IPOS: Injured Piece of Shit
For those who aren’t familiar with the loving term runners will occasionally be forced to address themselves as, IPOS is an almost unavoidable part of running life. There are great exercises and eating habits to keep us healthy and in our best shape to avoid it, but it lingers around every loose rock, unseen divot, and distracted dog. Over the past four weeks I’ve been sidelined from every type of exercise except walking as I’ve tried to recover from a combination of issues, the first and last of which landed me on the IPOS roster. After tweaking my knee in early December I took some time off, only to have my knee feeling rested and ready as I slammed my head in to the ground to garner my second concussion.
Time off sucks. It does. But, whether we want it or not, the time that passes in our lives is the only time we get. I didn’t get to push myself forward at all this past month in my running goals, and have even had to acknowledge that the time off has set me back. I don’t want to have to claw back the progress I made, doubling back over the same work I did months before, but it’s the only way forward. And so I will.
Running isn’t easy when you push yourself to get better and go further. But, we wouldn’t be running trails and pursuing dreams if we wanted to do what was easy.