A missed run. A missed run. Breathe. Breathe. I have never been injured running, and I hope I am not now, but I got a scare. Yesterday there was this little pain in my lower right leg. To understand why I rolled my eyes and ignored it you have to know that I am a veteran of many episodes of something called Tension Myositis Syndrome, or TMS. You can google it if you're curious. (Here is one.) Like a headache, menstrual cramps, or charley-horse, it is real pain with a physical etiology (closed capillaries) but, like those other types of pain, it is not caused by injury, illness, or something "broken" inside the body. It is caused by psychological trauma when the brain wishes to create a protective distraction from emotional stress; the most common manifestation being back pain. I think I may have blogged about this once before. Suffice it to say I have extensive experience with these phantom pains, which for me have never once turned out to be a true injury. How do I know that? Because I can make them disappear. And because they make the mistake of moving around, or only hurting when certain thoughts are on my mind, or getting worse with rest instead of better. But mostly because they respond not to physical therapies but to the psychological ones set forth in John Sarno's books (he's the guy who is at the front of TMS research). So today, 4:30 am, I'm up and I'm thinking about stuff coming up in my day, and the twinge of pain pops up. Right. I roll my eyes again. I start my morning routine. I take a look at my leg. Yikes -there is a red area! It's not terribly distinct, but one of the hallmarks of TMS is the lack of swelling, redness, or other physical symptoms besides pain. I. freaked. out. I am somewhat calmer now, since the redness is so faint I'm not even sure it's there (could it have been a shadow?) but I could not think of what to do. Do I follow Sasha's injury care advice that he posted on the discussion forums and go jog on it? Or do I rest? I guess the deciding factor was the fact that I am officially on the taper now. Dang - and I just told Sean that I agree with his advice to not "go crazy" with the taper. But I can always do the jog plan tomorrow and intellectually I know (though part of me is still screaming) that one extra day off will not hurt, and may actually save me. I'm wide awake, and the eastern sky is just now getting a little pink glow. The sun will peek over the Cascade Mountains in about 30 minutes. I wish I were out there running.
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