Listen to Your Body

Off days are good days. RunKeeper gives me time off for good behavior on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Wow, never actually wrote it out this way. I have more “on-days” (4) than “off-days” (3).

Last night I started feeling some tightness in my right hammy. Since I’m an athlete now, I can call it a hammy. Once I have more “off-days” than “on-days” I’ll lose the right and will be required to start calling it a hamstring again.

Listening to your body is very important when you’re training for anything. It could be a role in the high school musical or a Spartan Race. Doesn’t matter. If your body is screaming “Hold Up, Wait a Minute” it’s best to listen. In my case, on a pain scale of 1-10, I was at about a 2.5, but considering that I’m on the back-9 of my marathon training plan, a 2.5 pain level on a hammy might as well be a 10.

How I reduced the tightness in my hamstring

Life lesson #114 — Whatever you do, be healthy enough to do it for as long as you want to do it. Maintain your health and wellness so that you can enjoy life to its fullest.

How to Handle Injuries While Training

The first thing we all must do is recognize the problem, but don’t go overboard. If you are training for the Reebok Crossfit Tour, you should expect a little bit of soreness. But activity soreness versus chronic soreness is a different story. This is what we must remain mindful of.

Chronic soreness is a significant sign of the beginning of an injury or an existing injury. Once recognized as “not-normal” act immediately. This could mean taking a few days off to see if the pain dissipates over time. If it does, great. If it does not, being proactive immediately will be key to returning to your training without risking a lifetime injury.

This is almost blasphemy for guys, but go to the doctor. Get checked out. I was once told that married men live longer than single men. Why? That’s what I said too. The person jokingly said because their wives nag them to go to the doctor.

Personally, it took my wife at least 3-months of “nagging” to go to the doctor for the stiffness in my left shoulder and tingling in my right arm. She planted the seed, but ultimately the chronic pain got me in the car to make that drive to the hospital. I’m certainly glad I did, but I did learn a lesson from this. Because I waited, my healing and recovery would take longer. So I say again, act immediately.

Morning weight = 171.5

Tuesday, 10-01-2013