Today on the Doc On the Run Podcast, we’re talking about how you should focus on what you can do today if you want to recover from an over-training injury.
If you’re listening to this, I want to go ahead and apologize for my voice, and this is probably going to be more painful for you listening to it than it is for me speaking it. But as you can tell, I am sick, really sick in fact.
I woke up this morning and I realized, you know, I’m really sick today, and when I’m sick, I’m not going to subject somebody else to my illness, so I can’t see patients today.
My voice is so screwed up. I really can’t talk to patients on phone or webcam consultations today, so I’ve canceled and blocked all of the appointment slots for today. I was supposed to be giving a guest lecture at the medical school today. I’ve canceled that as well.
And of course I was thinking my voice is so terrible, and it hurts so much to talk that I can’t really even record a podcast today. And then I thought about it, and I thought, “Well, yes I can. The podcast is going to suck. Nobody’s going to want to listen to it. Maybe nobody’s going to benefit from it because my voice sounds so awful, but so what?”
Sometimes you have to do whatever you can do. As soon as I started thinking about that, I actually realized there actually is a lot I can do today. I can send emails to patients. I can prepare physical therapy orders for patients. I can prepare lectures for the upcoming conference I’m going to be speaking at in Lake Tahoe. I can research some specific topics on biomechanics for the think tank in Hawaii that I just got invited to attend.
And I can do a lot of different things today to get stronger even though I really do feel weak. I can become stronger as someone who likes to work with runners. I can become stronger as a doctor even though I’m sick today.
What about you? I mean, if you’re injured, you’re probably sitting around thinking, “Well, I can’t do anything. I can’t run. I can’t go to the gym. I can’t do anything.” But that’s not true. You just have to think about what can you do today. You have to focus on what you can do today. What can you strengthen to make your system, your whole body that’s going to support that one injured part, what can you do to make it all stronger without making that one piece of injured tissue worse?
Could you do some core work today? Can you stretch today? Can you do anything to make the rest of you stronger today? I mean, the truth is I bet you can. I bet there’s a lot you can do today. There’s a lot I can do today even though I’m sick. There’s a lot you can do today even though you’re injured. You just have to figure out how can you shift your focus.
Focus on what you can do today, and you will recover as fast as possible, and you’ll be back to running, and a lot stronger when you actually do return to running if you can just focus on what you can really do instead of focusing on what you can’t do.
If you have a question that you would like answered as a future addition of the Doc On The Run Podcast, send it to me PodcastQuestion@docontherun.com. And then make sure you join me for the next edition of the Doc On The Run Podcast!