Injury scares and a pain scale for stubborn people
So after a long string of solid training and racing I was due for a little injury scare last week. This post will go into a little about it but mostly stuff on accurately reading pain levels and coping actively when things go awry physically.
Alright- so now that the subjective and entertaining self-assessment is out of the way, let's look at some ways to potentially deal with falling somewhere on this scale psychologically.
First, experience the initial reaction or response. This unfolds a little different for everyone. If injuries are a new thing to you, probably won't really know how to respond at first, so a reaction of varying intensity is likely. And that's okay. But if you're a veteran of these types of things and it's a repeat of something you have had before, you have a better idea how to respond. At least I hope so. And if not, keep reading. Know this: how you feel is how you feel: disappointed, anxious, apprehensive, angry, etc. A common experience is just straight confusion: why now? What did I do or didn't do for this to happen? Do I need new shoes? New training? Don't forget the "now what's" and "how long's", anyway....
Clearly what happened to us was not in our plan and it's healthy to get those feelings out and don't deny them. Just do it safely and make good decisions doing so. That's all I'll say for now! ) I know when my foot blew up on me I felt a weird mix of disappointment and almost calm because a break didn't sound all that bad-the 'bees' feeling just needed to go away. Fortunately I did know a lot about what was going on and it's symptoms and treatment, so I did admittedly have an advantage. Side note: It's runnable again:) And yes, 'runnable' is a word-at least here!
The next step in this process is to gather information-even if you don't want to know-you do want to know so you can begin the healing process-physically and emotionally. And it's easier to begin to accept out fate if we don't have this alien and nebulous condition or pain in our bodies. Ask questions from your providers, research REPUTABLE sources, and begin to understand things like the condition, the healing process itself (quite fascinating if you ask me), and then possible ways to prevent and prehab when you get back out there. You know, how to take care of yourself and stuff. Oh, and you begin to learn your body too through this process. Self-knowledge- in it's many facets- is one powerful thing, fellas.
So I can't train. Now what?
Turn taking care of your injury and rehabbing into training. I suggest trying to keep you rehab and crosstraining routine as similar as your usual training (that is, unless you're like running 100 mile weeks or something). Keep a regular schedule, and cross things off the list as you do them everyday-like mental training and stretching. Most athletes like structure, and this is a way to keep things as 'normal' as possible and intentional.
Side note: your enthusiasm will probably not be as high as normal, but work to do the things you don't want to do. It will pay off, I promise!
Shift your focus.
Athletically, we always, always, want to stay as positive as possible and a great way to do this is to focus on what you CAN do, versus what you can't. Working with a concussed athlete the other day, we listed out the things he is able to do as he waits to heal and focusing on incremental progress. Last week I'll admit I didn't want to get on the elliptical, or do my oddly tiring foot exercises, but those were on the list of things I can do-and fortunately they provided a better mood and a proactive feeling afterward. Injured runners often talk about how they can improve the "little things" while they recover, such as stability and strength.
Holistically, shifting focus to factors that are not painful tend to be helpful. (no, really!?) This is a great time to give yourself permission to dial in at work or school instead of daydreaming (or unnecessarily stressing) about your next race or competition. Maybe read that book (or books, or binge on Netflix, whatever), or see that friend you've been wanting to. Find yourself getting frustrated or your mind going to places that aren't helpful? Acknowledge and simply bring yourself back to the present. Because the present is what makes the difference anyhow and is what we have some control of.
Awareness, acceptance, and control the controllables. Those three things, people, make perhaps the most difference when it comes to dealing with setbacks. So learn how you're really feeling, know that it's temporary, and do the work to get back to 'zero'. Thanks for reading this long and rambling post!
Make good decisions :)
So this wasn't my first rodeo with this injury thing and I now fancy myself pretty savvy when it comes to dealing with getting hurt. Please note, if you are unfamiliar with dealing with getting hurt or in denial about being hurt-see a medical or other qualified professional before doing anything else. Okay, got that disclaimer outta the way now let's get into it!
Even though I more or less have a process for how to go about things when unfortunate events arise, I always try and learn something from a setback. And let's get one thing out in the open right now: hurting yourself never, ever happens at a convenient time. Probably because a convenient time to get hurt doesn't actually exist, but anyway!
Long story short, the latest injury was pinging (ok more like crushing) a neuroma (don't know what that is, look it up, they're lovely in all the wrong ways!) in my right foot that I was diagnosed with a couple years ago. It was awful then, and I quickly forgot all about it until it was awful again. My biggest lesson was this: try not to drop things on your foot that has a cluster of tissue encasing a nerve. And if you do drop something on your foot, don't try to run on it the next day-even if it was a 3-4/10 on the pain scale (more on that below) and "in the name of increased blood flow". There are some things our bodies just don't want us doing. This, ahem, Adrienne, was one of them. Okay....got it. I also got a refresher course in how much pain is too much to do an activity and a nice test in coping with something going wrong.
Before I get into some coping processes for injuries, I'll present a 'modified pain scale' that I did not make up but think is as practical as it is hilarious. I think one of the first things we can do if we injure ourselves or suspect something may at least need some extra attention is to accurately (as much as we can, anyway) assess how bad we're actually hurting and move forward from there. But more on that later. Let's take a look at this pain scale.
I know that most Health Care people mean well when they ask "on a scale of 1-10 how bad something hurts", but pain is a pretty subjective thing and athletes, well, aren't always the best at reading it ourselves (um hello there, denial!) and perhaps even worse at reporting accurately what's going on in either direction. Here's what the tongue in cheek folks at Modern Manual Therapy propose to help us stubborn ones wrap our heads around how badly we're hurting (and how badly we may need to get whatever it is treated) -
I know that most Health Care people mean well when they ask "on a scale of 1-10 how bad something hurts", but pain is a pretty subjective thing and athletes, well, aren't always the best at reading it ourselves (um hello there, denial!) and perhaps even worse at reporting accurately what's going on in either direction. Here's what the tongue in cheek folks at Modern Manual Therapy propose to help us stubborn ones wrap our heads around how badly we're hurting (and how badly we may need to get whatever it is treated) -
1 - "It might be an itch" -probably covers muscle soreness (mild), scrapes, or poorly fitting equipment-I think we all hate that.
2 - "I just need a band-aid" - soccer players and gymnasts, I know you feel me here.
3 - "It's kind of annoying" -what I initially misread my right foot as last Sunday. I was wrong.
4 -" This is concerning but I can still work." Now we're getting closer.....
5 - "Bees?" - This is where it gets harder to not think about the painful body part, but still confusing and a little vague.
6 -" BEES!"- This was me at the end of Sunday's run. Sometimes we move up the scale when we make poor decisions. And let me tell you, those bees were all over my toes and forefoot and they.were.angry. I recall telling my friend running with me that my "foot was burning". Awesome. Yep, Bees!!
7 - "I can't stop crying". -no explanation needed there.
8 - "I can't move it hurts so bad". -Been there. Stress injuries and broken bones typically reach this level in the acute phase. There's a physiological reason for this as your body is attempting to protect itself from further injury. Cool, but still painful.
9- "Mauled by a bear or ninjas". Even I can't make this one up!
10- "Unconscious". I pray none of you ever get to this point but this is why concussions are so concerning.
Alright- so now that the subjective and entertaining self-assessment is out of the way, let's look at some ways to potentially deal with falling somewhere on this scale psychologically.
First, experience the initial reaction or response. This unfolds a little different for everyone. If injuries are a new thing to you, probably won't really know how to respond at first, so a reaction of varying intensity is likely. And that's okay. But if you're a veteran of these types of things and it's a repeat of something you have had before, you have a better idea how to respond. At least I hope so. And if not, keep reading. Know this: how you feel is how you feel: disappointed, anxious, apprehensive, angry, etc. A common experience is just straight confusion: why now? What did I do or didn't do for this to happen? Do I need new shoes? New training? Don't forget the "now what's" and "how long's", anyway....
Clearly what happened to us was not in our plan and it's healthy to get those feelings out and don't deny them. Just do it safely and make good decisions doing so. That's all I'll say for now! ) I know when my foot blew up on me I felt a weird mix of disappointment and almost calm because a break didn't sound all that bad-the 'bees' feeling just needed to go away. Fortunately I did know a lot about what was going on and it's symptoms and treatment, so I did admittedly have an advantage. Side note: It's runnable again:) And yes, 'runnable' is a word-at least here!
The next step in this process is to gather information-even if you don't want to know-you do want to know so you can begin the healing process-physically and emotionally. And it's easier to begin to accept out fate if we don't have this alien and nebulous condition or pain in our bodies. Ask questions from your providers, research REPUTABLE sources, and begin to understand things like the condition, the healing process itself (quite fascinating if you ask me), and then possible ways to prevent and prehab when you get back out there. You know, how to take care of yourself and stuff. Oh, and you begin to learn your body too through this process. Self-knowledge- in it's many facets- is one powerful thing, fellas.
So I can't train. Now what?
Turn taking care of your injury and rehabbing into training. I suggest trying to keep you rehab and crosstraining routine as similar as your usual training (that is, unless you're like running 100 mile weeks or something). Keep a regular schedule, and cross things off the list as you do them everyday-like mental training and stretching. Most athletes like structure, and this is a way to keep things as 'normal' as possible and intentional.
Side note: your enthusiasm will probably not be as high as normal, but work to do the things you don't want to do. It will pay off, I promise!
Shift your focus.
Athletically, we always, always, want to stay as positive as possible and a great way to do this is to focus on what you CAN do, versus what you can't. Working with a concussed athlete the other day, we listed out the things he is able to do as he waits to heal and focusing on incremental progress. Last week I'll admit I didn't want to get on the elliptical, or do my oddly tiring foot exercises, but those were on the list of things I can do-and fortunately they provided a better mood and a proactive feeling afterward. Injured runners often talk about how they can improve the "little things" while they recover, such as stability and strength.
Holistically, shifting focus to factors that are not painful tend to be helpful. (no, really!?) This is a great time to give yourself permission to dial in at work or school instead of daydreaming (or unnecessarily stressing) about your next race or competition. Maybe read that book (or books, or binge on Netflix, whatever), or see that friend you've been wanting to. Find yourself getting frustrated or your mind going to places that aren't helpful? Acknowledge and simply bring yourself back to the present. Because the present is what makes the difference anyhow and is what we have some control of.
Awareness, acceptance, and control the controllables. Those three things, people, make perhaps the most difference when it comes to dealing with setbacks. So learn how you're really feeling, know that it's temporary, and do the work to get back to 'zero'. Thanks for reading this long and rambling post!
Make good decisions :)
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