Sunday morning coffee and chat

Sunday, May 04, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning and happy Sunday! I know it is early and but grab a cup of coffee and pop a squat! Was yesterday an amazing day to run or what? We had a low turnout for the 10K training due to the Children’s Museum race but it was a lot of fun anyhow. I so enjoy getting to know the runners in groups that we work with so yesterday was a good opportunity to run along with a woman that is a little ahead of us in the house building process, but was very enlightening. Check out the front page of NFLR for the announcement about weekly group runs. This is something that many of our runners have mentioned and thanks to Nicole’s can do mentality, we are going to start this Thursday night! So if you would like to join us for an easy trail run along the Isinglass River plan to meet us at 5:45 at the far end (closest to Rochester). If you are interested in joining us, contact myself or Nicole and we will know to expect you. Otherwise just show up with bug spray! We will run 2.5 or double back and do 5. We will work out the logistics so no need to worry about your distance or pace. This is not intended to be a fast run and the hope is to stay together as a group. Should be lots of fun! Running has become quite an obsession over the past 5 years and while that’s pretty cool, it can also become problematic. Many become so attached to the benefits that come with running such as: improved health, weight management, social interaction and mental relief. However, while these benefits are what makes running special and attractive, the obsession can lead to mismanaging pain and injuries. People tend to get caught up with the benefits and often ignore injuries or don’t deal with them as they should. Many sign up for a particular race series or join a training group and an injury pops up, fear and doubt begin to override logic and before you know it, a manageable injury turns into something far more serious. No one likes taking time off to deal with an injury and most likely there is never a good time during the running season. Watching others run while I’m on the sidelines is tremendously frustrating! Those benefits we enjoy so much put a lot of pressure on us to be out on the roads regardless. That obsession that drives us to run, also lands us in physical therapy more times than not. I had a conversation with a PT guy that pretty much confirmed my beliefs as he talked of seeing many women that had become runners fairly recent only to run through pain and end up more seriously injured. Woman finally get out of the house and start finding the joys of running, only to experience an injury. Instead of taking some time off they keep running and eventually end up in PT. The fear that if they stop, they may not start back up again or worse get out of their house again drives them to ignore pain until it is too late. This is not necessarily restricted to women, men typically try to tough out injuries hoping that miraculously the injury will go away. All of this is great for my son in-law as he is finishing up his physical therapy training, but not so great for us stubborn runners. If you have a pain that lingers more than 4 or 5 days, take a break and do some cross training. If the pain persist, get to a doctor and get it looked at. Running is for life and we need to treat our bodies accordingly! Thanks for enjoying your Sunday morning coffee with me. Have a great day and good luck to all those running the Wallis Sands Half Marathon today! Mike