Monday Tweak

Yesterday halfway through my run-hike, I got a tweak in my right achillies tendon. Learning to listen to your body is an important part of any active lifestyle. (I'd also like to think that if sedentary people listened to their bodies at all, they would begin to hear it screaming "I need movement! I need exercise!")  We can learn to listen to our body in small ways, and that will help us eat healthy foods, if for example we notice a pattern of not feeling good in one way or another after eating some particular food or food group. We can learn to listen closely to the feelings of our muscles, joints, our overall energy level and on many other levels.

But sometimes the body will send a loud and clear signal, and we have to learn to respect and understand those signals. They can be signs of over-stress, general fatigue, specific fatigue in certain areas of the body, or they can be a problems in one area that's caused indirectly, in which case we should figure it out ourselves! Often small signals when ignored can lead to worse physical problems.

Monday I felt a small sharp pain in my lower achillies, so I stopped, flexed my ankle, then began walking instead of running. The pain was not steady or great, but it was sharp, and any sharp pain is a clear signal to back off. It's NOT a signal to take ibuprofen and keep going, as some people do. I had to get 2.5 miles back to my car, so I began walking slowly, watching for any hint of pain, which I felt a few times until I adjusted my walk to take pressure off the right achillies. After a while I began to run a little again, but drove the stride by lifting my knees and avoided using my calves to push off. That worked fine.

But what went wrong? First the trail conditions have been very snowy and slushy for weeks now, and that puts a great deal more pressure on the ankles and achillies tendons. Second, I had an entire week off when I was sick at the end of last year, and last week I got back up to higher volume (16 hours), and resuming previous volume can be tricky on the body after time off. Third, my sleep recently hasn't been as good as it should be, and that makes it difficult for the body to heal and improve.

The lesson for me is to take it easier today (Tuesday), to get a bit more sleep, and to resume my normal 2 hour per day outing carefully next time. If I feel any pain at all, I will take a rest day. I'm writing a post about this because listening to the body is overlooked and it takes a great deal of patience and humility to accomplish. I'm still learning to listen to my body and to figure myself out generally!