Progress is admitting you aren’t invincible

I’ve been coming back from an injury with a steady increase in weekly mileage for the last month. I started counting weekly mileage again at the end of December and logged just over 10 miles for the week! I was thrilled! Now, 4 weeks later I’ve run a 20 mile week. Once again I’m thrilled!

Injuries are tricky, especially for me. I’m usually able to bounce back fairly quickly no matter what the injury is. Illness and injury don’t sideline me for long and I know that my ability to recover is extraordinary. I am very fortunate that no matter what the circumstances are my body is resilient enough to bounce back quickly, but because of this I assume I am invincible. I am not invincible. I may wear my shirt like a cape when I’m running sometimes, but I am not invincible and I am not a superhero. I too can get seriously injured and this achilles injury is a perfect example of how someone who thinks they are invincible can be sidelined–even when you think you are in the clear. I didn’t recover from this quickly, but the duration of the injury could have been longer. I’m thankful it wasn’t longer and I accredit this to resting.

I’m not in pain when I’m walking or running like I was a few months ago, however I am still extremely nervous to run. It’s been a slow process of building up mileage safely because I am not invincible. I do not want to be injured again. I’d like to continue wearing my shirt like a cape and pretending to be superhero, and I can’t do that if I’m injured.

Each run I’ve done the last 4 weeks has been a small victory. Each day I am miles away from the achilles injury and miles closer to training for races. I’m thrilled that I was able to run 5 miles last week. A long run of 5 miles is progress, but so is realizing that I am not invincible.