Injury leads to a loss of Control

Jon Neal writes a monthly article for Bury Free Press, here’s one exploring the need for Control

Injury leads to a loss of Control

I’d never heard of plantar fasciitis until a few weeks ago. I’m still not sure how to spell it, and it still sounds like a made-up injury about extreme right-wing gardeners. But it’s real, as the ache in my heel will testify to.
Basically, it’s a common affliction that people who don’t (shouldn’t?) run much start to run a bit more. If, for example, they’ve been foolish enough to sign up for a half marathon, having promised they would if they reached a fundraising target for a fun run at Bury Rugby Club just before Christmas.
This, alas, is what happened to me.

What happened?

I ran Mental Elf in early December – only 3k, but that’s 2,900 metres further than I would usually run on any given weekend. I had been training for it a bit, but perhaps not enough. And the worst mistake I made, in retrospect, was running it in old trainers because I didn’t want to make my newer ones muddy.
A few days later, having gone for another short run, a pain in my heel tells me to never run again. Much as I’d love to listen to my heel and take heed of its advice, that’s probably not the answer.

How has the injury affected my emotional needs?

Anyway, I still don’t enjoy running, but the thought that I can’t because of this silly affliction is not meeting my emotional need for Control. I can feel myself getting less fit. Which is annoying, and affecting my emotional need for Achievement.

I’m catastrophising forward to that half marathon and either not being able to start it, or not complete it, or come dead last… who knows what will happen, but when we’re stressed we like to think the worst, don’t we?
Of course I need to practice what we preach at Suffolk Mind; I need to focus on what I can control, so that I can let go of what I can’t control.

What did I do about it?

A self-referral to the physio led to them emailing me two weeks of strengthening and stretching exercises for my calf muscles and feet.
How boring. Can’t they just see me and work some immediate magic? Apparently not, but I’m in control of whether or not I follow their advice…and, of course, I did. And, annoyingly, it seems they were right. Who knew?

Am I feeling better and more in control?

As I write this, I’m sitting in my running stuff having been for a short run – about half a mile – this morning in the rain, and sadly my plantar fasciitis seems to have cleared up. So I guess I’d better start running again.
There’s a small part of me that feels better about being in control again, looking forward to slowly getting fitter. But there’s still no part of me that’s relishing the prospect of a half marathon in September.
Maybe that will come further down the line. Or maybe I’ll run the half marathon and never run another step afterwards.
As long as I don’t get injured again, at least I’ll be in control of that.

Find out more about your emotional needs on our workshop, The Essentials.