Was she asking for something more profound when she commented that my musings on this website were getting predicatably negative ? Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe Sigmund Freud might say – or – shut your pie hole as they say parts of Glencoe road.
I’m sorry, I set out to write a positive, insightful and useful blog and not let my minds wanderings dictate things . . . my brother likes that though I believe ?
I am confused now. Maybe I just don’t take criticism well ?
Pie hole.
Anyway here we go – my top ten (and then some) positive tips for dealing with injury – you know, when you feel like a dog in a canoe.
How to help keep a hold of your sanity and stop your eyes from raining :
1. Keep your glass half full !! Stay positive. It would be worse if you were just a runner and couldn’t still bang out 30hrs of swimming and biking. Jeese think how guilty you would feel by starting every day with a coffee and a muffin if you weren’t going riding for 4hrs.
2. As a triathlete you can use the time to work on other weaknesses – for example gym work ! You can do those exercises the physio advised last year . . . to think that by walking around ‘holding in things that could escape you below the naval’ could have prevented this mess in the first place.
3. Try everything but with intelligence and advice – ‘wear your running kit and race flats to go to swimming’ – this is not intelligent advice but it did make me feel temporarily light on my feet and almost tricked my small brain into thinking I was on my way to the track. It ended in disappointment on seeing the pool.
4. Eat right and drink more (water and/or coffee but not alcohol as supposedly it might provide temporary relief and give you the belief to try running home) and after the breakfast muffin and 4hr ride look to add quality sources of protein to your diet to help your body with it’s repair. I’m on the anti inflammatory food – fish oils, ginger, turmeric, salmon, broccoli, blueberries – not always in the same bowl. A number of these foods also help you remember point number 2.
5. If you can’t walk for an hour you can’t run for an hour.
6. See a physio – obviously – but remember just because your not fixed within 3 sessions doesn’t mean ‘he hasn’t a baldy what he is talking about’. You need the physio but you also need time (if the physio utters ‘you need surgery’ before even touching you it’s best to get a second opinion).
7. Do not let Google Doctor scare you. Although I do find Google good for finding random stuff to buy that I don’t really need and Youtube quite good for taping techniques, different ways of doing sit ups and sometimes using youtube converter to increase my music collection.
8. Compression, Ice, Rest, Cleaning, Loading (progressive), Elevation, Sugar – or what I term ‘Circles’ – the sugar is optional I guess but it does make you feel better sometimes and can be derived from a variety of sources not least ice cream. Sometimes we all need some sugar.
9. Never walk when you can cycle, never cycle when you can drive, never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can …. sleep more. Be social but rest – divert conversation away from injury chat. Speak to a random at the coffee shop (maybe inform her that in some parts of Europe they call it confiture . . ahh shit I scared her off). Never ever ever stretch or carry out self massage in public or with company even in your own home (lots of points in number 9 but I wanted to have 10 points in total and leave the best one until last)
10. Just when you think you are ‘cured’ have 1 more day off.
