Listen to your body

It’s the cliché of coaching distance runners – any track athletes, really. Listen to your body. It’s the catch-all phrase we use when we discuss training, injuries, etc. Listen to your body. But as much as we coaches like to trot out this well-worn (but very accurate) phrase, we just as often do not heed our own advice when dealing with injured or sick runners.

In the excitement and urgency to get back for the next meet, the next championship or the next season, we as coaches often try to expedite our athletes’ return from injuries – using some artificial timetable like “by MAACs” or “by the next Boston meet” or “certainly by the beginning of outdoors.” I’m as guilty as the next guy; someone tweaks a calf or has IT Band syndrome, and automatically I’m thinking about how quickly we can get this guy back on the track.

Well, no more. Over the past few years – and certainly this year – I have developed a new, kindler-and-gentler philosophy toward recovery from injuries, illnesses, anemia (can anyone say VESS?) and whatever other maladies are likely to strike our athletes. I probably had this concept in the back of my mind all along and maybe even implemented it from time to time in the past. Now, I’m trying to make it the norm.

What’s the new philosophy? Listen to your body!

Huh? Isn’t that where we started this thing? Well, yes.

To elaborate further, my feeling on this subject is this: A runner who has been knocked down but whatever the malady needs to aggressively treat it in whatever way is most prudent and possible. The goal should be to get back to pain-free running training as quickly as possible. But here’s the kicker: “As quickly as possible” needs to become its own timetable. No artificial, manmade (coach or athlete) timetable for return. You get back when you get back.

Of course, there are exceptions. An athlete in his or her final season of eligibility in a particular season can be “forced” to “run through” and “race through” certain things, knowing full well that this is the “last chance” for that person to be part of the team dynamic. Well, that’s probably the only real exception that comes to mind.

Otherwise, you come back when your body says you are ready. Hopefully it’s a matter of days or at most weeks. If it is longer, it is longer. So be it. As long as you do your due diligence in recovery and rehab, all that artificial timetables will do will be to stress out athlete and coach alike, make you do things you should not do and perhaps worst of all, delay true healing – which defeats the purpose of it all in the first place!

Regrettably, we have several real-life examples of the Listen to Your Body theory on both the men’s and women’s teams. We need to stick with the plan. We need not to force things. We need not to rush things. (Note: Are you listening, Vess?)

Here’s one real-life example from a proud Running Red Fox who has been down for the injury count, on and off, for the past year or so – Brian Townsend. I love Brian. He’s all heart, and he wants to run long and run hard and run strong so badly that sometimes he is his own worst enemy. He and I have been guilty of the “artificial timetable” a few times in the past year. His experiences (our experiences, really) have really opened my eyes to the Listen to Your Body theory.

He’s still battling lower leg injuries, but I would say the fight is much more positive than negative now. We had a discussion about this the other day. Will he race outdoors? That was the question posed. The answer: He will race outdoors if and when he is ready to race outdoors. And not a day sooner than that. If he is not ready to race outdoors, well by golly, he’ll have gotten a jump-start on his summer training for xc-2010.

Again, last summer and to a lesser extent this fall, we kind of forced the issue. Both athlete and coach share the blame on this one. We are both learning our hard-earned lessons. My hard-earned lessons over the years will, hopefully, translate into better decisions about our athletes – now and in the future.

Listen To Your Body. Certainly not an original thought; but it’s just about the best advice you can give or receive.