Ain't nothing gonna break my stride....

Addiction: is the continued repetition of a behavior despite adverse consequences

Hi my name is Kate and I have an exercise addiction.......

It's not anyway as bad as being an alcoholic. They wreck their lives, I'm just wrecking my legs but all the same it's getting a bit out of control since I injured my leg. For the last four weeks I have been in varying degrees of pain when I run. I've tried to ignore it, battle through it, deal with it, treat it but all the time I've refused to stop running. I didn't want to stop running because running for me is about more than just doing races and running pb's. I run because it makes me feel good, I'm always in control when I run, it makes me less anxious and able to deal with the other stuff that's going on in my life, I can control my weight and not worry about how much I'm eating, it gives me a huge sense of self worth, self discipline and I when I do my runs I get to revel in a little success every day.

I was in a lot of pain after my run last Tuesday and I knew I was going to have to stop. My body was screaming at me to stop. And I had good intentions. I told everybody I was going to stop. I told myself I was going to stop. I tried to replace it with the cycling. I had my physio's permission although I don't think she meant for me to do 163k in 5 days. But it's not the same. I don't get any buzz from cycling on the road. So I started running again. I was able to justify it to myself. I was only running a mile. I was only running recovery pace. It'll be fine as long as I stretch. It will help muscle recovery etc etc. But it was still hurting

I met my friend in work today and he was asking how my leg was. I told him it was still sore and he said 'have you been running on it' 'you told me you were going to rest it' 'cycling does not constitute rest or recovery' etc etc. The irony of being lectured to on my addictive behaviour by someone who had spent the weekend at a stag party and was suffering from a raging hangover was not lost on me I can assure you.

So this is plan. Back to the physio tomorrow to sort out my leg. I don't think I've done any serious damage. Yet. I just haven't helped myself heal in any way. I think the muscle fibres in my quads and glutes have a lot of microtears and I need the physio to sort out the pressure points because what I'm doing as regards stretching and foam rolling is not enough. From past experience I will feel brilliant after I've been to the physio but I need to rest completely to allow the healing to complete. No matter how good I feel I will not run or cycle for at least 10 days after. I am allowed to ride the horses because that's second nature to me and also to do yoga and stretches. My resolve will weaken as the days go by and I will try and bargain with myself. When this happens I will read this post over. I will not feed my exercise addiction with my chocolate addiction by claiming that I need to cycle to the shop. I will remember that I need to heal. I will not exercise. I will rest.

Oryx wrote: »

What is it with the women of this forum? Are we jinxed?

Ha It's because we're so talented and hard working. Obviously :D

pgmcpq wrote: »

Catching up here. Sorry to see you've been through the wars. Just to echo others ... take the time to identify the source and get right (I say this with 20/20 vision after three years of injuries ... if only I could go back in time ...). Try some foods with anti inflammatory properties ... e.g. tumeric ?

Thanks I didn't realise tumeric was used so much in Chinese medicine until I googled it there now.

Curcumin has been found to: Inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells. Decrease inflammation. Inhibit the transformation of cells from normal to tumor. Inhibit the synthesis of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation. Help your body destroy mutated cancer cells so they cannot spread throughout your body. Help prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth (angiogenesis) Unfortunately, while there's some curcumin in whole turmeric, there's not enough in the regular spice to achieve clinically relevant results. The turmeric root itself contains only about three percent curcumin concentration. Another major limitation of curcumin as a therapeutic agent is that it is poorly absorbed. When taken in its raw form, you're only absorbing about one percent of the available curcumin.

Do you use it yourself? I think the most important thing is rest and thankfully I'm in no pain at the moment and able to do all the things I normally do except run.

Day 11 - Day 8

The resting continues Can't remember what I did on Thursday but was up at 4:30 on Friday to work horses and was going all day and then we had a horse racing Fri evening in Clonmel. She ran really well Was knackered on Saturday and I forgot to set my alarm clock. I woke up at 5:30 though and I got up and had my breakfast but then I decided I'd go back to bed so I never made it to Portumna I did make it to the bike shop in Birr though and I got power straps for the Beast. I had to try them out so I went for a 10k spin on the bike. I've been keeping up the stretching, usually twice a day sometimes three times and today I thought I'd challenge myself with some strength tests - chin ups, pull ups, press ups and the plank. I did the chin ups first. There's a stalls here for scanning mares and it has a steel bar about 3 metres up off the ground so I used that. You have to climb up to it but it's pretty ideal.

Chin ups: 23 Thought I'd get to 25 but I started to feel a bit nauseous after 22 and then I dropped off the bar after 23. It's not bad though. My previous best was 20. I took a one minute break and I thought I'd be able to get stuck into the pull ups but my muscles had no strength and I had to drop off the bar after 2 I went in and I got some fruit and natural yoghurt and I sat down for 10minutes and then I tried again. Much better this time.

Pull ups: 14 Previous best was 12. I find these harder than chin ups because I think I can use my lower arm more for the chin ups and that's very strong from riding the horses. Another 10 minute break and I did the plank next because I knew I'd find that harder than the press ups.

Plank: 2min 43 I did this on the wii with the balance board. If you shake too much or if you're pelvis drops it makes you stop. I was shaking a lot but I think my pelvis must have dropped too much because although I was glad to stop I thought I could have lasted a bit longer. I've done 3 minutes easily enough before but I'd been practising for that whereas I haven't done a plank for months before today. Another 10 min and then...

Press ups: 28 Delighted with this because they were proper full stretch ones. Thought I might get to 30 but it was not to be. Did these on the wii as well and it's harder because it makes you pause before you do the next one and if you don't wait for the whistle it doesn't count them.

Plan for next week is to start building back up the cycling. Back to the physio Tues afternoon and hopefully Monday week I'll be all healed up and ready to run

Murph_D wrote: »

This is the most exhausting non-running log I've seen in quite some time.

What can I say. I eat a lot. Have to burn off the calories somehow

Oryx wrote: »

I don't know any other women with that kind of upper body strength. I'm calling you for backup if I ever get in a fight!

I have broad shoulders I'm not sure you'd need any back up. Shotgun doesn't call you the tough hoochie for nothing

SamforMayo wrote: »

I think your definition of no exercise is difference to the rest of us, Jaysus Rocky himself would struggle to keep up with you.

Oryx has a broken leg and she's still exercising .....

Thursday:

Bike: 63.5k in 3hr 5min
Elevation gain: 1,120 ft

Headed in the direction of the Slieve Bloom mountains today. I used to work around there and I'd often get lost on my way to calls. Seriously annoying if you get called out to a cow calving and by the time you get there the cow has calved :rolleyes: In the end my boss used to draw me out maps before I left the office. So with this in mind I made sure to bring a 1L bottle of water with me and some sweeties in case I got peckish.

It's no wonder I used to get lost. It's quite backward up there. The main road has grass growing in the middle of it and cars have to pull in to pass the bike. The signposts either say Slieve Bloom village drive, Camross or Coolrain and they all point in random directions. I went through Camross and a few km down the road there was a sign pointing to the right saying Camross 5k then at the next crossroads there was a sign to the left saying Camross 7k

After about 30k I realised I'd forgotten to bring my phone with me so I just did a small loop and then headed back the way I'd come. It was lovely up there with a really nice summer breeze blowing, the sun beaming down, lots and lots of trees and shrubs and the smell of freshly mown grass. I passed three or four little rivers/streams, a garden with a beautiful little miniature waterfall and two horse drawn carriages so it was quite an interesting cycle

SamforMayo wrote: »

So those 11 days of no exercise went really fast didn't they?:rolleyes:

I like to think of the words 'no exercise' as being a relative term