Pre-read warning! This is not a Mom tribute for she is much more than what I’m about to reveal…this is just a slice of life ❤️
My Mom is special. I know all mom’s are, but you all know that your very own is a very special kind of special. As a mother of a senior master runner, she is of a certain age (that will not be revealed by this blogger) and she is a force of nature. She has always been very energetic, very purposeful and very stylish. For those that know both her and me, I have lived my whole life as “la fille à Yvonne” giving me an awesome role model to guide me and revel in.
So when this force of nature had to have a knee replacement recently, I figured she would fly into recovery without skipping a beat. Well you know the saying about the caregiver not being a great patient? This is what she embraced instead! Only my mother would think that she could bounce off that operating table, put on her heels and dance off into the sunset the next day. OK that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture. So I needed to channel all of my best lessons learned from working with teenagers and my mentors; but most of all my own experience with injuries, journeys of returning to running and my Coach Erin nuggets.
In a totally random order, here are a couple of things I shared with my Mom when she was less than 2 weeks out of surgery woven with some running lessons.
Why am I still feeling so weak? You can’t expect to get off the surgery table and start walking. You need to prepare your body for the healing/training you’re about to embark on. Get that good nutrition and hydration going. Build that base and then you can start piling on the big girl physio and training.
Create a positive mindset. You are your own worst critic. Make sure that you are celebrating the smallest of successes and improvements. Don’t second-guess yourself and don’t be too hard on yourself. Know where you are and be pleased with that. You have enough on your plate to get better, you don’t need the added burden of the Negative Nelly!
Learn from your journal. Be honest with your physio/coach, she knows a lot and will adjust as necessary. Even though the plan may be laid out and you complete every step, how you feel mentally and physically doesn’t show up in a check list. My journal has a lot of anecdotes and quite often does not keep to the script or have anything to do with the task at hand, but it gives my coach insight into me and how I deal with the ups and downs of running. This allows her to track my spirit. All of these things are important to physio/coach as they can adjust the plan as you move forward in healing up or accomplishing that running goal.
Shortcuts will not help. Getting every exercise accomplished, every interval done, every pace met, etc may not happen on that first try. Sometimes you will feel like skipping it because it’s too hard. Point is you at least need to show up to every run/session. If you can’t get through all your exercises, that is OK…just make sure you show up EVERY TIME. It will get better.
Create opportunities for short-term successes. It’s good to have what you want to achieve in 12 weeks, but what can you do today or this week? Look at breaking down your goals to short term achievable ones. You may not be able to walk today without that walker or run that full marathon today. But you need to know what limit you can push today so that you can get to that end goal eventually. Besides, who doesn’t feel better being able to check something off the list every week.
You know your body. You know the difference between an ache and a hurt. You can and need to push the aches but you shouldn’t the hurts. The physio/coach can help you push through the aches, but you’re the only one that knows when it hurts. Be honest and let her know!
There is no turning back. Listening to my Mom made me remember the deep discomfort I felt when I had my ACL replaced and at one point questioning what I had gotten myself into. I actually had the medical equivalent to “buyers remorse”. It was a weirdly LOL moment and pivotal in snapping myself out of the self-pity I was feeling. This is something close to what I feel in the first little bit of most races. The “what have I got myself into” thought is quickly replaced with “you wanted this and you paid for this”. Point is: there is no turning back and the only plan of action is to go forward with everything you’ve got.
It’s hard because it’s hard. It will hard, if it isn’t you’re not working at it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had this said to me or that I’ve said this to myself. Every new exercise, extra interval, added kilometre and set will be more. It supposed to be harder. You’re supposed to be tired and out of breathe.
I’m not sure where I saw this nugget this past week, but the timing is perfect!
Bottom line is I know that my Mom is a trooper and that she wrote the book on perseverance. My little reminders were just that : reminders and she will fly through this and have those dancing shoes on soon enough!
Can’t leave this week without a couple of special selfies from a special weekend of running!
