Life in the Rear View Mirror

After several blogs seemingly written by Eeyore, I’m coming out on the other side of this injury. Today I’ll run 10 minutes on the treadmill and have just 2 pt sessions over 2 weeks remaining. For all of my whining, I now seem to have euphoric recall or something – it doesn’t seem like I’ve been in PT that long. Ok, maybe not… I’m 16 weeks from surgery, nearly 17. I was supposed to be running anywhere between 8 and 10 weeks out. Many would be quick to point out I was injured for one heck of a long time – and it takes time to heal. Time takes time…

On the cusp of being cut loose from PT and out there on my own again, the greatest fear is re-injury. I’m taking some steps to make sure that doesn’t happen – or at least that my chances are less likely. But there are no guarantees.
On the up side, like I said to someone recently after running 4 minutes outside – I feel like a kid that gets to stay out past when the street lights come on. Or, more to my roots… when you can see the fireflies. I’m looking forward to 2011 already, picking out races I’d like to do, thinking about longer term goals. I know this is still a long process of recovery but I finally feel like I’m past the point of “this injury sucks and I’ll never run again.”

So, why is it that so many lessons are learned by looking in the rear-view mirror? I know months from now, when I’m doing speed work and cycling for hours on end I’ll be saying “I wish I had a few free nights to go hang out with friends” or “how did my house get so messy? Oh yeah, I’m like a tornado sweeping through the place again”… running from place to place, workout to event and so on.

Injury changes an athlete, I believe. Yeah, I know – it’s all about attitude. I know that, believe me. And while in it, I know I really tried to be positive, I tried to find other ways to work out, other things to occupy myself – and I’d say I did an ok job. I volunteered; I got asked to do some things and said yes. I did hang out with some friends. Yet, I know I isolated. I spent more time at home at night, mostly due to the pain of surgery then it became comfortable. My weight went up and down – my body composition has changed (and not for the better).

All this is to say I do have more choices. I have a choice as to how to continue coming out of this. I have looked in the rear-view mirror and I’ve identified some places I don’t want to visit again and the turns in the road I don’t need to take. So my lessons and I will move forward and see what this journey has to offer next.