In the later half of 2023, I unfortunately experienced a trifecta of injuries in one week. At the time, I’d been pushing my work and social life to the limits and I suspect it was my body’s way of telling me to slow down. Unfortunately, I found that out the hard way.

I had a bulging disc in my back, which meant I couldn’t run for six weeks. I was devastated because I was on track to running a half marathon. Not only that, running is the number one tool I can count on for my mental health, so I felt pretty lost and overwhelmed without it.

Before I hurt my back, I could comfortably run 15km but then after my injury it was about 2 months before I could run 3km again. The first 6 weeks in coming back I found REALLY difficult, and then gradually I finally found the joy in running again and was slowly building back up my strength. Then I fell over AGAIN and hurt my knee.

It was only minor thankfully, but it was a reminder that I need to slow it back down and take a breather.

Coming back from an injury is tough. Giving it your all, and then you have to stop and start again. You spend months building back to where you have been before and it is is so easy to give up, to give in to self-doubt. We feel behind, sometimes so far that we don’t want to start again.

I want to remind you to not think of life as a race, because when we do, we deprive ourselves of the magic of the journey because we are so focused on the end goal. We end up focusing a lot on the distance we want to run, our old PB’s and other people’s pace in comparison to ours. We forget to actually enjoy the process of achieving our goals and building up our strength again! It’s the resilience and self-belief, the good stuff that only comes through those challenging moments.

So in order to keep building on these moments, I’m working on different ways I can move myself away from my clumsy girl era and find strength for my running again.

So whilst I may have the occasional clumsy moment from time to time (let’s be real, it can be inevitable) this is how I’m working on my strength to come back from injury this year. If you’re like me and at times you’re coming back from multiple injuries, or you’re simply trying to slow your lifestyle down, know that we’re in this together and we can do it.

Remember, don’t run before you can walk. It takes time to re-build strength and fitness, so set yourself small and realistic goals suited to your current abilities.

I believe in you! Here’s to our non-clumsy era.

Laura xox