I’m not very good at slowing down. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a tendency to pack my days full of as many activities and commitments possible. I like to stick to a schedule and have a routine. And to be completely honest, I get a little anxious if something gets in the way of my normal routine.

I have been battling the flare up of an old hamstring injury for the past six weeks that has tested my ability to slow down and have a little patience. The pain reached its peak at the beginning of July. Despite my hamstring feeling really sore, I laced up my shoes and thought I could run through it. I took all of about five steps and felt terrible pain. At that moment, I had a choice to make. Half-ass my recovery and continue to run and do my normal activities when it “felt a little bit better” or completely back off and let it heal like it needed to. The best option seems obvious but it was difficult to come to terms with. I had just gotten back in the running groove, increased my mileage and was looking forward to getting back to racing.

I made the decision to completely stop running and cut way back on my yoga practice. I focused on rehabilitation and set an intention to do the right thing for my body and to do everything possible to help this injury heal. I iced, foam rolled, got massages and saw my chiropractor every week for adjustments and therapy.

Over the past six weeks there have been more than a few moments of frustration and sadness about not being able to run and do poses in my yoga practice that were once available to me. During these times I think about the future. This injury is right now and I can do something about it. If I don’t take care of it now, it will continue to negatively impact my life and hold me back from things I want to do.

I talked to my yoga class last night about having patience with your body. The patience to listen to it. The patience to let it rest when it sends clear signals that rest is what it needs. To take it new places slowly and not always push so hard.

Exercising this patience is what allowed me to run four pain-free miles on Saturday and three last night. I didn’t care that it was 95 degrees, I was just so happy to be on the road. I had a huge smile plastered on my face for the duration of the run.

I still have a long road to complete recovery ahead of me but I am so grateful to be heading in the right direction. Injuries suck but there are lessons to be learned from them.

Has your patience with your body been tested? How do you deal with it?

*I’m going to be posting a follow-up to this post in a few days with a look into running and my body.

And here is a quick look at what I ate yesterday.

Overnight oats at my desk after teaching an early morning yoga with weights class at Flex + Fit.

A delicious lunch at home. I finally restocked on Trader Joe’s veggie burgers so I had an open-faced sandwich with Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat, mashed avocado, a veggie burger, tomato, spinach and munster. Dipped in ketchup. A plum and a few Pringles stolen from Brandon on the side. I haven’t had a plum in months and months. It was tasty.

I taught hot vinyasa at Y2 last night. After my Wednesday class a group of us always go to a restaurant next door to the studio for half-priced bottles of wine. It’s always a fun evening of interesting conversation and lots of laughter…and usually the reason why I don’t post on Wednesday nights and have to get up early to write my posts or do them on my lunch break! Now you know! 😉

I had a tomato mozzarella flat bread for dinner during wine night.

Hope you guys are having a good day!