Burn to Run
Week 83: Runners need to burn and rise like Phoenix
Extended version of Run&Bee column in Hindustan Times on 15th Feb 2020
Illustration by Amit Kumar
Injuries in running, like in any other sport or exercise activities, are inevitable, but when they become long term, affecting your performance and more importantly stopping you from running, you need to go back to the drawing board.
“Like a phoenix, you need to burn yourself down, turning into ashes. One baby step at a time, you need to work on your basics, and rise again, so you can fly away, yet again like the phoenix would.”
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash
“We all instinctively knew how to move, but then life happened and we forgot it all.”
There were no special classes taken to learn how to move as a sperm, as a foetus kicking around in our mother’s womb and then as an infant trying to ride that non-existent cycle while lying supine. Movement came naturally to us.
We all assume that our walking and running form is perfect because we have been at it for years or decades without entertaining the thought that we possibly have perfected the art of imperfection.
“Only when we let go of our ego can we rework on it.”
“As in nature, we need to appreciate that we and we alone have the power to get back up and move like never before.”
That coach or doctor, as experienced and learned as they might be, inspite of their best intentions, are playing a percentage game. They are suggesting what has possibly worked for 90% of the runners they have seen. But you could very well turn out to be part of the 10% who didn’t improve at all.
To have a chance of getting back to running again and that too for life, you need to appreciate that you are your 100% and you alone know and understand yourself best.
“Phrases like ‘I feel you’ really don’t mean much in practical world because no one else can ever feel what you are going through.”
Nor can you understand their pains. You need to figure how important your running is for you and work on it.
Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
“You need to find a doctor or a physiotherapist who has the mindset of a sportsperson and appreciates why running is so important to you. It would massively help if they are active themselves.”
Only then will they be willing to hear you out and understand why you need to get back. While you narrate your story, you’ll surprise yourself that you’ll come up with the underlying cause of your problem and the solution too.
“As soon as you understand that you are the most significant to yourself but yet completely insignificant in the bigger scheme of things, it’s game on.”
Your previous exeperience, run times and distances are of no consequence. They mean nothing. You are currently injured. Plan is to get back to running for life. The best approach is to break it all down, demolish it all completely from the foundation itself. You then need to rebuild, one brick at a time, relearn to move the way you did as a child, the natural way. The more you resist, the worse it’s going to be. So just let go.
“The pain you have is only a symptom. Of course that injury needs to be addressed but you need to appreciate the fact that you are made to move and all body parts are directly or indirectly connected to each other.”
To add to it…
“You aren’t just a machine, but you think too. Your emotions play a major role in your injury and recovery too. You need to dig in deep and get back up. Its easier said than done, but you need to get on with it.”
Another major mistake people make is that they might have a body of a 45 year old but heart of a 17. Unlike reckless decisions as a teenager, now you need to think long term. You need to get those muscles to start working. Get on with basic exercises and movements rather than looking for complicated fad of the month or year exercise or machinery to do that fancy exercise. Remember basic exercises done with discipline is where the magic lies.
