Preventing Mental Overuse Injuries

In the nearly five years (whoa) that I’ve been running, through 25+ half marathons, 4 full marathons and bunch of shorter races, I’ve been relatively injury-free.

I’ve had some runner’s knee issues a few times, but I’ve never (KNOCK ON SERIOUS WOOD) had an injury that’s sidelined me for more than a week or so, and I consider myself very lucky for that. I’m also really careful to not push myself to the point of an overuse injury. At even the slightest hint of knee pain/injury, I back things way off. Please see: four boring loops of the park on a bike instead of a lovely run.

I know that long-term running is more important to me than short-term running, and I’m willing to make sacrifices for the long-term.

Well, I think my brain is kinda like my knee. It needs some rest sometime so that it doesn’t develop its own overuse injuries and so that it can recover and regenerate so I can be fresh and creative at work and in life.

Last week, I had something to do every night after work: some work-related, some Junior League obligations and a few fun things. A few weekends ago, I was walking home from work with a coworker on a Friday evening. We were discussing weekend plans, and I basically had my weekend planned out every minute. I hadn’t intended to do so, but beyond a few obligations, a bunch of things came up that sounded too fun to say no to. However, talking about my weekend, all I really wanted to do was go get into bed and rub Bailey’s belly.

I love being busy and social, but everyone needs to rest and recharge, so this weekend, I did a whole lot of that.

Well, after the juicepress run club, the best part of any weekend. I MEAN, YOU RUN FOR FREE SMOOTHIES.

And then Emily and I went to Lori A.’s SoulCycle class, since Emily had been preaching the Lori gospel for a while. GOOD LORD THE 77TH STREET LOCATION IS STRESSFUL. But Lori’s energy was amazing, and did not disappoint.

After that, it was time for some solid me time in my apartment. Just me, my stuff and a bunch of trash bags. I’ve long thought that cleaning is a key part to mental health, too, and I needed a big dose of unwinding via cleaning yesterday.

I’ll be going home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, but my parents needed some TLC as much as I needed some downtime, so I hopped on a train yesterday and headed out to NJ for some quality time with them, for no good reason. No holiday, no obligation, just some good ole’ QT with them.

I stayed in my pajamas until 1pm today, and IT WAS GLORIOUS. I took a bath in my parents’ big Jacuzzi tub and soaked my sore muscles.

Gratuitous leaf shot.

I went to see a friend and her baby, and then came back into the city and some more great me time.

We have some awesome recipes at work that I spend a lot of time reading/social mediaing, and there have been two that I’ve been dying to try. Butternut Squash Soup and Spaghetti Squash. I made them and love my life now.

While the squashes were roasting, I had 20 minutes or so. I hadn’t worked out today and wanted to get a little movement and some stretching in, so I did one of our yoga videos.

Om.

I got a quick mani, and now I’m writing this post and am going to sleep feeling happy and calm, rather than stressed that I felt like I didn’t fit everything in over the weekend and didn’t have enough time to myself.

Monday, bring it on.