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Freaking Out Isn't Good....

Friday, 06 May 2016 00:10

By Ashley Rodriguez (runnersworld.com/psychology)

In July, Jordan Hasay plans to head to Eugene, Oregon, for the 2016 Olympic Trials. It should be a sweet moment for the 24-year-old distance runner who, just last summer, was forced to withdraw from the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships because of a case of plantar fasciitis, making her ineligible to compete at the IAAF World Championships.

She and coach Alberto Salazar had to make a difficult decision, as they faced the young athlete’s first injury during an otherwise smooth career. And Hasay, like many runners who have had to deal with...

injuries, found herself confronting a range of emotions in addition to her physical symptoms.
“You’re upset and angry, and then you feel like it’s unfair because you’ve done everything right,” she says. Often, the mental effects of injury can be just as, if not more, difficult to manage than the physical ones.

An injured runner may experience everything from “questions about identity, to fears about performance never returning to pre-injury levels, to worries about disappointing and therefore potentially losing sponsors,” says Sari Fine Shepphird, a Los Angeles-based sports and performance psychologist.  READ MORE