Patience...Patience

When you get injured, minor or major the first thought any athlete is when can I come back. Too often athletes rush back and don't listen to the their bodies, because they feel bad they are letting down their team. Some injuries, sure you can come back early and be ok. Others there's no cure unless you are 100% better. If you are like me, running for an event it's ok to take some time to heal. Better now than the actual event day. Rushing back from shin splints, ankle sprains (remember this is a running focused blog) could hamper your running, if not get a lot worse if you keep pushing on them, so relax, take a couple of weeks if need be and get better. When you show up to run, you want to be able to compete at the level you are used to. If not, you will (and I know this from my past weeks of not heeding this advice) get frustrated with yourself that you can't complete what you set out to do. Enjoy the rest, your body probably needs some anyways. You won't lose everything in one swoop, go to the gym work on your upper body, jump on the bike, you can still be active and cross train...so do it!

Patience is the key, in your event and out of it.