0 Injury! What Now?

I'm injured. I pushed too hard, and ignored a couple of small niggles (against my own advice).  A couple of weeks ago I had reached that magical level of fitness where you feel invincible.  You are energised, strong, fast and feel as if you can run all day.  I smashed a half-marathon PR on Saturday and then my 10km PR on the Monday.  A week later, and I couldn't run at all.  Shin splints, and a disturbingly painful left ankle had brought my quest for world domination to a screaming halt.

Faced with my own physical frailty, and robbed of my regular fix of exercise induced euphoria, I've found myself struggling to stay positive, healthy and motivated.  Here are some of the key things that I've been forcefully reminded about managing your fitness whilst injured:

• Nobody is bulletproof - You will be injured at some point in your life.  Accept it now and it will save you a lot of time, pain and frustration when it happens.
• You don't need that chocolate - Initially I struggled to adapt my eating to my new, more sedentary, lifestyle.  I was still wanting to eat lots of carbs and had to be very careful of my weight now that I wasn't burning heaps of calories every day.  Be conscious of your food intake if you activity levels change.
• It's not the end of the world - When I realised I wasn't going to be able to run for a while, I almost immediately found myself feeling a bit depressed.  Without my daily sweatfest, I was really struggling to find motivation to get up and about.  I wasn't depressed in the clinical sense, or in need of medication, but I definitely felt down.  It's really critical that you maintain your positivity.  You will get better.
• Stay active - In 99.9% of cases, there will be plenty of exercises and activities that you'll be able to substitute into your exercise regime.  For me, it was more swimming, pilates and gym weights.  Whilst I couldn't run, or even ride hard, I was able to get plenty of quality fitness work done in place of those more high impact sports.
• See a professional - If you think you've injured yourself, go to a Sports Physio asap.  A good physio, in conjunction with a tailored rehab plan, will get you up to speed again a lot faster than doing it yourself.

Remember, you don't need to go to pieces just because your body does.  Stay positive, see a physio and adapt your training to suit your needs.