Spare A Rib?

After about two weeks of pain in my ribs (and no cold symptoms), I went back to the doctor to see why I’m still so sore. As it turns out, I sprained a rib during my illness. This will likely take at least another two weeks to feel better, and there isn’t much I can do about it. This was not welcome news.

Rather than worry over how little I can do for myself, I’ve been trying to take heart in the things I can avoid doing now that I know what’s going on. For two weeks I was massaging the area and stretching it out, like you would for a sore muscle, but this was probably making my pain worse. Since I stopped doing all that—and started a prescription-strength anti-inflammatory regimen—I’ve been feeling much better. The hardest lesson for an athlete to learn is that sometimes it’s better to do less.

I didn’t run this week. It’s hard to do much less than that. It’s hard to do, period. I’ve been missing the lighter mornings now that Daylight Savings Time has ended. I’ve been missing the fall weather and foliage. One of my workout buddies heard great horned owls at the park, and I missed that too. Instead I’ve been grunting and groaning through ordinary tasks and watching my Garmin race predictions tick dispiritingly upward. I’ve been feeling simultaneously restless and exhausted.

I thought about running on Saturday because I was feeling pretty good that day, but opted instead to catch up on some light yard work. Even blowing the leaves left me a little more sore than I’d like. Just trying to keep our house in order feels like it’s setting me back. How am I supposed to start running again? Seriously, can anyone spare a rib?

Out of desperation, I forced myself to run on Sunday and quickly regretted it. Breathing didn’t hurt, but I could feel a tug on my ribs with every step. The ligaments I injured are not ready for impact yet. I stopped after a mile and considered my options.

For a while I’ve been hoping that I was never more than a few days from getting back out on the roads. Now, I’ve barely run in the last month. I need to exercise. It is time for something different.

Today I went into the office specifically to use the gym on my lunch break. I rode an exercise bike for the first time since 2010, when I was a clueless college freshman battling chronic compartment syndrome flare-ups and ultimately recovering from surgery. I rode for an hour and focused on keeping my heart rate on the easy side of my usual running zones. I broke a sweat. It felt great. I’ll be back again tomorrow.

The most important moments in my training over the last several years, as I’ve been trying in earnest to qualify for Boston, have been the ones where I finally made a pivot. Things eventually stop working, and when that happens you need to stop and strategize instead of putting your head down and pushing through—because eventually that stops working too.

The best thing that happens in times like these is you add something new that makes the sum of your efforts greater than it was before. In the past, physical therapy was the whole-body rebuild I needed to finally approach higher mileage. Going to therapy (the other kind) helped me find an emotional balance that restored function and order to my daily routines. Maybe some extra time on the bike has secretly been the key to building volume in my busy new-dad life. Maybe my office gym is Free Real Estate.

Maybe that’s just the beginning.