.  Until I couldn't.
In February I had an 30K and I could barely stand up straight and walk the next day which was Monday. Yet like an idiot who was training for a March marathon I went and attempted a 11 mile run on Tuesday.  I was in so much pain at the end I had to walk the last 3 miles back.

I took the full week off and tried to run a 21 miler that following Saturday. I made it 50 feet before I was in excruciating pain.  Back to the doctors and after an  MRI I was misdiagnosed and was told I could continue to walk and exercise if it didn't hurt.  After a month of trying that I got a second MRI and was told I had a stress fracture in my sacrum and waould be out for 3-4 month!  A freaking death sentence for a runner.

So that's my "back" story..HA HA get it back, sacrum, part of the back.... oh never mind.

Over the next few weeks I hope to let you know how I fucked up that recovery and turned a 3-4 month recovery into a 7-8 month recovery and how this current one is hopefully healed in 3 months because I  learned the hard way to recovery from an injury correctly.


Hope you enjoy it.