The Running Injury Cycle - Pt. 1

You're DONE.

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When you least expect it…

This Saturday morning started out like any other Saturday morning. I have been running a weekly long run for what seems like forever. It’s just what I do now and I look forward to it each week.

I woke up early, drank some coffee, then headed to the Winter Garden trailhead to meet a few friends. With small children and life in general getting more chaotic, it’s a small-win whenever I can start my run not on my own doorstep.

What I didn’t plan for was a consistent downpour of rain.
That was the first surprise….

We started the run anyway

Yes, 3 ‘machismos’, we couldn’t turn around and drive home for a little rain. So we hyped ourselves up, dropped our shirts (; , and started pounding the pavement.

Turns out we were all a bit fired up that day.

What started as an easy pace slowly escalated. As our conversation turned more passionate, so did our cadence. External forces didn’t seem to matter. The rain couldn’t stop us and who cares what our bodies were signaling.

We finished our “10-mile” run with 13 miles, progressively getting faster for the last hour until we reached our tempo pace.

After the High-Fives reality settled in

I felt great — tired — but great.
I just accomplished a strong impromptu , half-marathon.
Thing were looking up.

Then came my first signal that this was going to be a long month…

After multiple ultramarathons and a 100-mile run, pain doesn’t scream out at me.
It shows up as a whisper — “you’re done”.

I felt an ever so slight ‘twinge’ in my knee when stepping down from my truck. I tried to ignore it, but something told me this one was different. I didn’t know it then, but would soon learn, I was indeed DONE.

(come back next week for part 2)

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Thank you for making it to the end.

Jon Runs Far is my running story. I’ve run 7 ultramarathons, broken a sub-20 5k over the age of 30, and logged many more miles. Now I use, and teach, running principles, mindset, and tactics for life performance.