28th April 2012 - Yongin Marathon. The day started out brightly, got increasingly better, flourished into a euphoric crescendo, simmered to a warm fuzziness and resulted in six to seven months of the utmost frustration.
What happened?
A crisp sunny start to the day found a jovial group of Seoul Flyers make their way to Yongin for the latest race in the Spring season. It had been a great season on a personal level, and the labours of a stiff winter were bearing fruit in the form of ever improving performances, podium finishes and a general feeling of 'well-being'. Pre-race the general banter was flowing among the comrades in arms as each respective race got underway. I managed to finish 1st place in the 10km race with possibly one of the closest sprint finishes in the history of Korean amateur running (blatant sensationalism!). I won by a hairs width and a margin of 8/100th of a second.
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| Give me back the last 7 months and I'd happily have taken 2nd place. |
Soon after the endorphins in my body had simmered down I was to realise that I'd over extended myself on the home straight and done myself some mischief around the groin region. I managed to somewhat mute the pain orally, by way of Makgeolli and Meat at a nice little restaurant nearby the event. A general feeling of pride and excitement drawn from victory also managed to circumvent the issue.
The next morning was to begin an exceedingly long and hard struggle to get back to running consistently and pain free. A struggle that was to devour six months worth of my beloved hobby and somewhat tainted the end of my tenure in Korea as I missed race after race and had to take part in the club as a mere spectator. Something which I now understand to be very difficult to cope with. After visiting the 'Running Doctor', I discovered that I had developed a bout of chronic tendonitis of the hip flexor. At this time, with only the ability to run a maximum of 10-15 minutes every third day or so due to the pain, I discovered that I was terribly addicted to both running and the thrill of competition and that the withdrawls were lurking in the shadows. My outlook on life became somewhat lackluster and although adopting a brave face at all times, somewhere within the darkness was pervading my very being. Imagine suddenly reducing mileage from a generally joyous 80-100km a week to a painful and pitiful 10km, if I was lucky.
I realised that it was going to be a long haul and in some ways I had to disassociate myself with running.
I couldn't give up the Seoul Flyers though. Like a junkie in recovery, the club was my Methadone. It was the thread that held me together. However, I did quickly realise that all the drug paraphenalia had to go. This blog went into hibernation. I stopped using Daily Mile. I stopped buying Runners World. I ceased pouring over endless running-related websites. My charts and graphs on Garmin Connect flatlined. I no longer gave a shit about my resting heartrate or lactate threshold. (Oh but I did.) My obsession with buying running shoes came to a grinding halt. In fact, I had a pair of Salomon Speedcross 3 that sat unused in their original box, tucked away in a cupboard for several months. It was all I could do to stop myself from tearing them from the packaging and cradling them in my arms as I sat cross-legged on the floor gently rocking back and forth, tears falling upon their beautifully crafted yet totally unsullied Ortholite insoles.
After leaving Korea in July '12 and before returning to Australia, September '12, Minju and I went on our travels, visiting my sister in Canada for a month before heading to the Perhentian Islands of Malaysia and Gili Islands/Bali in Indonesia for another five or so weeks. In Canada and five months after sustaining the injury I finally felt like I was making some good progress and managed to run a WHOLE HOUR in one hit, deep in the Algonquin National Park along its spectacular trails. This was a major breakthrough. Although having said that, I was in 'Bear Country' and I was compelled to keep moving, my mind otherwise occupied.
Indonesia served up a severe dip in my running activity. In some ways I thought this would be highly beneficial allowing the injury to properly heal as I became increasingly sedentary. In retrospect, I'm not so sure this helped one iota, as I will come to explain shortly. I did however hone my skills in ultra-hammocking and spent many hours in training. I fully expected to get back to Australia a little out of shape of course but now able to really kick on, clear of all niggles. My assumptions were again proven to misguided as 'The Hip' once again became problematic. Now, unfortunately, I was in a country where multiple visits to physiotherapists can run into hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Gone were the days of three to four kinds of treatment and a good hour or more worth of attention for a paltry 10,000 Won. I was on my own. If my body was to right itself now, it had to do it of its own accord.
Upon starting work in the CBD of Sydney and finding an apartment in Rose Bay, a distance of 10km separated the two. I decided that I would begin to run or cycle to work everyday and see where I went from there. I suddenly experienced huge improvements at the injury site. One hour runs quickly became two. Two hour runs became two and a half, and soon I was able to run that magical three hours and therefore the Sunday LSD run was reborn. I decided to move away from road-running as was always my intention when returning to Australia, so trails and mountains became the central focus in my life, second only to my wife of course.
So how or why the sudden improvement? I'm not sure. I'm no Doctor that is for sure. But if I had to hazard a guess, I would put my recovery down to the 60 to 70km a week of bike-work that I have been doing since getting here. I just think the non-impact workouts that my hip flexors have received from cycling have been hugely beneficial. As mentioned before, I think that not doing anything in Indonesia may have even set me back somewhat. Now I am running around 70km a week and cycling the same amount.
It still hasn't healed 100%, but I have a feeling there may be some scar tissue at the injury site and this is what sometimes starts to kick up a fuss, stoking the flames of paranoia within me all over again. I still haven't been able to add any track or general speedwork to my week, but I touch on some steady state runs or tempo and I have competed in a couple of trail 10K's which have been an all out effort, and I have pulled up OK after. A little sore. But this has resolved itself quickly.
I feel comfortable enough now to re-introduce the drug paraphenalia back into my world. So here I am, back doing my Junk Mileage, active on DailyMile once again and now on Movescount (just got the Suunto Ambit, marvellous). I'm able to create mental wishlists once again as I'm bombarded by Running Warehouses latest 'sneak peeks'. I can regard other runners now without intense feelings of jealousy and the urge to smite them all. And best of all, by a country mile, is the fact that I am able to compete once again.
Out of all this, can I give any advice to those with long term injuries? No. Not really. We are all wired up differently. Our perceptions of what constitutes a crisis or not as the case may be, are vastly discordant. One persons mountain may be anothers molehill.
All I do urge, and simple to do, now that I am 'clean' again, is to not lose sight of all the wonders that the world has to offer, peripheral to your passion for running. And most importantly, don't let your injury affect your nearest and dearest. That's just not fair. You will heal.......... eventually.
It's good to be back.
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