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Trust, trust, trust…and communication

Saskatchewan Marathon

Saskatchewan Marathon

I’m not calling it an injury — it’s not (right?). It’s what I’ve deemed a “tinge” and I’m overcoming it pretty quickly, of course not quickly enough in my mind but I do recognize that’s just my crazy head. In fact, what I should really be calling it is a “lesson.”

I’m talking about my groin and the damage I did to it last Saturday morning while training with my team. We were out at Diefenbaker Park, site of the Saskatchewan Marathon, which was this Sunday (more on that in a moment). We were doing some tempo-type work on a grassy field when, about 20 minutes, into the workout I felt a pain up in my right groin. At first it felt like I had just tweaked landing on some uneven grass. Nothing too bad. “I can run through this,” I thought.

So I kept running, trying to stretch it out as we went along with the workout but at one point I felt a clear, direct pain shoot through my groin. I knew it wasn’t OK and this is where the lesson, in hindsight, began.

I didn’t tell my coach, Jason Warick, about the pain. I wanted that workout and I wanted to keep making the gains in my fitness, so I kept going and it kept hurting. Bad idea.

We finished the workout and that afternoon I could feel it wasn’t going to just go away, though I was still telling myself “it’s fine, it’ll be gone tomorrow.”

Nope, not gone.

I reluctantly stayed off it the next day. There was a bit of improvement Sunday, but not great, so I stayed off it until Monday. That afternoon I tried a run.

Nope, not gone.

So, I stayed off it Tuesday, hoping it would feel better by Wednesday night’s practice. Maybe the whole thing would just be a non-issue. No need to say anything to Jason, right? Wrong, oh so wrong.

On Wednesday night I ran to practice and there it was. I could still feel the pain. On that run it became very clear to me that even if  it did feel better, I’d have to communicate everything to Jason — it’s the only way he can do his best and it’s the only way to get the best out of me. The bottom line is I realized how much I trust him. It wasn’t so much that I felt I had to communicate with him, but more that I wanted to communicate. I could have faked my way through, but I didn’t want to. I wanted him to know everything. That’s trust.

So, I told him what had happened. His response was simple: “well, lesson learned.” Of course there was more discussion, but that was the big take away. I have to tell him everything and not wait to tell him.

I could have saved myself a week of training by stopping that workout last Saturday. Instead I’m still nursing my groin. It’s all but healed but we’re giving it until Wednesday just to be safe. Jason wants to ensure it’s 100 per cent before we go again, and rightfully so as I’m about to take the turn into a more concentrated training schedule, aiming to peak for a fall race. Nobody is running fast with a nagging groin.

Farther up, I mentioned the Saskatchewan Marathon. It was really cool to be out there this past weekend watching teammates and all the participants going for it. It got the race juices flowing. That I-want-to-compete feeling.

There was a sense of comfort in knowing I had everything communicated to Jason, that this groin thing is going to pass in a flash and that I’m doing everything possible to get the best out of myself and giving my coach everything he needs to do likewise.

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