I should’ve listened to my body. If there’s one thing you should take away from this post, it’s that you should always listen to your body.

In my zest to increase my training in advance of running the Bloomsday 12K, I did too much too fast. I pushed my normal training pace beyond what I should have, ramped up my speed work too quickly and even pushed too hard in my other sporting activities (multiple full-court bball games on tired legs). All of this led to a strained lower rectus abdominus muscle (possibly a re-injury from a snowboarding wipeout 10+ years ago). And what did I do to treat it?

I tried to train through it, of course!

The first run after it happened had me feeling like someone was pushing a hot poker into my gut. Though, it did get slightly better after I warmed up a bit. However, in the days after that I had trouble walking without a slight limp and my running form was all jacked up. I really should’ve listened to all of the screaming my body was doing and just shut everything down. Those extra four or five days of running did nothing for my race training, and they definitely cost me my chance of participating in the Bloomsday 12K.

It’s been 14 weeks since the injury occurred, and while I’ve tried to start back running a few times, with moderate pain showing up each time, today was the first time I truly felt pain free. Hopefully, the last seven weeks of resting with minimal stretching and resistance exercises has healed me, and my body won’t be yelling at me when I wake up tomorrow.