Ep. 214 - Injury & Teachings From Coach Mike Smith

Last week on the podcast, I mentioned how I had a bit of hip soreness and It was kind of hip soreness from the fact that I raced Lower Woodland, which is a super hard course on Thursday.

We did a long run on Friday.

Did a seven-mile hike for Senior Pilgrimage on Saturday.

Didn't get much sleep at all Saturday night.

I felt a little bit of hip soreness.

And then we did super heavy front squat on Monday and I did a workout Tuesday or I tried to do a workout and my hip just got very inflamed, my SI joint area.

So I'm pretty frustrated by that because, I don't know, I just feel like I'd worked so hard all summer and I put myself in such a good position training-wise and fitness-wise and I thought that this could be the fall, and I'm trying so hard to stay out of the negative thought patterns, but part of me just keeps sulking and feeling sorry for myself, which I know is selfish, especially in a team environment, to feel sorry for yourself and to surrender and to give in because when you're feeling sorry for yourself, especially in a team environment, you're robbing yourself and your teammates from your best self, like you're robbing yourself and your teammates out of your best self and you being able to perform and be a good teammate on a daily basis.

If you're too caught up in your own problems and your own issues, and that's not a very effective way to go about cross country, knowing that this is such a team sport and I'm a senior captain and I can't be, you know, going around at practice and, and, sulking and thinking that I have such a hard time with my problems.

That's a terrible way to go about it because that creates an energy and an energy that spreads throughout the team knowing that a lot of the underclassmen might look up to me in that way.

But regardless, it's still tough even if I know I shouldn't be feeling this way or that I shouldn't be thinking the negative thoughts.

It's still super hard to let them out, but I didn't get to race yesterday and Bob Furman, which is in Spokane, the big invitational that Walker, my coach, put on the calendar for us to travel to.

One of two big invitationals of the regular season, the next one's going to be hole in the wall, Nike hole in the wall, and that one's in Arlington.

I would argue that that's not as big of a deal just because the travel aspect of Spokane and the overnight stay aspect of it makes it a big deal in my mind.

So, you know, to not be able to race that was a huge bummer, huge disappointment.

And yeah, I mean, there's really not much I could do.

I've been, I was very diligent about cross training and biking this week on, I believe it was Thursday.

I biked for two hours, which was not fun.

Two hours in one session.

Um, Friday did 90 minutes and I've been doing a lot of PT and foam rolling and stretching on the SI joint area and my hips.

Tried to get back and tried to run Saturday or Friday for the course preview and it just didn't work out.

Hip was not feeling good at all, very tight.

So I decided not to race.

It was tempting to tell Walker that, you know, maybe lie to him and be like, oh, it's like, okay.

Because I think there's a bit of an ego aspect to cross country and especially in a team environment.

And if you're on varsity to stick it out and to be all tough guy and.