Pain is temporary…

Saturday. I woke up grumpy. No two ways about it. Just grumpy.

Saturday morning I have gotten into the routine of meeting Coach T for a track session.  In the quest to learn to run again, I have found this to be the best way to stay on point with my training, and to ensure that what I am doing won’t hurt me.

You see, as my childhood friend Julie rightly noted on my Facebook page, one of the last times I ran was when I was 9.  I can clearly remember the day.  Recess at elementary school.  And all the sudden my leg just felt like it had broken.  I collapsed onto the ground, holding my knee, and cried “I broke my leg”.  My mother had to come to school to collect me, and although my leg was not broken and there was no remaining signs of the “incident”, I just knew something was not right.

Fast forward.  1984.  Double knee release surgery, following about 3 years of persistent knee dislocation.

Fast forward.  2009.  Time to learn to run again, to achieve my goal of completing an Olympic distance triathlon.

In that 25 year span, a lot has happened.  25 years is a long time.  But one thing didn’t happen.  That would be running.  In none of those years did I run.  An occassional attempt at jogging, but nothing sustained. 

You see, running hurt.  Not an ache or pain, but a hurt.  A hurt caused by fundamentally weak muscles and atrophy.

In those 25 years I also learned a lot about my biomechanics. 

I learned that my tendency to dislocate was caused by benign hypermobility – a syndrome in which the ligament collagen is just not right, causing the ligaments to be too loose.  I learned that a false step or fall can just lead to a dislocation (rather than a break; see my elbow story from 2007). 

In my quest to walk a marathon I learned that my high arched feet, and the aches caused by putting the miles and training in for the Moonwalk, were not ordinary.  They were caused by a nerve disease which causes muscle atrophy from the tips of the feet and hands back to the core.  Thankfully for me I am not highly impaired from this nerve condition.  But impaired I am.

2009 was a bit of a hard year.  Although I started to run again, I learned that I was just not strong enough to take it.  I developed tendinitis in my left knee and my right ankle/foot.  I decided a new approach was needed, so asked Terence Collins if he would join me in my goal to get strong enough to complete an Olympic distance triathlon.  He agree, and we decided it was time to go back to basics. 

After a period of rest from September to November 2009, we commenced a rebuilding strategy.  Back to strength.  Back to core.  Back to fundamentals.  For the last 6 months I have worked on the basics.  I have felt the results.  Not the type of “ooo I feel strong I feel good” but more like “oooo to get rid of this tendinitis that means I am going to have to work through pain.” 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t just decide that working through pain was the right approach.  I asked my doctors and physiotherapists for advice.  There are a lot of theories out there about what to do with tendinitis.  But the one that my team supports is that by working through the pain in a sensible way that does not cause true injury is okay.  Coupled with ice and anti-inflammatories the pain associated with getting strong would be manageable.  With a dedicated regime I might be able to transform the type of pain I experience.  That with time and effort I might be able to see the pain in my patella tendons when I go up and down stairs transform.  With good orthotics and more work on ankle stability I may be able to see a dimunition in the stabbing pain in my foot which is caused by peroneal tendinitis.

So that’s what I’ve done.

Fast forward.  Thursday.  I ran for a consecutive 20 minutes. 

The result?  Not pain as we knew it.

A manageable ache.  But not pain.

And on Saturday, at the track? 

Saturday was a hard session on Saturday.  A session of sprints and recoveries, alternating efforts, designed to build leg strength and to stimulate those “go fast” muscle fibers that have been dormant for about 25 years.  A session designed to wake up my nerves in as many different ways as possible.  A session that made me sore, but without pain.

Saturday also involved a discussion.  Now that the pain was diminishing, what approach should we take to get to 10k (no walking) by August?

The result?  A new training plan. 

As of this week, I increase my time on the bike and run.  I will be aiming for three run sessions and three bike sessions a week, keeping my swimming ticking over and core/strength work in the mix.  When I opened the plan last night, I gasped at a total of 10 sessions in the plan.  It’s a big jump in training – but a jump that should be manageable now that I have developed a base of strength.  I just need to adjust my “life” routines to make space for the training.  It shouldn’t require too much adjustment, but will require a return of early mornings.  That is ok as the daylight is cooperating with me – I hate waking up in the dark but from here until August we should have daylight before 6am which will really help me out.

On Sunday I went out to watch the London Marathon.  I stood by mile 13 / mile 22, on the mile 22 side of the road. 

I saw so many runners go by.  I yelled “Go Serpie!” anytime I saw someone in my club jersey.  I name spotted and cheered on folks.  Miraculously I saw TK from New York, although I don’t think she heard me When the stream of runners had no names on jerseys, I just yelled “Go runners! Be strong!”.  I left hoarse.  But inspired.

The marathon was inspiring.  Thousands and thousands of runners, at mile 22, pushing through their barriers.  On the road to achieving their goal.

And their pain?  Temporary.  At least I hope it was.

It is the goal – in my case an Olympic distance triathlon – that keeps me going.

As Coach T said, I have nothing if not my determination.  I will work through the next three months.  I have no doubt that this is going to be a hard slog.  That on some days, the pain will come back.  That at times I will feel surrendering.  I expect the white flag will be tempting.

But after last week, in the back of my mind, I now know…

The pain will be temporary.