How can you calculate the amount of rest you really need between your running injury and your race? Well, that is what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
I know if you call me for a consultation, it is not because you want to talk to me because you watched a YouTube video or listened to a podcast, it is because you have a race and everybody else is telling you there is no way you can do it. Well, that may be my specialty, but today I am going to help you understand how you can figure this out yourself.
It is not really that complicated, it is just that other doctors do not want to tell you how to do it, so I am going to try to explain it to you. So, let’s say right now you’re injured and when you’re injured you have been given maybe a dreaded fracture walking boot, maybe you got one of those, or maybe you even got some crutches, right? You do not like those either, but either way you’re trying to figure out how do you get to here to your finisher medal, right? That is what you want. You want to go do your race and you want to get the medal. How do you get there?
Well, number one you have to get out of this, and you have to get to the point you can do this. So, you have to figure out a couple of things and there are only a couple of pieces to this puzzle that you really have to know. What you have to really think about is that you have your day today, let’s say today is July 2nd. This is a real example by the way. Let’s say that your race day is October 26th. So, you’re injured, it is today and this is where you have to be ready to run. You got to be ready on October 26th and this particular runner by the way has got a stress fracture, a real stress fracture, not a maybe stress fracture.
She wants to run 100 miles, so she’s got a fracture, she wants to run 100 miles and that in between 94 days. Now, one way to go about this, what most doctors do is they say, “Okay you’re injured today, you have this grade of stress fracture.” We think based on some research study that somebody published who’s never run a mile in their life and didn’t really follow a whole bunch of patients, just looked at some patients in this one study. They decided that it takes 12 weeks for you to start running after this injury. Not really based on science, but it sure sounds like science the way they present it. If that is true, 12 weeks is about how long? It is about three months, right? 94 days is also about three months. So, could you take three months off and then in four days get ready to run? Probably not.
This is the key thing. The thing you’re trying to figure out is how fit you are right now. So, you’re thinking about your fitness level now. How fit are you now and how fit do you need to be? If you’re doing the Javelina 100 to try to qualify for western states 100, this is going to be a long shot no matter how you cut it. If you have a marathon that is 94 days away and you’re trying to qualify for Boston and you’re not very fit, it is going to be very difficult to do that. But that is the piece you have to figure out.
So, what you’re doing is you’re trying to figure out how much fitness do you have today? And then the next question I always ask is, are you willing to survive the event instead of thrive and enjoy and have fun in the event? If that answer is yes, then there is almost always a way to get you to do the race. And the example that I gave was that without boring with a really long story, basically to prove to my sister who had signed up for an Ironman race to prove to her that it was all mental.
I basically told her that while I was packing up my bike after Ironman Texas, that I would do zero exercise between then and Ironman Lake Tahoe. Ironman Lake Tahoe is considerably more difficult than Ironman Texas, but I promised her I would not assemble my bike, I would not get in a pool, I would not go to a gym, I would not run, I would not work out, I would not do any exercise at all for a little somewhere around four months and do Ironman Lake Tahoe to prove to her that it was possible.
First of all, I had done a lot of Ironman races when I did that, so I knew mentally that I was capable to do it. And this runner also said she’s done hundreds, so it is not her first hundred. Your first hundred is probably a lot harder than your 10th hundred. Just like my 15th Ironman, I did that with pneumonia, and it was the world championships. But I knew I could finish because I have done 14 Ironman races, so I knew for sure I could do it even if I had pneumonia. Well, I didn’t know for sure, but I thought probably for sure.
But I also knew even if I didn’t exercise for months, I could go do an Ironman race and although it would be incredibly painful, which it was, I could still do it. So that is the thing you’re asking yourself is that are you really capable of doing this event on this day? If you are capable in theory of doing it with the fitness you have today, then your only task is to hold on to a bit of fitness. You do not have to like build a huge amount of fitness.
If you’ve been off for a year, no way you’re going to do this. It is a bad idea. You’re just going to get a different injury. So, you have to think how much you really need to prepare and the number of weeks that you have to prepare. Now let’s say that your hard stop, the thing that you’ve really decided is that you do not have to have 90 days, but let’s say you have to have 60 days. If you really need 60 days of preparation from when you’re kind of healed to race day, well then what you really need to do is realize that you have 34 days to try to recover as much as possible.
If you only have 34 days, would you just walk around on it and see if it gets better in a month? No, you would probably do things that are a lot more aggressive to try to get it to improve a whole lot faster. So, l basically how much fitness do you have today? Are you willing to just finish the race, or do you really have to perform at the race? How much time do you need to prepare in weeks or days or whatever? In this case let’s made up 60 days and then you have to figure out how you can be more aggressive.
You got to talk to your doctor, you got to talk to somebody that understands running injuries. You have to figure out and think about all the things you can do that are going to actually speed up the process of letting that tissue heal and there are always things you’re missing. If you’re not thinking about it, you’re not going to get it and if you’re not making your doctor think about it, she’s not going to get it either. So, that is what you’ve got to think about, but these are the only pieces. It is not that complicated. So as soon as you know that you’ve got 60 days and then you can still train enough in the two months left to sort of feel like you’re prepared and you’re not going to get injured, that gives you 34 to really figure out where you are and figure out if it is actually healed enough. And then of course this is your breaking point.
If you do 34 days of really aggressive treatment and then it doesn’t feel good, well then, your race is out because you know you can’t do it because you already decided you need 60 days. So that way at least you can cancel way in advance, maybe get your hotel and stuff, defer your entry, whatever. You have to be thoughtful about this. You’ve got to figure out your goal first and foremost. You have to figure out what you can do to speed it up as much as possible and if you do those things, you have a much better chance of making it through that event in one piece.
If you have a question like this and you want to send it to me, you can send it to me through the Injured Runners Aid Station. You can check that out at www.docontherun.com/aidstation. If you like this video, if you know somebody needs to hear it, you like this episode, please share it, please subscribe and I’ll see you in the next training.
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