Often when training we hear the phrase “Push through the pain”. It is often good advice, but not always. There are times when you have to find the difference between ‘discomfort’, ‘healthy pain’, and ‘injury looming’. You can push through any of these, but pushing through ‘injury looming’ is a quick way to take a forced 4-16 weeks off. Today, I got a first hand glimpse of this, and almost made the wrong choice.

It is a saturday, it is long run day. So I headed out on the run. Things were good early, but somewhere about mile 4, something wasn’t “right”.  By the 5.5 mile mark, it wasn’t just not right, it was headed for really wrong, and fast. The signs were there, but I wasn’t paying attention. By the time I caught on, it was almost too late. I backed it down to a walk, but the left hip, calf and heel were all telling me that there was a problem. It took a bit to figure out the source of the problem: worn out shoes.  Sadly, they shouldn’t be, they only have about 150 miles on them, but this particular shoe ( Brooks PureDrift ) just hasn’t worn well at all. In this case, though the sole looked to be in good shape, the softer foam padding between the insole and the sole itself was breaking down, and fast.

Slowing to a walk I figured I could at least work my way back to the car, lick my wounds and live to run another day. Unfortunately, the shoe damage was terminal.  By mile 7, I concluded the shoes were doing more harm than good, so off they came, socks into a pocket, and walk/run the remaining mile or so. Since I frequently run in New Balance Minimus Zero’s, running barefoot is not a crisis, but I do not have the callouses built up to do it for long distances.

At the end of the day though, I ignored ‘discomfort’ and pushed into the ‘injury imminent’ territory. I got lucky, and started listening before it turned into an injury, so I shouldn’t have any downtime for it. But it is days like these that reinforce the dynamic that I sometimes forget.

Listen to your body it is talking to you all the time and you ignore what it is saying at your own peril.