Just what can the body do?!

As a massage therapist I really should practice what I preach and the fact that I always say to clients 'do as I say, not as I do' really isn't an excuse anymore! How can I expect you to take my advice when it comes to injury prevention and body maintenance when I won't even follow it myself? Well...you'll be pleased to hear that in typical Steph-stylee I learnt the hard way and only had myself to blame (in the words of my extremely wise Mother!) when it all went a bit wrong earlier this year.

The Edinburgh Marathon (marathon number five no less!) had been in my diary since last November. I ran six races in 2010 and was pumped to get more booked this year. To that end I decided to run The Grizzly (20mile multi terrain, the most gruelling race I'd done to date!), The Kingston Breakfast Run (easy 16mile flat) and then the Edinburgh marathon scheduled for the middle of May. However, I had severely underestimated how tired I would be after such a crazy 2010.

Business was, well, busy (!), training had been consistent and inevitably time consuming and, by the start of 2011 I really wasn't in the mood to train outside in the cold, wet, British winter! So, every time I climbed into my gym kit with the very best intentions of going for a run along the river, or round Richmond and/or Bushy Park, I only ever ended up on a treadmill at Fitness First with the justification in my head that I had plenty of time to get some training in outside before race day.

Well, we all know the saying 'time flies' and that's because it does! I found myself at the start line of The Grizzly before I realised it was 2011. But did I learn my lesson after rocking up to one of the toughest multi-terrain races in the country? Nah...after all, I'd never done a race like this before so there was no pressure to do a decent time...I'd just take it easy..use it as a crazy training run for the Edinburgh marathon which was my main focus anyway!

Now, I could chat about The Grizzly and how my body coped with it quite happily here but, with a view not to waffle on until the end of time I'll jump ahead to my continued lack of preparation for the Edinburgh race....

No real outdoor training and therefore no real mileage. The planned 18mile training run a month before race day got cut short at 12miles as my right knee decided enough was enough and caused severe pain from 7miles in. I panicked. I'd never had a real injury before, and like most of us I had been taking my body for granted and now it was payback time! I've always talked about body maintenance (and the importance of massage in injury prevention) but I clearly hadn't been looking after myself.

Now, here I was, the patient and not the therapist and as it turns out I'm not a very good one! Thanks to the powers of twitter I had connected with an excellent Chiro local to me in Teddington. Bless him, he saw me immediately and half an hour later we thought it was a pelvis problem (that he was able to correct) and with a bit of rest (and ice!) I should be ok.

Phew! But my renewed optimism was short lived. Even back on the treadmill my knee and leg were in agony after only half an hour of running! Then, just to add serious insult to injury I caught a bug which affected my breathing so I couldn't train at all!

Race day: what to do? There was no way I was going to go all the way to Edinburgh and watch the race! No way. In my world, I'm either in or I'm out. Which meant of course that I was going to run it...my chiro thought I was insane to even attempt such a distance due to the pain and inflammation and had I gone to me for treatment and advice I would have agreed with my chiro, no way should I be running!

So I did what any running nutter would do. I dosed up on anti-inflammatories and hoped for the best! Now, it's important for me to stress here that under no circumstances would I recommend doing this! Do as I say and not as I do!! But I also wanted to be honest with you because it's really the whole point of this blog.

Just for the record I rarely take painkillers or anti-inflams of any kind (I always like to feel exactly what my body is doing and if any problems are occurring), but all I needed to do was get through this race. After this race I could relax for the rest of the year, get fit again and enjoy running without the pressure of racing. Just get through....

And...not only did I 'get through' I was only six minutes slower than my personal best! Six minutes!! Seriously, why had I even bothered training for the other races?!! Coming in at 3:37 for a marathon not only without the proper training but also injured was quite simply insane.

But is it? Really? I've been running regularly for nearly fifteen years. I think it's important to recognise how amazing base fitness is and how powerful regular workouts are. Regardless of whether I have a race coming up I like to hit the gym 3-5 times per week without fail. I can only put my crazy time down to all the work that's been consistently going in to my body and fitness over such a period of time.

Mentally, I just had to finish..I could sort out the physical consequences of my decision later.

I was lucky. Delayed onset of muscles soreness was kept to a minimum and I haven't done damage that isn't able to heal. With some quality treatment, a bit of rest and confining my workouts to a spin bike and running distances of no more than 10k I'm well on the mend so it looks at though I can still enjoy some outdoor summer river runs this year after all.

The body blows my mind. But so does the power of mental strength. Clearly, when the two work together you can achieve literally any goal you have set. I think we underestimate just what awesome beings we are. It's important to listen to our bodies more and look after ourselves as effectively as possible. This year I strive to be kinder to my body and pay attention to its' needs otherwise the injury recovery may not be so successful.

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about a client I have who I met only a couple of months ago. After a major accident when fell running (no pun intended!) where he smashed up his leg, neck, back, arm, hand and also technically died he was informed he may not only lose his leg but unlikely he could walk/run again. This man started racing triathlons last year. They saved his leg (and apparently 'chicks dig scars'!) so there was nothing stopping him getting through rehab and racing again. Granted, he should never run a marathon distance again but I have no doubt he'll enter one in the next couple or years as it seems he's as stubborn as me!

This client, like so many, is an inspiration to me and yet another example of how amazing the body is. I feel privileged I now massage him regularly as he realised the importance of body maintenance.

Thanks to my body for my own wake up call!