Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about how it is actually great if you’re not getting better.
I was just on a telemedicine call with a runner and she’s got a metatarsal stress fracture, and we were talking about what it’s going to take for it to actually heal.
So I explained what was going on, how bad it was, everything that she needed to know, and then she asked the magic question. How long is it going to take to heal? And I said, ‘Well, if you do this and this and this, if you do all of the things we just talked about, I think that you’re going to be off of the crutches in this period of time. I think you’ll be out of the boot in this period of time, and you’ll be back to doing what you want to do in this period of time.”
And she said, “Is that realistic?”
I asked, “Is which part realistic?” And she said, “Well, is it realistic that really in this many weeks that I’m going to be back to running, because what you told me is a little bit faster than what I’ve read about stress fractures online. So is it realistic?”
And I said, “Look. It’s realistic if you do what I just told you to do.”
The time it takes to heal any running injury always depends on what you do, not what you’re told. It doesn’t depend on the timeline I come up for you with. It doesn’t depend on the timeline I came up with. It does not depend on the timeline that you read about online. And it doesn’t depend upon the timeline that you read about in some article in a running magazine.
What it depends upon is what you do. You do have a lot more control over that healing process than you probably believe right now.
The thing is you have to figure out three things if you really want to get better and faster. There really are three things that you need to do if you want to get better and you want to get back to running faster than any standard timeline. You have to do something that isn’t standard.
So you have to figure out, number one, what is your goal? So if a doctor tells you that it’s going to take you six weeks to get back to running, you have to figure out what the doctor told you, what the doctor said the expectations are in terms of what you’re going to do, and then figure out how to do extra credit to speed up the healing process.
Now, if you do all of the things the doctor said and you do the extra credit, you’re going to heal faster. So you’ve got to figure that out first, though. What’s your goal? So with most of the people who call me for a telemedicine visit, most of the people who sign up for the One Run Away Challenge, all of them are trying to figure out how do I move faster?
The second thing you have to do is you have to think about, honestly, what did you do today that will accelerate your healing? Did you do anything, or did you do the same thing you did yesterday? You’ve got to do something different. You’ve got to try to do something that will actually accelerate your healing.
And number three, what is your plan to heal faster than that standard timeline? And are you or are you not executing that plan daily? You have to put the same kind of effort into your recovery plan that you put into your training plan when you’re training for a marathon.
If you don’t train for your marathon, you’re not going to get to the starting line in shape to finish in your goal time. If you don’t take the plan that you have developed for your recovery and actually apply it with the same diligence right now, you cannot expect to heal faster.
So is my timeline realistic? Well, that depends on what you’re doing to change the course of healing. But you have to figure out something and do something different to make that happen.
Now, the One Run Away Challenge is one of those things where I let a small number of people in to join calls and we talk about what you can do that you’re not doing right now, and that you could do today that you didn’t do yesterday.
And if you take those things one at a time and you look at all the things that you know how to do, look at the things that you did in training, and you stack them on top of each other, that is how you accelerate your healing timeline.
But it’s only realistic if you do it. That’s the bottom line.
I would like to invite you to join what maybe the best and most most cost-effective way for you to get back on track any overtraining injury. One of the secrets feeling like one of the secrets to recovering like an elite athlete more professional is to take a step-by-step evaluation and step-by-step actions every single day.
So what I created is the One Run Away Challenge
You are only one step away from the next phase of progress.
You are only one run away from your next long run.
So the run one runaway challenge is going to give you step-by-step instructions for a 10 day transformation. Figure out why you were stuck, what you’re doing wrong missing and what you have not doing it’s keeping you stuck in this right.
Not only will I give you the step-by-step instructions on how to make those determinations all on your own I will actually support you and lead you by the hand through that process conducting six WebCams calls every week, where you can come and check in with me and asked specific questions and get very specific directions live from me throughout the entire process.
Join the One Run Away Challenge!
Open enrollment is starting soon. But it closes right after it opens because we only let 25 people in at a time. If you want to grab one of those 25 slots go to DocOnTheRun.com/CHALLENGE
I’ll see you there!