Life in the Fast Lane

by Clara Grandt on September 24, 2012

Recently I’ve been diagnosed with my first injury since 2005.  I started having pain in the bottom of my foot and after it didn’t go away, I got an MRI which revealed a partial tear in my plantar fascia.  I’ve been fortunate to have had such a long stretch of time without an injury, but it’s still a hard thing to swallow when it does happen.  However, I knew the best thing was to accept that athletes don’t go through careers without injuries, and take it as a blessing in disguise and do everything I could to use this time to heal and come back better. 

So here I am actually staying quite busy working on things I may have been too tired for or just had gotten so into a routine that I didn’t allow time to make changes that could help me.  I’ve always worked hard when it came time to work because I love how hard work pays off and I love feeling the mind over matter phenomenon.  I like to push myself daily, but I’ve also neglected some of the things that would help that hard work to pay off.  Things like nutrition, stretching, running log data organizing, and near and far goal setting have been some of those things getting more attention. 

When I first realized I needed to heal and take time off from running, I let my body fully rest for a couple weeks while doing all the treatments I could think of.  Just recently, however, I have started to do a bit of cross training on top of this to make the transition back into running a little easier. 

 I have been able to satisfy that hunger for working and moving my body without the pounding, and that’s thanks to this wonderful machine called a Fast Lane.  I’ve started to get into the pool at the therapy and fitness center where I work to swim against the current that this machine creates.  It’s a lot like a treadmill for swimming, and includes a remote control to go faster or slower.  Naturally, I’ve gotten competitive with it and have been slightly increasing my speed over distance.  So, although swimming isn’t my first love, it is helping me exercise that same competitiveness and same desire to be better than I have been.  Therefore, during my time apart from running, I will be working on becoming better than I was the day before and living life in the Fast Lane.

~Clara