I think I told you all about this 4-ish weeks back?

That I finally ran 10 miles after thinking I'd never be able to run that far again (because chronic illness body doing chronic illness things...)

Because secretly under it all, I was hoping, "maybe I can finally train for a half again! maybe it's actually possible this time..."

So no, unfortunately that's not officially on the books, especially because one long, hot run...

I had 1.5 miles left. I was at a stop. Waiting for traffic to clear. Took one step forward...all wrong. Immediately wrong. Pinchy, ouchy, stabby knee pain that did NOT quite down after 2 mins of running.

Long story short: my quads were tired. The heat added to the fatigue. I pinched my left meniscus. Ugh.

But good news: it cleared up after 3 weeks because I had been doing, and continued to do, lots of strength training.

But then the body decided to make eating difficult.

And we all know one thing as runners: donuts are life.

Wait, no...

Fueling. Fueling is 1000% necessary. In heat. Over long miles. To avoid injury, you name it; we eat it. (ok, not quite).

So maybe with my eating/fueling being all jacked up for a month or two now I shouldn't be surprised about my left booty pain from either a cranky hamstring or this cool thing called neural tension?

Why am I telling you about my falling-apart body and lack-luster long runs?

Because I want you to know: despite an injury, a string of bad runs, or just a lot of lifey-life stress...

Part of running is picking yourself up and finding a way to keep going.

And it may not be pretty, strava-worthy, or fast. Because dose of reality: sh*t happens. And we don't often see that on social media, so we assume everyone has amazing runs all the time. They're always racing. Always hitting their splits and their workouts.

And they're not. They're. just. not.

And that's why I try to create a comical litany of all the ways my body protests going for a run. To break that false-perfection cycle and hold up an authentic, messy, but very real version of my training and life.

Because another thing: it's very funny (to me) how people, runners, other athletes, will assume that physical therapists are "perfect" or never get injured.

Oh, we do. We do get injured. But I don't see many PT accounts on Instagram where they show they side. So I do.

So the big point I'm trying to make: I know running for the accomplishment, the accolades, the medals is part of the fun! It's EXCITING! But don't lose that internal drive, your grit, your reason,...and as cheesy at it sounds...the deep internal peace that comes from sinking into the run and finding the rhythm in the miles.

Because when you run for that, with that...it's easier and means more to keep going, to keep trying, to keep running when you keep getting knocked down.

Ok, philosophical running rant over.

Correct, there is NO blog post this week, just this (hopefully) slightly-motivational and life update email delivered straight to your inbox.

Don't worry, I got more running strength exercises and deep-dives into running injury prevention coming your way next week. Until next time, running fit fam...

Dare to Train Differently,

Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit

P.S. If you have questions or have a specific running injury you're curious about, hit reply to this email and tell me! I'll also take content or blog post suggestions :)

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