From nutrition to mindset to actual physical work you can put in, I covered all the bases for how to most effectively manage a running injury in this article for MapMyRun. I hadn’t personally dealt with a running injury until I tweaked my knee in 2018, and honestly, it wasn’t even a bad injury and it nearly leveled me emotionally. I couldn’t believe how frustrated I got when I couldn’t run, and it wasn’t even an injury that required treatment — just rest and treating it reasonably for a while. So, I have SO MUCH sympathy for those with actual injuries that mean months away from running. And because of that, I wanted to get some holistic advice on how to manage the whole injury situation.
My personal favorite reminder came from Kristen Keim, one of the coolest sports psychs I know:
“Recovery is your superpower,” says sports psychologist Kristen Keim. “You want to not just get back to running, you want to also be able to have a generally healthy life — and sometimes that means taking a longer break than you want to. Having a plan for how to manage your recovery and comeback can help keep you focused on what matters.” Once you’ve seen a doctor or physical therapist and gotten an estimate on your healing time, you can start to plan ahead — you may not want to book tickets to a far-flung race, in case your healing time is a bit more extended than you anticipated, but you can start planning your training calendar.
