Keeping your motivation after an injury

[TR888]

Hi,

I'm not a naturally sporty person, but I started running in my early 40s and I still love it 5 years later. However, I am very prone to minor injuries and muscle pulls. Every time I have to have a break it takes quite a while to get my motivation back. Once I've exercised for a few weeks I'm fine but it's tricky to make a start and shake off the feeling of being too unfit. Finding time is also an issue, especially now that I'm juggling working full time with doing a PhD and dealing with the kids... (luckily my husband is v hands on).

Any tips?

Anybody?

I think with running the best thing is to cross train. By that I mean swim, cycle, run. So when you get an injury in one, you can continue cardiovascular training via the others.

Restarting any sport is such a nightmare that I find it's best not to have to!

I'm not a runner because I have back issues but am around a lot of long distance runners (marathons and ultras). As they age, the more the cross training seems to be useful in preventing injury and maintaining CV levels if an injury does happen.

And yoga/serious stretching also appears to be popular amongst the smarter ones too..but there's only so much time!

The whole injury/recovery cycle is depressing frankly. I find having a plan for getting back to form is a big help. I try and ease off before the injury becomes too problematic, switch out runs for low impact exercise or weight training and gradually ease back in. I'm on the bottom of the upward curve right now. Still running but have rebalanced with more time for other exercises.

If you're swopping out your running time for other activities because you're injured, these will just take over, especially when they're super important as yours are. Can you try and ringfence some of the time you used to devote to running to rehab efforts for when you're injured? This will make it easier to slide back in to exercise, whereas if you give the time to family activities or your phd, chances are you'll find it hard to make the time for running again.

You sound like you are doing a lot, so dont be too hard on yourself if it takes while to get back into it.

Thank you for your posts. I used to cycle to work before my commute, which was a brilliant way to keep my muscles strong. But I haven't cycled since... that needs to change.