The Running Injury Cycle Pt. 2 - DENIAL
Pain is protection. Denial is the decision to ignore it.
Pain is protection.
It’s your brain screaming at you, signaling actual or potential body damage.
Without it, we risk illness, injury, stunted emotional development, and yes, death.
Cue the prevailing alternative running advice — “Just block out the pain”
The little lies we tell ourselves.
Runners are the best liars. We lie to ourselves all the time —
“It’s not that bad”
“Just a little further, right around the corner”
“That’s just soreness”
“You can run through it”
On some level, you have to be a little delusional to convince yourself to run long distances. But it’s these little lies that break us. We become master negotiators with ourselves — pushing a little further, going a little more, ignoring the obvious physical cues.
We go numb to pain until it cannot be ignored.
Because you can delay pain, but you can’t avoid it.
Through it is the only way forward.
I’ll just take a day or two off…..
Let’s go back to May 31st, this year. I was feeling accomplished that week and just capped off a 33 mile week with a 13-mile Saturday long run. It was time to kick-back, relax, and enjoy a summer of fast running.
Then I stepped down from my truck….
Like any overuse injury I’ve had over 20 years of on/off running,
I first denied it’s existence.
“This time will be different.” — I thought.
But it wasn’t different.
The pain didn’t go away — it steadily rose in severity.
I tried to “Just take a day or two off”.
2-days turned into 3 weeks.
3-weeks of waiting.
Waiting for the pain to “go away”.
I ran a total of 8.5 miles between June 1st and June 22nd of this year.
You can’t deny it’s importance.
Now I completely understand this is a privileged problem…
Running and the time and resources I have to do so is not a right, but a gift.
But for me, this gift is my sanctuary. It’s not just physical fitness.
It’s where I spend time with myself and friends.
It’s where I relax and clear my mind.
It’s where I build confidence and strength for all aspects of life.
Living in injury denial is one thing, but I can’t deny running’s impact in my life.
How do you keep moving forward when you’re stopped in your tracks.
I’ll tackle this next week, in the Running Injury Cycle Pt 3 - Depression, and give you tools to bounce back from injury lows.
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Unsure if you have an overuse injury? get my guide, comment - The JonnyJoggins Pain Scale
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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, many miles. Now I use, and teach, running principles, mindset, and tactics for life performance.