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After the marathon, I took a week off. Being inexperienced with this whole marathon thing, I thought this would be plenty of time. When I went out for my first run a week later, I noticed that my groin was in tremendous pain; I could hardly walk, let alone run. Being my stubborn self, I put this aside as mere soreness that should be expected after having run a marathon. That said, I decided to continue running through the pain for about a week, keeping a slow pace and only running up to about 5 or 6 miles. Every run was a painful run.
Bad idea.
As an aspiring and committed runner, it is really difficult to simply stop running, even when in pain. We spend every run pushing through fatigue, pain, and mental weariness; why should we stop for an annoying pain? The simple answer, as I have discovered, is that taking off for even a few weeks can save you from missing out on months of training. This is my current dilemma. Continuing to run, as I suspect, did not do any good for the healing process of my groin. My stubbornness possibly made the injury even worse!
A month and a half after the marathon, I admit that I fully regret trying to run through this injury, but I certainly did learn my lesson. In fact, I did learn another lesson:
Cross training is key during injury.
Something is better than nothing until that something is detrimental to the healing process.
For the past few weeks, I have switched over to cycling, core, and strength training. Even though running is my favorite sport and exercise, I have always enjoyed cycling. My rides range anywhere from leisurely 10 milers to fast paced 30 milers. However, when you are injured, it is vital that you commit to another form of exercise to stay in shape, keep your cardiovascular system operating at high performance, and to sustain your Vo2max potential. pay close attention to how your body responds to this switch as doing new exercises often utilizes new muscles and systems, possibly leading to some discomfort AND physical gains.
The best way to adopt a new cross training activity is slowly. I recommend consulting with an experienced athlete or doctor/physical therapist, or utilizing YouTube...which has taught me almost everything I know about running.
I also highly recommend reading books. Yes, I realize everything is on the internet today, but print books offer somewhat of an accountability provision, in essence. A print book, especially one that you personally annotate, as I have discovered, inspires a more dedicated commitment to fulfilling instruction.
Wherever you learn about cross training, be smart and safe. The worst thing you can do is further injure yourself. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your body. Learn from the mistakes of others.
If you would like to talk more on this subject, please feel free to contact me via email at isaacmitchell97@yahoo.com .
