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The Season of Injury with Chantelle Robitaille and Alyssa Clark
4.2k Plays7 days ago
In this episode of the Uphill Athlete Podcast, host Alyssa Clark welcomes Director of Coaching, Chantelle Robitaille, to discuss the emotional and physical challenges of injuries in endurance sports. Chantelle shares her personal journey of overcoming a fractured humerus and torn labrum, highlighting the mental resilience needed to navigate setbacks. She offers practical strategies for recovery, including focusing on controllable factors, setting realistic goals, and maintaining a strong support system. The two discuss the importance of viewing recovery as part of training and finding new ways to stay engaged with your community. Tune in for insights on how to turn injury into an opportunity for growth.
If you'd like to learn more, visit uphillathlete.com or write to us at coach@uphillathlete.com
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Transcript
Prioritizing Health Over Goals
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm not going to jeopardize my health and my well-being for some silly goal that's to me just not worth it. Like there's so much more in my life to enjoy besides that.
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome to the Uphill Athlete Podcast. My name is Alyssa Clark and I will be your host today. And we are joined by Chantel, one of my favorite guests slash you're basically almost a co-host at this point. Yeah. So, so Chantel, yeah, no, it's, it's great to have you on. I always love doing episodes with you.
The Season of Injury: Impact on Athletes
00:00:42
Speaker
um And we actually talked about this episode back in mid December, I think. So I'm glad that it's coming to fruition today. Chantel, thanks for being on.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, course. Thanks for having me. Of course. Yeah. So our topic today is thinking about ah injuries and diving into, i'm calling it the season of injury. um So Chantel, what made you want to share about this topic in particular?
Mental and Physical Challenges of Injuries
00:01:15
Speaker
I think it came from, you know, sometimes Alyssa, you and I talk about, you know, what are some topics that, what are some things that are sort of happening in the athlete space? What kind of conversations are we having with athletes? What kind of issues are we seeing? What kind of conversations are coaches having?
00:01:35
Speaker
And one of the things that came up was, injuries um and I think it came when we were talking about like what are the reasons people come to coaching um and one of the big reasons we see is that someone has been coaching themselves doing their own thing and they're in a pattern of chronically getting injured um and you know they're looking for a coach to help them because of course one of the biggest jobs of a coach is to stop people from doing silly things um and so I think sort of that's where it came from and then it kind of fun into um the fact that it's great that people are coming to get help um to not get injured the next time or get injured in the first place, but also how challenging it is both mentally and physically for an athlete to go through that process of being injured and the the journey ah through rehabilitation and return to sport.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that it's like it just i haveve I've had a couple like you
Psychological Battle and Resilience
00:02:40
Speaker
were going through it. had another friend who is going through ah pretty long recovery cycle. And I'm sure that there's moments like this is so silly, but I've just been out for a week being sick and I was watching someone run and I was like, I just want to run and feel good. And that's what a week, not months at a time. And so it really is just such a psychological.
00:03:03
Speaker
um battle, I'm sure, to to take on while you're working through that process. Yeah, it is. Because for a lot of us, um our sports and our training for our sports take up a lot of our time and energy and thought and organization. And so when we suddenly have something that takes up you know, a significant amount of our time every day or every week, and that's gone, it can be really challenging to try to to wrestle with that. And I feel like, well, you know, now I'm, I'm old and maybe a little bit wiser.
00:03:42
Speaker
um I've had a few times in my life where I've been sidelined by a big injury. And I feel like there are some great things that I have learned um, that I've, you know, used with athletes to try to help them through their recovery journeys, um, that, you know, more recently i had to kind of remind myself about and go through it again.
Chantel's Personal Injury Story
00:04:05
Speaker
And I really, i think, you know, as a coach was able to kind of use that as a really good opportunity to practice what I've been preaching and to remember what that felt like and to try to come at it with, um,
00:04:19
Speaker
some curiosity to see what I could learn about myself and how that could could help me continue to help athletes in new and better ways. That's a very positive way of looking at it.
00:04:32
Speaker
So can you walk me through what your season of injury was? What did it look like? And then kind of what the timeline was around it?
00:04:45
Speaker
Oh, let me see. We are. Gosh, we are already in 2025. in fall. March 20. I know it's March 3rd. unbelievable. Yeah, it's crazy. in fall of 2023, I had had a really awesome summer.
00:04:57
Speaker
I had. so fall of twenty twenty three i had had a really awesome summer i had been running a ton, running really well. um I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had turned 50, but I still felt like strong and and good.
00:05:16
Speaker
And aside from running, I had also been putting some time and energy into another silly sport, which is dirt biking. And I've been working up to being able to ride this particular technical trail all summer practicing different skills and and finally got to the point where I was ready to tackle it.
00:05:37
Speaker
And I went out with my friends and we were having just an awesome day. The weather was perfect. It was fall. The leaves were changing. You never have that moment where you're like going along and you're thinking to yourself like, wow, today is a good day.
00:05:49
Speaker
I'm out here with my friends. I'm having a good time. I'm feeling proud of myself. i've I've managed all these challenging obstacles that I was scared about. And I knew there was one more obstacle on the trail.
Mindset and Recovery Process
00:06:02
Speaker
And I was riding with two friends and one was going to go in front of me and stop before the big challenging thing so that I could take a look at it. um But apparently she was having such a good time that she forgot to stop.
00:06:15
Speaker
So I was going along, having a great time, taking a few great swoopy turns. And suddenly there was a very sharp left turn that I obviously was not going make at the speed that I was going.
00:06:27
Speaker
And so i had two options to, um you know, follow my bike off this little cliff where I was heading or to jump off and let the bike go by itself, which is what I did.
00:06:39
Speaker
ah Long story short, ah the bike was fine. You'll all be pleased to know. But I ended up having a bit of an injury, rode the bike out, and eventually learned a couple days later that I had a fractured humerus,
00:06:55
Speaker
and a torn labrum. um So that was kind of a bummer. you know I had thought like, oh, that sucked, but I'll come out and ride it again next week. um you know Tylenol and adrenaline is a powerful combo. It's powerful thing, yeah.
00:07:10
Speaker
Yeah. And then I opted to not get surgery because it was a nice, clean fracture, and I was in a sling for six weeks. And then you know we would the idea was that we would look at it again with the surgeon and see how it was doing.
00:07:24
Speaker
um And so that's what I was faced with at first, you know, the first chunk of stuff I had to contend with was that I would have six weeks of not being able to move my thankfully left arm.
00:07:37
Speaker
But OK, on the plus side, I had a right arm and I'm right handed. So that was all right. And I had two functioning legs. um So already I tried to try to think about like, OK, what are the things that I can control here?
00:07:51
Speaker
I felt very fortunate that it could have been a lot worse. I didn't have a head injury, um no other injuries or anything like
Physical Recovery and Goal Setting
00:07:59
Speaker
that. I didn't feel any fear about, you know, getting on the bike again or anything like that.
00:08:04
Speaker
So from the beginning, I just tried to think about like, what were the positives that I could take away from this? And then what were the things, you know, discussing with my physician, like what were the things that I could continue to do?
00:08:18
Speaker
So from the start, you know, i I think I probably harp on my athletes about this a lot, but like, It's okay to be disappointed or annoyed that you can't do certain things.
00:08:30
Speaker
But I try to like feel those feelings, but I put a time limit on them. So I could feel sorry for myself for like two days. And then when the two days was up, I had to start thinking about like what were the things that I could control. So let's control the controllables.
00:08:46
Speaker
And what were the things that I could do? um And I tried to think about like, well, I'm a coach. I coach people through this all the time. I know all the right things to say, right? Healing is healing is not linear. So prepare myself for that. It's not going to be linear.
00:09:02
Speaker
It may not go exactly how we think we're going to go, but I'm going to treat it. I'm going to treat my recovery just like I would treat my training. So this was my training. And this is what I often tell athletes when they are recovering from an injury of thinking about like your recovery is your training.
00:09:19
Speaker
So what does that mean? It means you have to sleep well. It means that you have to fuel yourself well when you are recovering from an injury. Sometimes people think I'm moving less. so I'm going to eat less.
00:09:31
Speaker
And the opposite is true, right? Your body is under repair. Your body needs needs nutrients ah to be able to do those repairs. So things like increasing my protein intake, staying well hydrated, getting some form of movement every day that I was capable of doing. And sometimes that was just a dog walk.
00:09:53
Speaker
And then, you know, when pain levels were better, at then I was able to, you know, get out and and hike again. Luckily I had two functioning legs so I could get out and do that and try to think each day of like, what were the things that I could control?
00:10:07
Speaker
And just like a training plan, I would write those down for myself. You know, this week, my goal is to do these particular things to, to take care of myself and, Try to think about like I was every day if I had a crummy moment where a bad thought would pop in. i would just remind myself just like I would remind an athlete that's like, oh, I'm not doing enough.
00:10:32
Speaker
What do we say to them? Go back and look at your training log. Look what you did this week. So that's what I would do. I remind myself, go back to my little list of like, what did I accomplish today that is helping me along this goal of recovering? What did I do this week? What can I do potentially differently next week? Or what could I try to do differently next week?
00:10:53
Speaker
So those were the things that I think were helpful, you know, so focusing on what I could control, setting um some little goals for myself so that I could break those down.
Staying Connected to Sport During Recovery
00:11:04
Speaker
And um then I started thinking about like, you know, what are the things we know about, you know, that I know athletes go through um physiologically and also mentally.
00:11:17
Speaker
And I kind of came back to a book that I read once by an author named, oh my goodness, I don't want to get her name wrong. because She's got a double barrel last name.
00:11:29
Speaker
um Carrie Jackson Cheadle. And she wrote a fantastic book about athletes, mental strategies for athletes to recover from injury and really got into the psychology of what athletes were going through while they were injured. And so I started thinking about like, what was her checklist? And I went back to that. So I'm going to share some of those things and I can highly recommend the book.
00:11:54
Speaker
The book's called Rebound. And she also has, I've never looked at it, but it does exist. She also does have a Facebook page for recovering athletes, athletes recovering from injury so they can get some community support and help each other out.
00:12:10
Speaker
um and So the two first things on her list were actually to focus on the controllable things, to set some realistic and positive goals, Another one that she has is visual visualization. So how can you stay connected to your sport while you're recovering?
00:12:28
Speaker
So that might be reading, ah reading some race reports, or maybe it's planning a new goal that you want to have once you're finished, because you you want to be able to think forward. You're not going to always be where you are right now.
00:12:44
Speaker
So thinking forward is okay. um So thinking about what you might want to do later on um can be particularly helpful and reminding yourself of of of those things.
00:12:58
Speaker
And then also thinking about like, what else can you be doing? Like in a sense, there's kind of a freedom when you're not training for 20 hours a week, right? Like what do you, suddenly it's like, wow, I've just gained a significant amount of time in my life. So what can I do with this?
00:13:16
Speaker
So, you know, when I i think about for myself, ah what could I be doing with this time that I'm not training?
Exploring New Activities and Personal Growth
00:13:24
Speaker
Well, I was in the midst of moving, so that took up some time and moving with only one arm took a significant amount of time.
00:13:32
Speaker
So, you know, that was a positive um that I could do that. I decided to take a little trip to Canada and spend some time with my family because I hadn't been in a little while because I had, you know, certain commitments with um my own fitness goals or pacing and supporting athletes.
00:13:52
Speaker
So since I wasn't traveling to do any of those things that, you know, I could use that time for something else. um I started working on ah a new certification to improve my knowledge and make me a better coach.
00:14:08
Speaker
So I just tried to think about like, what are some ways that I can still be growing myself? um That's, that's going to help me. And notice that most of those things had nothing to do with improving me as a runner or dirt biker or anything else.
00:14:23
Speaker
Because um ah key thing that I have learned over time, and maybe this comes a little bit with wisdom of age, is I'm more than just a sport that I can do.
00:14:34
Speaker
You know, I'm so many other things. You know, I'm ah i'm a sister, I'm a friend, I'm a dog mom, I'm a learner, I'm a curious person. Um, so there's a lot of other things that bring me joy besides, you know, doing a race or having some kind of physical challenge.
00:14:52
Speaker
Um, and so I think that was particularly helpful. Um, Also thinking about like once I was able to, um you know, move a little bit better and I was able to start doing my um rehab work with a physical therapist, that was also really helpful because I could, you know, I had clearance to do more things.
00:15:14
Speaker
And I knew from being from being a physiologist, I knew from my studies about these, all these cool studies that I once had learned about you know,
00:15:26
Speaker
people that had had injuries and so they they were not able, like in my case, I had use of one arm but not two, that there's great scientific evidence to show that if you are training the one uninjured limb, that it actually still systemically helps the injured limb.
00:15:44
Speaker
So I tried to think about like, what do I know? Again, what do I know to be able to help myself? So as soon as it wasn't painful to lift weight with my good arm, I was lifting weight with my good arm in addition to obviously doing whatever lower body strength work I could do.
00:16:00
Speaker
And I think a big part of this certainly did help. um And then also the fact that I was like physically I was in at a good place before I got injured.
Celebrating Recovery Milestones
00:16:11
Speaker
um I had been working really hard to to beat make myself resilient with strength training. And it was interesting, like after six weeks of my left arm being completely immobilized, my physical therapist saying like, wow, I'm quite shocked how little muscle atrophy you have in your arm after being immobilized for all this time. And when I was able to start lifting weight with that arm, I started, I think the first week I could lift overhead, I could lift six pounds,
00:16:44
Speaker
um'm With my with my my little weak arm. But four weeks later, i was lifting about 85 percent of what I could lift on my uninjured side. So the recovery process like really helped.
00:16:58
Speaker
um So, again, like s thinking about the stuff that you can control and the stuff that you you can do and and so and staying positive. You know, like staying positive to me was thinking about what other things that I could be doing. How else could I help myself continuing to learn and celebrating all the small things that I was seeing? So the fact that I could even just lift my arm over my head was a big deal ah because that that took a lot of work and documenting that and, and you know, realizing that it's
00:17:33
Speaker
going to be you know a a good thing for me to notice all those small things. And reminding myself also that like i this is ah this is a glitch.
00:17:45
Speaker
you know This is a glitch in time. In my case, ah sport is not my paycheck. right This is something that I do for for fun, something that I do for enjoyment, ah for community.
00:17:58
Speaker
for stress management, all those types of things. But it's not something that I have to do to earn money, thankfully. So another thing I remind athletes about is like, this is something that you get to do.
00:18:10
Speaker
um And reframing myself, you know, about like, this is, this is fun. And at at that point, I started calling myself, you know, I'm just a leisure athlete now. So this is fine that it that's that I'm a leisure athlete.
00:18:24
Speaker
I'm doing this for fun. There's other things that I also enjoy doing for fun. um And I think this also helps with the mental side of things, of of that, like, know, this isn't everything.
00:18:37
Speaker
And not only is this sort of attitude has been helpful through the recovery journey, but just how I approach, try to approach setbacks in general.
00:18:48
Speaker
You know, like, it's it's a temporary thing in time. I've survived 100% of the crummy things that have happened to me in the past. And so i have pretty strong evidence, right, that I'm going to survive this one too.
Viewing Recovery as Growth Opportunity
00:19:03
Speaker
And understanding that there's not going to be a specific timeframe, that I just really had to take it day by day and embrace the challenge and remind myself that, you know, um,
00:19:17
Speaker
I'm going to get stronger from this potentially physically and probably mentally. And that's going to help me in my sport and in my life anyhow. um So I think that was particularly helpful and staying connected to the sport. I mean, I guess I'm pretty lucky. I talk about, i get to talk about sports, all different types of mountain sports every day. Right. So I get to kind of live vicariously through my fellow coaches and all the different athletes that we work with.
00:19:43
Speaker
And so I think like, Trying to, you know, engage with that and be happy that I still have I'm still um able to actively do something within the sports that I particularly enjoy. But I also was using that time to acquire new knowledge about how to help myself and help my athletes.
00:20:03
Speaker
how to support my athletes and my co-coaches, but also thinking about for for those who are listening, how can you stay connected if you're not a coach?
00:20:13
Speaker
ah Plenty of ways. you know you can you can volunteer. um doing and it doesn't have to be sport related. You can do some volunteer work potentially. You can um help out at a volunteer at a race at an aid station. There could be something that you could do. Even if you were not as fortunate as me and have the use of two legs, there probably something that you could do, right? To to help and still be part of part of the sport in some particular way. And so that I think sort of helps people
00:20:45
Speaker
For those who maybe have quite a strong identity tie to their sport, um I think that piece is particularly important. um If someone has ah is going through an injury and they feel like ah a really big gap or really big sense of loss,
00:21:04
Speaker
I think this is a really good time to evaluate your relationship with sport i'm like yeah because that's not a healthy one. If you feel like your life is over because you can't run,
00:21:16
Speaker
You probably don't have, you know, ah you probably a good time to look at what else is in your life besides sport. Right. So what does what is your sense of community look like? What do your friendships and relationships look like?
00:21:31
Speaker
What other kind of things do you enjoy doing? And I think that's a really dangerous thing when someone completely falls apart because they don't have something else.
00:21:43
Speaker
um We want to make sure that we build in more stuff so that sport isn't the only one and only thing that's driving us forward on a daily basis that isn't really very helpful. um And I think we can all think of maybe instances when we were younger where that might have happened to us.
00:22:02
Speaker
Or people that we know where we see like they are just not helping themselves because they just cannot. they All they can be all they can focus on is the stuff that they can't do.
00:22:13
Speaker
And that's not allowing them to think about the other stuff that's in their life that they can do and trying to see it as. um you know, a learning experience, an opportunity, because you can't change it, right? Something's happened for whatever reason you you've injured yourself, you're broken or hurt or injured or ill.
00:22:34
Speaker
um You can't change that. But like, there's so many other things that we can influence um that I think are are good to to take a look at, um you know, going through that.
00:22:49
Speaker
And not to say that it's not okay to be like mad or upset.
Managing Emotions and Social Connections
00:22:53
Speaker
you know Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you will have those times. Yeah, I was going to say did you... i mean, that was an amazing... like That was amazing advice. um But you know what how did you handle those low moments ah where...
00:23:16
Speaker
you know, it's like, okay, you've put in a lot of steps to kind of like help you. But I'm sure there are moments where you're like, this just sucks. Like how, I guess, how long did you allow yourself to kind of be in that and then say, okay, now we're going to move on?
00:23:33
Speaker
I think that's a great question. i think something that I learned that has been sometimes helpful to me is, it probably comes from therapy at some point, but like feel the feelings, but ditch the story.
00:23:47
Speaker
So I'm feeling shitty. i can't I can't do what I want to do today. Or my friends are going to do this thing. Oh, now it's, gosh, now finally the snow is coming in and everyone is skiing and snowmobiling and doing all these fun winter activities and like...
00:24:01
Speaker
All I can do is walk. Like that sucks. Wah, wah. You know, i suck, blah, blah, blah. You know how it can spiral. okay So like the feel the feelings part is like, yeah, that sucks.
00:24:13
Speaker
I'm missing out on these activities and opportunities with my friends. That stinks. That's a, you know, that's a valid feeling. And I feel annoyed about that. And I feel irritated about that, or I feel sad about that or, or whatever it is.
00:24:28
Speaker
So those are valid. I'm going to feel those things. but I'm not going to like take a bath in them. You know, like I, I'm going to, I'm going to limit like, okay, i can feel those things, but like eventually i got to get over my damn self and okay. I felt the feelings and there they are. And now it's time to think forward. So like, how can I still stay involved with that?
00:24:50
Speaker
I can meet my friends for a drink, right? When they finished skiing or when they finished the activity, I can, I have more time. Maybe I can offer to host the friend's with some snacks after the activity and they can tell me all about it and how much fun they had and I can have some way to to you know to take part in that.
00:25:11
Speaker
And the ditching the story part is like, this isn't forever. Like it's not always going to be like this where I'm going to feel like I'm excluded from things or I can't do the things or it's just for now. So like also taking a step back to think about like what other stories am I maybe attaching to this?
00:25:28
Speaker
And maybe that's a story about identity or it's a story about like my friends are going to forget about me or I'm going to feel left out or like none of that crap is true. Right. So again, like,
00:25:41
Speaker
feel the feelings, ditch the story, and then like come back to some of the other things, right? Like how can I stay connected to my friends when I can't necessarily do the same activities that they're doing?
00:25:53
Speaker
I can also, don't wait around to be invited to things because maybe your friends feel like maybe you're in a delicate situation and they're not really sure. They maybe feel bad about inviting you to do something and they don't know where you're at in your journey yet.
00:26:08
Speaker
So it's probably better to see like, Maybe you invite your friend like, hey, I'm going to do I'm going to go to the hot spring or I'm going to go to this yoga class or I'm going to go on a dog walk. Do you want to join me? So like get over yourself and invite people to do the things that you're going to do if you're feeling like you want to stay connected because.
00:26:32
Speaker
You can't expect other people to know where you're at on the journey. So, you know, it's, it's your friends and the people in your life, they are going to care about you and they want to support you, but they don't always know how.
00:26:46
Speaker
um And so, you know, have you ever been in a situation where, you know, you, you see your friend has something going on and you want to help, but like you're really hesitant, right. To, to ask,
00:26:57
Speaker
So try to remember that, how how that feels like offering help, how sometimes that that can be difficult. And just remember, like the people who love you, like they want you to be OK and they want to support you and it will be.
Challenging Negative Thoughts and Building Relationships
00:27:12
Speaker
easier for them to support you if you're willing to just ask for what you need. And if you ask for what you need, you might be really shocked about what you get, you know, because how many times do people offer you? Like, is there anything I could do for you? Like, no, no, I'm okay. I'm good. Cause you don't want to inconvenience.
00:27:28
Speaker
Like, you know what? Yes. Could you please pick up these five things at the grocery store for me? You know, or I just moved into a new place and I have,
00:27:40
Speaker
A couch that's being delivered. And i don't know how I'm going to get it up the stairs and in the house. Could you help me with that? So just ask because, you know, you would offer you would want to be able to help people yourself. Right. So just like.
00:27:55
Speaker
you know, get over yourself and, you know, examine those stories that are going around in your head and really examine those. Like, is that true? Is that logical?
00:28:06
Speaker
And then, you know, i would think about like how many times I catch myself, you know, on a regular basis when I catch myself in some silly little loop, like, is that true? um And I often will like start laughing at myself at how silly some of the stories are that I tell myself that are Totally unfounded.
00:28:27
Speaker
Absolutely. I also think I'm trying to think of how to word this, but basically, i think most of us have a friend or two that don't normally do say, stick you know, they might ski, but they don't.
00:28:44
Speaker
i snowmobile They might bike, but they don't run. And there's maybe a season where they feel more left out because they're not as involved. It's like, hang out with that friend or that friend's really artistic and like loves to do paint and sip. And like, you never go to paint and sip because you're always doing your sport. Like maybe that's the time to connect with that friend more and really lean into that friendship. And like, I've always found that, um,
00:29:12
Speaker
you know, I have my sport friends and they're very, i I mean, I love them to pieces, but I also seem to have kind of friends that like, yes, they know I'm a runner, but like, I'm not, my value to them has nothing to do. And not that my value to to my running friends is my running, but like, that's what we go and do together versus other friends where it's like, yeah, we go out and have nice meals or we listen to music or, you know, they're just, they're,
00:29:40
Speaker
They're like, oh, yeah, Alyssa runs. But like, that's just a small part of the friendship. And so I feel like maybe leaning into those friends that um maybe have felt a bit left out because, you know, you're spending five hours running on a Saturday.
00:29:55
Speaker
And all of a sudden it's like, oh, let's go like walk on the beach or pick up seashells or something like that. um And maybe leaning into some of their... um you know hobbies that maybe you've always been curious about, but haven't really ever had had the time to.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's a great suggestion. Or even if you if you're the type of person that only has the sporty friends, like look around in your community and see what's going on. Again, like what are those things that you typically don't have time for? And maybe it is signing up for a paint and sip class and you might make a great, cool new friend.
00:30:31
Speaker
um Or going to ah you know going to an event that you typically wouldn't go to or trying something new, some new um some new activity or Um, just trying to think about like, you know, being curious about like, what can i learn about myself during this time?
00:30:51
Speaker
um rather than really just being focused on, I think the key is just, you know, what can you learn from it and what can you add to your life experience? Um, rather than being really focused on what has been taken away from you during this time.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yes. So true. um Did you feel in kind of expanding on the community piece? Did you feel like you could still be a part of it by doing those like by maybe putting in a little bit of extra work to show up at the end or to you know, host?
00:31:28
Speaker
Or did you feel at times that you were pushed out a bit of whatever that community was at the time? Um, no, I feel like I feel really fortunate, um, that i have really good, good people around me and good friends around me. And I feel like,
00:31:47
Speaker
um I had, it wasn't too hard for me to be able to stay connected when I put out the effort. But what I realized was that it was hard for them because they'd be like, oh, well, we thought about inviting you, but we didn't know if that would be, you know, if that would be. rubb you hey yeah Yeah. Yeah. Like we're talking about this awesome rad ski day that we just had. And like, you weren't skiing, you know, like, does that feel weird for you? So like, that's something that I learned, you know,
00:32:14
Speaker
um of of just being able to like, you know, there be trying to be in trying to be very sensitive. They they maybe were what were or would have been excluding me if I hadn't voiced like putting that forward, like, Oh, what are you up to? Oh, you guys are doing this.
00:32:33
Speaker
Oh, how would I meet you afterwards? And so once I started offering those things and like, was, you know, kind of showing up that it was like, okay, we know that you're okay. We know that it's not going to be bothersome and that it is kind of fun, you know, a fun way to stay, stay connected.
00:32:47
Speaker
Um, I think that that was particularly helpful. Um, you know, for for them to get some cues from me rather than, you know, it being the other way around, like me waiting for them. um it It worked pretty, pretty well.
00:33:05
Speaker
and um And I think, you know, for me, it was kind of a way to to still stay connected and for them to stay connected with the process, because then I would see them more regularly. I could talk about what was happening, what I was able to do. You know, they could share in my excitement when I was finally cleared to do Nordic skiing, you know, like that was like a big, that was the first sport that I was allowed to to do again. And then I was able to start running again. And, you know, I had a race that I had been training for,
00:33:33
Speaker
that was going to be in June. So I was feeling a little bit nervous about whether or not I was going to do that. So like, that was a big deal for me to know, like, oh, when I was finally able to run again, um that like, okay, maybe this is going to happen, you know, but also in my brain, trying to prepare for the fact that However, you know, it was just a 50K race, not a super long race. But when I, you know, had quite a bit of time where I wasn't running, um I knew it was going to be somewhat of a challenge to try to be ready for it in time. So it was great to have friends who understood my journey where I could like share about those things, get it out of my head.
00:34:17
Speaker
So again, you know, i it's easier, I think, to catch yourself in that crummy story loop if you're saying it out loud rather than just letting it live internally.
00:34:29
Speaker
Definitely.
Balancing Goals with Flexibility
00:34:30
Speaker
There's, I've started doing this a lot more as part of my own growth where I'll be like to my husband, I know this is dumb or this is like, doesn't make any sense. I have to say it out loud because it's bothering me and then it will make me feel better.
00:34:44
Speaker
And he'll be like, Sure, I'll say it and I'll go, that's silly. I'm like, I know it's silly, but now I feel better because I said it out loud. Not that he's saying I'm being silly. He's just like, that's a ridiculous thought. Yeah. And it helps so much just to be like, yeah, I hear it out loud and it is as silly as it was in my head, but I couldn't let go.
00:35:03
Speaker
Yeah. Actually, I am First off, gosh, I feel like the fact that you just said, oh, 50K is really short. So it's, you know, it's like, oh my gosh, we're.
00:35:18
Speaker
But in the ultra running world too far, we're like, gosh, it's in the grand scheme of things. It's not like I had a June 100K 100 miler, you know. Fair. But how do you like to handle with your athletes um and also with yourself of – you know, it's exciting to have that goal as something to kind of anchor yourself in, in a way, but also not using that goal so much in case it doesn't work out.
00:35:49
Speaker
Um, because there's always that chance, like you're not actually ready for that. Um, so how do you help, how would you help yourself? And also how do you help athletes navigate kind of that balance?
00:36:02
Speaker
I think um the the thing is like not having that as the sole goal. Like my, my overall, you know, my big goal at the beginning of last year was not to, you know, go and crush this race.
00:36:16
Speaker
My goal was to have use of my full use of my arm again and be able to avoid surgery. That was my goal. You know, if I could do this race, like that was going to be great. But like it wasn't, it you know, I wasn't, I wasn't attached, allowing myself to kind of get attached to this race in any way. And the race didn't have any other meaning to me, you know, was like, okay, that's there. It's on the calendar. It'll be fun to do.
00:36:40
Speaker
Um, but if I am not able to do it, like that's fine. Um, I'll go and I'll volunteer at the race. Um, I'll go and volunteer at the race and I'll be there. And I know I have friends running and, uh, an athlete that I coach is the race director of that race. He and his wife. So it's going to be fun anyway. So whether I'm running or not, if i if I'm not running, then I can go and be useful and I can help out at an aid station or, or doing something else.
00:37:06
Speaker
Um, and I think I try to do the same with athletes of like not being, you know, not being too, and that's for any goal. You know, this is like, regardless of having an injury or not, you have this goal of, you know, doing this climb or doing this race.
00:37:23
Speaker
And that's a really great goal. But if you're too focused on that summit, you're not going to put enough into the journey of getting to that summit or getting to that finish line. So always remembering that, you know, suck it's kind of cliche, but not really, you know, it's about the journey, not the destination. So it's like all those all those days of training and the hard work that you did and the sacrifices that you might've made within, with your other obligations in your life, all of those things that you do, um those are not for nothing, you know? So if for whatever reason you cannot make the start line or you don't make the finish line or you don't get to the summit, that time is not wasted. That, you know, that hard work is not wasted. The things you learned about yourself,
00:38:13
Speaker
The way that you improved your maybe your health, your fitness, your strength, your physical and mental resilience, all of that is not lost, you know, so that, you know, i think that's the most important thing is like not being too attached to that particular outcome.
00:38:31
Speaker
Because otherwise, if you're just, maybe we spoke about this in our um podcast we did, Alyssa, about UTMB. You know, if you're too focused on, like, the the outcome or the perfection or whatever, you lose the joy. And, you know yeah you know, you you lose the joy in the in the in the process and and all the time preparation. Like, that's not for nothing.
00:38:56
Speaker
Well, and also, i mean, it's when you hold one outcome, it's I just always think of it as like like, to be honest with her, I was like, well, ah when i when i before I kind of like reassessed it, I was like, well, there's only one outcome that could make me happy from the race.
00:39:14
Speaker
It's like, well, that's a really narrow-minded way of looking at a race. It's like, if you have only one way of of a race that has millions of variables, know,
00:39:25
Speaker
that's pretty rough. Like that's probably, that's a really slim chance of you being happy and a really strong chance of you being pretty upset. Uh, so, and and I think the, the biggest piece too is besides, I mean, this is talking about like, we'll say placement where I actually really encourage, like, you know, I, I do think there's something to be said about being like, I really want to win a race. Like,
00:39:51
Speaker
I want to win this race. I believe I'm capable of doing that. But I always try to frame it as like, I believe that I am capable of doing this. If and I'm going to do the best that I'm capable of doing on that day. And I think the outcome could be winning.
Adapting Expectations in Challenging Situations
00:40:06
Speaker
But I'm not saying that I need to make or one of the outcomes. One of the outcomes could be. Yes. But you just have too many factors where it's like the ah what I think is so funny, too not funny, but like ironic is say, OK, you've you've rehabbed your shoulder injury. Everything's going well. And then the day before you get strep throat where it's like, you know, there's.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah. Funny story. You remember what happened to me last year? You did get sick. I was training, I was training really well, you know, I was training and I think it was three weeks before the race, three weeks before the race, i was training and and had like a silly little tumble.
00:40:51
Speaker
And i yeah I have like, I cut up my hand. I saw like scars across all these knuckles, which is silly. And ended up getting a bruised patella. So leading up to the race, so for three, almost three weeks before the race, I couldn't run at all. I could walk, but it was excruciating to run flat and it was excruciating run downhill. I could hike though. I could hike uphill just fine.
00:41:17
Speaker
And so I had a couple of choices, you know, for the race I could. And again, I was trying my best to not be, you know, having just one possible outcome. So my option would have been to drop out of the race altogether.
00:41:32
Speaker
Option B was to drop to a ah shorter distance. Or my third option was just see how far I could get. um And the first two thirds of the race were all uphill.
00:41:45
Speaker
And I knew that going uphill was not causing me any pain. And I just, so I communicated that to the race director and said like, what do you think? He's like, oh, worry about it. Just go and try. And if something happens, you can hang out on an aid station. You can help out till the end of the race and then get a ride back down.
00:42:05
Speaker
No big deal. So that's, you know, I totally took the pressure off and I just went and with the goal of like, my goal was to see how far I could get.
Finding Joy in New Challenges
00:42:13
Speaker
And turns out i could get two thirds of the way through.
00:42:17
Speaker
All the uphill. Yeah, all the uphill. And I was crushing it. And then, you know, I knew that that that was not goingnna wasn't going to be good for me to continue to go. Like, yes, I could have continued to go, but I knew it was going to be very slow and it was going to cause myself a worse injury. So I just decided to stop and I hung out at the aid station and I had a great time hanging out, watching, you know, watching people coming in until that that particular aid station was Finished. And then, you know, i you know, a bone and bruise takes a long time to heal. And I was like, okay, well, looks like i'm not going run for a while.
00:42:56
Speaker
I rode my bike a couple times and it didn't hurt to bike. And then I thought like, oh, you know, I've been maybe thinking about getting a new mountain bike for a while. if If I'm going to be not able to run for a while, like maybe this is the time. And, you know, without a second thought decided like, yeah, that's what I'm going to do. That I'm not going to I'm not going to stress about the running. I'm not going to stress about, I'm going to, again, control the controllables.
00:43:21
Speaker
And I, you know, put in the, dis and made a new goal for the summer, you know, instead of thinking about like, okay, getting back to running and being able to, you know, race again this year and like having to make up for something like screw it. I'm just not going to have a running goal. I'm going to go and I'm going to run for fun, but I'm also going to make a new goal and I'm going to put some time and effort into becoming a better mountain biker.
00:43:49
Speaker
And that's what I did for the summer. And I had a had a great time. Um, so I think like that process, like it was such a short setback and so many friends were like, Oh my gosh, how are you going feel about that? You know, you were like, but I wasn't attached, right? I wasn't attached to that goal. I wasn't attached to, and it's not my career. Like it's, it's just something that I do for fun.
00:44:12
Speaker
And now I just joke, you know, with, with all my friends and even my athletes, like I'm just a leisure athlete now. Like my goal is to, you know, I'm coming up on another birthday. Um, my goal is to stay strong and healthy and be able to do a variety of the things that I like to do for as long as possible.
00:44:32
Speaker
And I'm not going to jeopardize my health and my wellbeing for some silly goal with one space of time on the calendar.
00:44:43
Speaker
That's to me, just not worth it. Like there's so much more in my life to enjoy besides that. Love it. Yeah. I mean, that's the,
00:44:54
Speaker
it I mean, when you have something very singular your calendar, you're going to have to recover from it. You're going to have to before it. You're going have to recover from it. And it's going to take a while. And it's funny. I had a friend once who was like, mean, she's had some very successful races. And there was one year and she was just like, yeah, I'm not racing because there's too many things I want to do. I don't want to have to stop.
00:45:21
Speaker
everything to race and then start it up again and then take time off and then start up again. Like, I just want to go do the things. And thought that was really profound on her part. She was quite young at the time, making that statement where she's like, I want to go run in Joshua tree. I want to go all of these and do all of these things.
Parallels Between Recovery and Training
00:45:41
Speaker
And, um, you know, racing and, and the kind of what it forces you to focus on just doesn't fit into that scheme right now. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's a right now, right? It's just a right now. Like it's not forever. It's not forever. Yeah.
00:46:01
Speaker
Whenever I'm tapering, I think of her and I'm like, oh, she was so smart. I don't want to taper either. And then it's just. Yeah. And that's and that's the thing. Like, you know, recovering just like just like when you're recovering from a race, um it takes time.
00:46:15
Speaker
Right. Recovering takes time. Healing takes time. And it isn't linear. Right. And so you might feel like, you know, someone who is like doing a couple of different races in a year and they, you know, how many times do we see this where someone, you know, is planning out their race calendar and they plan it just like they did the last three years. And then they do their first race of the season. And, you know,
00:46:40
Speaker
Four weeks later, they're still feeling like crap and they're just not recovering. You know, like, oh my God, what am I doing wrong? You know, it's like, usually I recover faster and there could be a multitude of reasons why they're not recovering the same way.
00:46:55
Speaker
um it could be, you know, maybe the, maybe they really went into the well during that race. Maybe something else happened for whatever reason, maybe there's other extenuating circumstances going on in their life, but There's no magical formula for how long it's going to take to recover from a race, from an illness, from an injury.
Purpose in Athletics Beyond Expectations
00:47:15
Speaker
um And, you know, certainly there are times where ah people do, you know, come back a lot stronger physically physically.
00:47:27
Speaker
mentally, but there are also times where they don't. And, you know, if, if, again, if you're really just so stuck on that identity piece or external factors, like, Oh, what are people going to think? If I never race another hundred miler and I just do fifth, just do 50 Ks.
00:47:48
Speaker
Um, what are people going to think? when Again, it's like when people have this external stuff going on, that's not going to put them in a good place. Right. So it really needs to be like, what's your reason, what's your purpose.
00:48:03
Speaker
And you're allowed to change that over time with time. And you don't owe anyone any explanation, you know, like your friend who just decided she wanted to do something different for herself.
00:48:14
Speaker
Good for her because there's a lot of pressure, I think, in this day and age to be doing all the things and to be performing at a particular level or doing these particular races or doing these particular climbs. And, you know, if you change your pattern, um maybe some people have something to say about that, but it's really not other business.
00:48:37
Speaker
Really not. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was going down the 200 mile track and I just decided ah there was, I did one, it's like or I did a couple of things and was like, you know, I just don't enjoy sleep deprivation that much in this stage of my life. Like maybe I'll go back to it and, you know, late thirties, forties. I thought that I'll maybe never do it again, but it's like, that just does not excite me right now. Like I want to run a hundred miles really fast.
00:49:04
Speaker
Yeah. or as fast saying that quotation marks. And it's just, yeah, it's like, just because, you know, so and I get all the time people like, well,
Breaking Stereotypes and Exploring Hobbies
00:49:14
Speaker
when are you doing another 200? Cause like, that makes sense. I'm like, i don't know. I think I'm doing fine at the hundreds right now. Like I think, yeah um but yeah, I get, I get that question a lot. I'm like, you know, it just doesn't, it doesn't appeal to me right now. It doesn't serve where I want to be at this moment.
00:49:31
Speaker
Doesn't mean it can't change. It doesn't mean I'm not psyched for Everyone else like so psyched. I love Coca-Dona is just popping off. It's so cool, but it doesn't really appeal to me right now. And that's OK.
00:49:45
Speaker
And you can change. Yeah, you can change. You can do different things. You know, I know I get sometimes people when I I think I got it a lot when when my accident happened and people are like, oh, how did that happen? And I would say like dirt biking, like dirt biking.
00:49:59
Speaker
I can't imagine someone like you dirt biking, you know, injured. Honestly, it's one of the many reasons I love you so much. wait like Why? why is that so Why is that so hard to imagine? You know what it's so it's like it's kind of funny, like, well, I don't imagine you to be that kind of person. Like, I see you as this, you know, and. um You know, like, well, we're all more than just one thing or one type of race or one type of activity.
00:50:26
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it's kind of interesting how people tend to paint you a certain way or see you a certain way or have these expectations of you, perhaps like in your case, like when you to do another 200 miler?
00:50:39
Speaker
um It's, um I don't know, i I think it's kind of like a personal question. Like if someone has, a it's like when someone has a baby and then they're their baby's like two months old and they're hassling them like, oh, are you having another one?
00:50:53
Speaker
You know, it's like, maybe some questions don't need to be asked. I don't know. This is very true. I feel like we've we've covered a lot of ground um on this, but I do want to ask you, what was the most fun hobby that you picked up during this time that you probably never would have done if you hadn't had that injury?
Injury Prevention and Recovery Strategies
00:51:19
Speaker
Painting. Painting. Love it. Yeah, because I don't see myself as a creative person, but it was something that I could do.
00:51:30
Speaker
um And so I took a couple of little painting classes. It was quite relaxing. i love that. It was quite relaxing. yeah Nice.
00:51:41
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's kind of fun. Like ah again, like it's, um, these things are really hard and they're hard to, they're hard to go through. Um, but you know, like no one is alone here. And when we do the types of things that we do, unfortunately we are going to get injured. So I think like the best things, you know, obviously train smart,
00:52:02
Speaker
Train smart to start with, too, yeah as much as possible. Avoid the overuse injuries. Fuel yourself well. you know We know that fueling ourselves well is really important too to bone health and to performance and to our recovery. So training smart is a really important first step here.
00:52:22
Speaker
And then if you do get injured, if you have been taking good care of yourself and you have been strength training and managing your training well, that depending on the type of injury that you have, it can actually you know lessen the impact of certain injuries um and help your recovery along. So I think we can't really stress that enough.
00:52:43
Speaker
And then unfortunately, when these things happen, like think about some of the steps that we talked about, you know controlling the controllables, continue to set some little goals for yourself,
00:52:54
Speaker
Stay positive. um You know, you can feel the feelings, like feel the negative feelings, but maybe don't live there and stew it in those juices, like put a time limit and, you know, try to move forward from it.
00:53:09
Speaker
um Stay connected to your sport if you can in in some way. Ask for help. I can't stress that enough because so many of us are bad at that.
00:53:22
Speaker
And be patient with yourself. um Again, it's, you know, whatever you may be going through and and where you're at, it's important to trust the process that you're going through. Get good medical care and advice. Don't rely on the Internet or Reddit or whatever guru that you might be following on Instagram. Like get proper medical help and guidance.
00:53:46
Speaker
And do everything that you can to support that. Think about this as your training. So good sleep, good food, um balancing stress load, all the same stuff you do in training, treat it just like training.
00:54:00
Speaker
And hopefully some of these things, you know, can help you.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:54:05
Speaker
um you know, recover physically, but also, um you know, mentally help you stay a little bit more sane.
00:54:13
Speaker
Love it. Well, that is, I think, a great place to end this. um The one thing I will say also is burying your face in a fluffy animal is a great way. Yes.
00:54:25
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Yeah. Animals are so great these moments too. If you love animals. Yeah. They're truly, I think God sends when, uh, you're injured or sick or yeah. And you just need a fluffy thing to love you unconditionally. i think that absolutely.
00:54:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great that's a great additional point, Alyssa. Awesome. Well, Chantel, thank you so much for being on and and sharing your story and how you've kind of worked through this. And I'm super glad that you were on the other side. And um we yeah, we really appreciate you as always.
00:55:04
Speaker
Oh, thanks, Alyssa. It was great to chat. Thank you for listening to the Uphill Athlete podcast. If you can rate, review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, that helps us help more athletes.
00:55:17
Speaker
It's not just one, but a community. We are Uphill Athlete.