Today I learned that one of the obstacles to becoming an Ironman will be overcoming injuries. Two weeks ago I dealt with a pulled abdominal muscle. Now it’s Plantar Fasciitis. When you feel an injury coming on, you need to address it quickly and properly. Allow yourself to heal. Use your head and don’t ignore the pain. And – this is really important – don’t let your ego get in the way of doing the right thing.
My high school football coach once told me (as I lay in the dirt after getting blasted by a linebacker) “well – are you hurt or are you injured?” I asked him what the difference was. His response: “if you’re hurt, I’m gonna give you a kick in the ass and tell you to suck it up. If you’re injured, we are heading to the ER”. I got up.
I learned that shooting for a goal is going to simply come with a decent supply of pain. You need to shake off the hurt and keep going. But in order to hit your goal, you need to be able to tell the difference between being hurt and being injured, and then do the right thing to make sure that you arrive at the starting line firing on all cylinders.
Fall seven times, and get up eight.
