Injuries

Injuries.  Everybody gets them. It's one of the biggest roadblocks of  being an athlete . I realized I run a heath and fitness blog, but have completely left out blogs about injuries. I thought today might be a good day to start. To get to the actual point of the blog, you may have to skip to the second part of this themed post for advice on how to overcome injuries. But first, I feel like I should build up my ethos with my own history of injuries.
I consider myself extremely lucky. Not only have I been given the support and materials to become an avid runner but I have been lucky enough to have a strong body to carry me mile after mile. I have never had any major accidents that have left me seriously injured, and I'm extremely grateful for that. When I had first started running long distance, I had run crazy mileage in a short amount of time. 2 summers ago I had run almost 400 miles in 3 months. It put a lot of stress on my legs and I developed shin splints. My legs were tender and painful when I ran, walked or put any amount of pressure on my leg. I had tried almost everything to help ease the pain. I decreased my mileage from 50 miles per week to about 30 or less.
I had also strained my hip flexor a few months later in my very last cross country race of the season. In track, I had some minor issues here and there but nothing that kept me out of practice and meets. I also haven't had many lifting injuries. I have pulled muscles and strained some but I've always been able to bounce back quickly.
Almost 5 Monday's ago, I went for a run. It was warmer but still cold enough to have some ice spots. I dodged them carefully and went on my way. It was only until after my run that I noticed my left foot was extremely painful to walk on. I thought it was my ankle because I had some swelling and discoloration in that area but I noticed the real pain was along the side of my foot behind the base of the 5th metatarsal. It hurt to walk up the parking lot into school, to walk up the stairs and to even get in and out of the shower. It was almost impossible to get from class to class without noticeably limping. The worst part was that I got hurt 7 days from the first day of track. That took almost 2 weeks to fully heal. Just when that happened, I was struck with yet another injury. Welcome to injury season.
(To be continued) (461)