Setback soliloquy

Last Sunday, I had another running first.

I skipped out on a race I had signed up for, paid for, picked up the race t-shirt for and was overall, quite ready for.

But an innocent cold that morphed into a somewhat severe sinus infection and a mild case of bronchitis forced me to the sidelines of Hamilton’s Around the Bay 30K road race.

And I was disappointed. REALLY disappointed.

I wanted to be there. I’ve worked hard all winter, I was feeling strong (pre-cold), all my running buddies were there and I felt a PB coming on.

So I wallowed in it. Hung my head low, sniffled and moaned until my husband said:

“Snap out of it Becky — you’ve just got a cold.”

And he was right.

What right did I have to wallow? Almost all runners suffer setbacks and really, this one is relatively minor:

A good running buddy of mine, Julie, spent all last summer training to qualify for Boston. She worked her butt off and she did it. This winter in training she slipped and broke her foot. No Boston. No Deferrals. New qualification times.

My bad-ass nutritionist/ironman triathlete/coach/friend, Claudia fell on a pool deck a couple of months ago. She injured her, ahem, bottom and hasn’t been able to run since.

So what’s a runner to do?

Of course there are various therapies and exercises that help us mend physically. But our heads are often harder to heal.

“Running setbacks are almost more difficult to manage mentally than physically,” admits Claudia.  “But it’s important for the athlete to have a positive attitude. If we stress about the injury then our cortisol increases which only increases inflammation and delays healing — so that’s basically one of the key things that I continually remind myself of — don’t stress, be positive and stay relaxed.”

Reid-uber-runner-Coolsaet has also suffered setbacks. He’s slipped a disk in his back, broken his foot and been sidelined for weeks due to major shin splints. For him, it’s all about refocusing.

“When I got injured I had to give up on a certain race/goal,” he says.  “To help motivate and see the light it’s important to let go of the close goal and focus on a later race that is more realistic.  Having a goal keeps me motivated but having a goal fast approaching when injured just adds to the stress.”

My favourite sports shrink, Peter Papadogiannis agrees.

“Goal setting helps to set direction with rehab and allows athletes to feel in more control, as well as giving them ways to feel success along the way.”

But Peter warns before new goals are set runners need to dig deeper.

“Sport is a big part of  [an athlete’s] identity and when it is lost for a period of time they dearly want to get it back.

“Many times the athlete replays the injury over and over in their minds trying to fix how the injury happened and trying to come to grips of why it happened to them. All of these things are out of the athlete’s control and the athlete needs to change their focus to being more proactive and in control of their rehab.”

Claudia thinks the same way.

“In terms of what I tell myself – well it’s not easy but sometimes I think we just need to re-frame our situations, for me that helps a lot. Once I’ve accepted that ok a Half Ironman is not going to happen this season and I decide to focus on cycling and maybe even rowing events, then I’m ok. As long as I have a new focus, a new goal that can make me tick every day then I’m ok.”

As for me?

I’m lucky. I’ve missed a smaller goal, but still have my big one ahead. I’m on antibiotics and while they are making my gut woozy, I’m well enough to be back doing speed work (although probably not so speedy) tonight.

After all, it’s just a cold…Snot much to worry about, right?