Dealing with Injury as a Runner: How To Cope with a Running Injury

How to Mentally Deal with an Injury as a Runner

Whether you’ve been running for one year, three years, or your entire lifetime, dealing with an injury sucks.

That’s the cold hard truth, and most of us will experience it at least once in our running lifetime.

While injury quite obviously affects us physically, i.e. not being able to run or being in pain, it also affects us psychologically, or mentally.

This mental pain or distress is especially true for those more invested in running, perhaps have been running longer, or use exercise, including running as a way to release stress and improve mental health.

So, once injury hits, this can be quite worrying, frustrating, and upsetting. These are all normal emotions, but it’s how you deal with these that really matters.

This article will discuss how to mentally deal with injury as a runner, beginning with the obvious: not feeling sorry for yourself.

Maybe get fired up with some incredible quotes on running, they just might help perk you up.

This article by Matthew from Running101. Running101 provides quality training tips, running advice, the latest running news, and the very best running gear. 

Feeling sorry for yourself will only get you so far…

Once injury strikes, it’s completely normal to feel sorry for yourself. You’re no longer able to do what you enjoy, your routine is skewed, and likely all you want to do is run.

However, feeling sorry for yourself will only get you so far, there’s only so much ice cream you can eat while creating a human-shaped dent in your couch.

Take a few days, maybe a week to wallow in it, if that’s what you need, but once that’s over, it’s time to work on your return to the sport.

This stage of the injury process is commonly referred to as ‘grief’, getting over the initial fact that you won’t be able to run for several weeks or months.

The sooner you progress from the grief stage, the sooner you can begin recovering both mentally and physically.

Do something, anything…

Many runners and athletes go from exercising or working out five or even six times a week to zero in the wake of an injury.

Even if you don’t yet realise it, working out and/or running is likely some form of relaxation to you, time to yourself, to destress, and unwind.

Regular exercise is a healthy habit, so try your best not to fall out of this.

Do something, anything… whether that be riding your bike several times a week, strength training in the gym, or even going for long walks (if your injury permits). 

The worst thing we can do is get in a rut, telling ourselves “We’ll never get better”, or asking ourselves: “Why did this happen to me, what did I do to deserve this?”

Instead of feeding ourselves negative self-talk spin the narrative and provide yourself with positive engagement, for example:

“I may be injured, but at least I can spend more time with my family.”

Seeing a positive in situations of darkness allows us to stay grounded, and appreciative of what we have, and prevents us from going down the road of self-pity.

Goal setting

An excellent way to keep your head above the water is the use of goal setting.

From the very beginning of your injury, you want to set goals concerning your recovery.

However, it’s important for these goals to be realistic.

If these goals are not realistic, this will deplete your confidence, perhaps decreasing your motivation to continue performing rehab exercises or other cross-training.

Set both short and long-term goals, for example, your short-term goal could be to run for 2 minutes without pain, whilst your long-term goal would be to run for 30 minutes pain-free without stopping.

Achieving these short-term goals increases confidence and motivation, allowing you to achieve your long-term goals much easier. 

Reaching out to your support circle

When you’re injured, it often feels like the world is against you. Reaching out to your support circle is essential, you don’t even have to talk about your injury if you don’t want to…

In general, research shows that those who reach out to others and seek support often deal with their injury better than others mentally.

Perhaps confide with a best friend or training partner, tell them how you feel. If this person is also a runner or an athlete, maybe you can come up with some goals together, or a plan of action to get you back on the track much sooner?

Whatever you do, talk to someone about how you feel. If you don’t want to do this in person, shoot your best friend a text or give them a call, they’ll be more than likely happy to help, especially if they’ve seen you suffering or swimming in your own pity as of late.

Dealing with Injury as a Runner

Being injured is not the end of the world; however, it can feel like it at the time.

It’s important to set both short and long-term goals to support your rehab and cross-training, increasing your motivation and confidence within your own ability and recovery.

Alongside mental aspects, ensure to perform your rehab exercises, stretches, and any other exercise prescribed by your physio or doctor.

Finally, be sure to speak to a friend or family member, maybe even meet up for a long walk or ask them to keep you company during your rehab sessions, allowing them not to seem quite so dull.

Alternatively, consider listening to an audiobook or a playlist of your favourite tunes.

Injury for most is not permanent, you will get through this.

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