It’s Never Personal About three weeks ago, I had a reoccurrence of quadricep tendinopathy which was the same injury I picked up last October.
Swelling. Pain around my left kneecap and my ability to bend my knee dropped to about 20 degrees, from a normal 150–160.
Last time, it stopped me in my tracks for almost two weeks so my thinking was simple:
I can’t do anything until the pain settles which made perfect sense to me. So, I rested. Almost completely.
When the pain eased, I started again with wall sits, followed by bodyweight work, then load, then eccentrics.
It worked.
Within five weeks, I was back running and competing in Hyrox Madrid.
This time, I did something different.
Within 24 hours of the flare-up, I was back doing wall sits, but at 20 degrees which was a load I could tolerate.
It wasn’t anything heroic, but it was something and the pain reduced quickly.
Within four days, I was back at 90 degrees and within a week, I was back in the gym.
I’m not rushing back to high intensity because I’m learning something here.
When this happened again, I made it mean that I had a weakness.
That at 57, I might need to dial things back and that maybe my body just couldn’t handle the level of training I want.
But that’s not true. That was just a story because pain is always feedback, never a verdict.
What I’m seeing now is this:
It’s not about age, but rather t’s about adaptation. Muscles adapt first. Tendons take longer and tendons need load. Progressive load, and patience!
As orthopaedic specialist Howard Lux puts it:
“Doing too little hurts us … Rest does not fix tendons. Tendons require load for healing. Worse, rest deconditions the tissue and makes it more vulnerable when activity resumes.”
So now I’ve changed my approach and instead of avoiding the problem, I’m training it and I’m building specific work into my sessions to load the tendon in a way it can handle and then I’m gradually increasing that load.
I’m not training for a specific event right now but there is a VO2 max test in May, although that can move.
What I’m really training for is life. Or maybe more accurately – I’m training so I can live the way I want to live.
Into my 70s. Even my 80s. Moving well. Feeling strong. Doing what I want.
What I want now is different. I want to train 10, 12, even 14 hours a week.
To enjoy it and to feel great doing it.
What I’m seeing is that parts of my body aren’t ready for that yet, so, the work is simple:
Stay patient. Stay intentional. Keep adapting.
And here’s the deeper insight for me.
It’s not about pushing through and hoping it works. It’s about getting clear on what I want and understanding the path. Then adjusting when the path isn’t what I expected.
And above everything else, it’s continuing. Because the moment I make it personal, I come off that path.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“This is a disaster.”
“Why now?”
“It’s not fair.”
That thinking doesn’t help. It takes me out of action.
And it’s the same in every area of life. When things don’t go to plan, it’s easy to make it about me.
But when I do that, I lose perspective and I lose momentum.
Sometimes life just happens. It doesn’t mean anything about me.
It’s not personal. And when I stop making it personal I simply get back to doing what matters.
Much love,