The Season of Injury

00:01.52
Alyssa
Welcome to the Uphill Athlete Podcast. My name is Alyssa Clark and I will be your host today. And we are joined by Chantelle, one of my favorite guests. Slash you’re basically almost a co-host at this point.

00:17.47
Alyssa
So Chantelle, yeah, no, it’s great to have you on.

00:18.20
Chantelle
Sometimes.

00:21.91
Alyssa
I always love doing episodes with you. And we actually talked about this episode back in mid-December, I think, so I’m glad that it’s coming to fruition today. Chantelle, thanks for being on.

00:36.88
Chantelle
Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me.

00:39.72
Alyssa
Of course. Yeah. So our topic today is thinking about injuries so and diving into, I’m calling it the season of injury.

00:51.81
Alyssa
um So Chantel, what made you want to share about this topic in particular?

00:59.45
Chantelle
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 do our coaches have?

01:19.16
Chantelle
And one of the things that came up was injuries. And I think it came when we were talking about like, what are the reasons people come to coaching? 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.

01:37.62
Chantelle
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 spun into um the fact that it’s great that people are coming to get help um to not get injured um 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 journey ah through rehabilitation and return to sport.

02:20.20
Alyssa
Yeah, and I think that it’s… um it Like it just, I’ve had a couple, like you were going through it. I had another friend who is going through a 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 thing I’m sure.

02:51.09
Alyssa
I’m sure to take on while you’re working through that process.

02:56.67
Chantelle
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, um, it can be really challenging to try to wrestle with that. And, um,

03:24.67
Chantelle
I feel like, well, you know, now I’m old and maybe a little bit wiser. 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. And ah 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 some curiosity to see what I could learn about myself and how that could can help me continue to help athletes in new and better ways.

04:17.85
Alyssa
That’s a very positive way of looking at it. 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?

04:35.05
Chantelle
Ah, okay, so let me see. are, gosh, we are already in 2025. So the fall 20, now, how did that happen?

04:41.00
Alyssa
In March. It’s March 3rd.

04:43.70
Chantelle
how did that happen

04:44.60
Alyssa
It’s unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah.

04:46.20
Chantelle
It’s crazy. So in the fall of 2023, I had a really awesome summer. I had been running a ton, running really well. I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had turned 50, but I still felt strong and good.

05:06.14
Chantelle
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 finally got to the point where I was ready to tackle it.

05:26.47
Chantelle
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.

05:38.94
Chantelle
I’m out here with my friends. I’m having a good time. I’m feeling proud of myself. I’ve managed all these challenging obstacles that I was scared about. And I knew there was one more obstacle on the trail.

05:51.55
Chantelle
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. But apparently she was having such a good time that she forgot to stop.

06:05.01
Chantelle
So I was going along, having a great time, taking a few great swoopy turns. And then suddenly there was a very sharp left turn that I obviously was not going to make at the speed that I was going.

06:16.40
Chantelle
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.

06:29.23
Chantelle
Uh, 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 and a torn labrum.

06:47.07
Chantelle
So that was kind of a bummer. You know, I had felt like, oh, that that sucked, but I’ll come out and ride it again next week. um You know, Tylenol and adrenaline is a powerful combo.

06:58.23
Alyssa
is a powerful thing. Yeah.

06:59.73
Chantelle
Yeah. um 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 have the idea that we would look at it again with the surgeon and see how it was doing.

07:14.13
Chantelle
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.

07:27.30
Chantelle
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. So already I tried to try to think about like, OK, what are the things that I can control here?

07:40.89
Chantelle
I felt very fortunate that ah it could have been a lot worse. I didn’t have a head injury, um no other injuries or anything like that. I didn’t feel any fear about, you know, getting on the bike again or anything like that.

07:54.09
Chantelle
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?

08:07.21
Chantelle
um So from the start, you know, I think I probably harp on um my athletes about this a lot, but like, It’s okay to be disappointed or annoyed that you can’t do certain things.

08:19.99
Chantelle
But I try to 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 were up, I had to start thinking about things like, what were the things that I could control? So let’s control the controllables.

08:36.04
Chantelle
And what were the things that I could do? 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? Lab Healing is not linear.

08:48.63
Chantelle
So I prepare myself for that. It’s going to be linear. It may not go exactly how we think we’re going to go. I’m going to treat it. I’m going to treat my recovery just like I would treat my training.

08:59.90
Chantelle
So this was my training. And this is what I often tell athletes when they are recovering from an injury or thinking about how your recovery is your training. So what does that mean? It means you have to sleep well.

09:12.83
Chantelle
It means that you have to fuel yourself well, when you are recovering from an injury, sometimes people think I’m moving less.

09:15.39
Alyssa
Thank you.

09:19.26
Chantelle
So I’m going to eat less. And the opposite is true, right? Your body is under repair. Your body needs nutrients 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.

09:42.79
Chantelle
And then, you know, when pain levels were better than 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.

09:56.71
Chantelle
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 take care of myself. and try to think about how 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.

10:22.19
Chantelle
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?

10:35.68
Chantelle
What did I do this week? What can I do potentially differently next week? Or what could I try to do differently next week? So those were the things that I think were helpful, you know, so focusing on what I could control, setting up some little goals for myself so that I could break those down.

10:53.89
Chantelle
And then I started thinking about things like, you know, what are the things we know about, you know, that I know athletes go through um physiologically and also mentally.

11:07.07
Chantelle
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.

11:19.01
Chantelle
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.

11:35.61
Chantelle
And so I started thinking about what her checklist was like. And I went back to that. So I’m going to share some of those things and I can highly recommend the book. 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, recovering from injury so they can get some community support and help each other out. um So the two first things on her list were actually to focus on the controllable things to set some realistic and positive goals.

12:09.89
Chantelle
Another one that she has visualization. visualization, so How can you stay connected to your sport while you’re recovering? 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 want to be able to think forward. You’re not going to always be where you are right now.

12:33.51
Chantelle
So thinking forward is okay. So thinking about what you might want to do later on can be particularly helpful and reminding yourself of those things.

12:47.73
Chantelle
And then also thinking about things 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

12:58.61
Alyssa
Totally.

13:01.76
Chantelle
a significant amount of time in my life. So what can I do with this? So, you know, when I think about myself, ah what could I be doing with this time that I’m not training?

13:14.18
Chantelle
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. So, you know, that was a positive um that I could do that.

13:26.64
Chantelle
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 ah pacing and supporting athletes.

13:42.05
Chantelle
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 a new certification to improve my knowledge and make me a better coach.

13:57.92
Chantelle
So I just tried to think about, like, what are some ways that I can still be growing myself um that 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.

14:13.19
Chantelle
Because um a 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.

14:23.69
Chantelle
You know, I’m so many other things, you know, I’m a sister, I’m a friend, I’m a dog mom. Um, you know, I’m a, 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.

14:43.99
Chantelle
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,

14:58.31
Chantelle
rehab work with a physical therapist, that was also really helpful because I could, you know, I had clearance to do more things. And I knew from being, um, from being a physiologist, I knew from my studies about these, all these cool studies that I once had learned about with, um, people that had, that had injuries.

15:14.57
Alyssa
faithful

15:20.14
Chantelle
And so 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.

15:34.96
Alyssa
Mm-hmm.

15:36.14
Chantelle
So I tried to think about it like, what do I know again? What do I know to be able to help myself? So as soon as ah 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.

15:51.89
Chantelle
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 a good place before I got injured.

16:02.67
Chantelle
Um, I had been working really hard to make myself resilient with strength training.

16:03.00
Alyssa
and

16:08.30
Chantelle
And it was interesting, like after six weeks of my left arm and being completely immobilized, my physical therapist said, wow, I’m quite shocked how little muscle atrophy you have.

16:22.16
Chantelle
um 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 um with my little weak arm.

16:40.12
Chantelle
But four weeks later, I was lifting about 85% of what I could lift on my uninjured side. So the recovery process really helped.

16:48.26
Alyssa
Nice.

16:51.21
Chantelle
um So again, like thinking about the stuff that you can control and the stuff that you can do and so 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 continue to learn and celebrate all the small things that I was seeing? So the fact that I could even just lift my arm over my head.

17:16.23
Chantelle
was a big deal ah because that took a lot of work and documenting that and, you know, realizing that it’s going to be, you know, 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, you know, this is a glitch in time.

17:39.50
Chantelle
In my case, a sport is not my paycheck. Right. This is something that I do for fun, something that I do for enjoyment, ah for community, ah for stress management, all those types of things.

17:54.12
Chantelle
But it’s not something that I have to do to earn money, thankfully. So another thing I remind athletes. about It’s like, this is something that you get to do. And reframing myself, you know, about like, this is fun.

18:08.46
Chantelle
um And at that point, I started calling myself, you know, I’m just a leisure athlete now. So this is fine but I’m a leisure athlete. I’m doing this for fun. There’s other things that I also enjoy doing for fun.

18:21.13
Chantelle
um And I think this also helps with the mental side of things, like, know, this isn’t everything. And not only has this sort of attitude been helpful through the recovery journey, but just how I approach, try to approach setbacks in general, you know, like ah it’s, it’s a temporary thing in time.

18:45.84
Chantelle
I’ve survived a hundred percent 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. Um, 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,

19:10.50
Chantelle
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. So I think that was particularly helpful.

19:22.36
Chantelle
um And staying connected to the sport. I mean, I guess I’m pretty lucky. I 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.

19:37.80
Chantelle
um And so I think like, trying to, you know, engage with that and be happy that I still have, I’m still 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, 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, ah plenty of ways, you know, you can, you can volunteer um doing, and it doesn’t have to be sport related.

20:15.58
Chantelle
You can potentially do some volunteer work. You can um help out as a volunteer at a race at an aid station. There could be something that you could do. Even if, even if you were not as fortunate as me and have the use of two legs, there is probably something that you could do right to help and still be part of the sport in some particular way. And so that I think sort of helps people for those who maybe have quite a strong identity tied to their sport.

20:46.47
Chantelle
I think that piece is particularly important. um If someone is going through an injury and they feel like ah a really big gap or really big sense of loss, I think this is a really good time to evaluate your relationship with sport because that’s not a healthy one.

21:04.24
Alyssa
Definitely. Yeah. yeah

21:07.98
Chantelle
If you feel like your life is over because you can’t run, you probably don’t have, you know, ah you probably have a good time to look at what else is in your life besides sport, right? So what does, what does your sense of community look like? What do your friendships and relationships look like?

21:26.74
Chantelle
What other kinds 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.

21:38.76
Chantelle
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.

21:50.06
Chantelle
um And I think we can all think of maybe instances when we were younger where that might have happened to us. Or people that we know where we see like they are just not helping themselves because they just cannot.

22:04.54
Chantelle
All they can focus on is the stuff that they can’t do. 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, you know, a learning experience, an opportunity, because you can’t change it right?

22:19.86
Alyssa
um

22:22.96
Chantelle
something’s happened for whatever reason you’ve injured yourself, you’re broken or hurt or injured or ill. Um, you can’t change that, but like, there are so many other things that we can influence, um, that I think are, are good to take a look at, um, you know, going through that.

22:44.93
Chantelle
And not to say that it’s not okay to be mad or upset you will have those times.

22:45.30
Alyssa
Yeah.

22:49.00
Alyssa
Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely.

22:51.19
Chantelle
Yeah. Yeah. You will have those times.

22:54.81
Alyssa
Yeah. I was going to say did you, I mean, that was amazing, like that was amazing advice. um But you know, what, how did you handle those low moments where,

23:12.81
Alyssa
You know, it’s like, okay, you 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.

23:29.83
Chantelle
I think that’s a great question. I think something that I learned that has been sometimes helpful to me is, uh, probably comes from therapy at some point, but like feel the feelings, but ditch the story.

23:43.82
Chantelle
So I’m feeling shitty.

23:44.89
Alyssa
Oh, yeah.

23:45.36
Chantelle
I can’t, I can’t do what I want to do today, or my friends are going to do this thing. Oh, and now it’s gosh, now finally the snow is coming in and everyone is skiing and snowmobiling and doing all these fun winter activities.

23:56.70
Chantelle
And like, All I can do is walk. Like that sucks. Want, want, you know, i suck, blah, blah, blah. You know how it can spiral.

24:05.70
Alyssa
oh yeah

24:06.04
Chantelle
So like the feeling part is like, yeah, that sucks. I’m missing out on these activities and opportunities with my friends. That stinks. That’s a, you know, that’s a valid feeling.

24:17.80
Chantelle
And I feel annoyed about that. And I feel irritated about that. Or I feel sad about that or, or whatever it is. So those are valid. I’m going to feel those things, but I’m not going to like taking a bath in them.

24:30.35
Chantelle
You know, like I’m going to, I’m going to limit like, okay, I can feel those things, but like eventually got to get over myself and okay. I felt the feelings and there they are.

24:41.91
Chantelle
And now it’s time to think forward. So like, how can I still stay involved with that? I can meet my friends for a drink, right? When they finish skiing or when they finish the activity. I can, I have more time.

24:54.44
Chantelle
Maybe I can offer to host the friends 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, you know, to take part in that.

25:07.62
Chantelle
And 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,

25:20.13
Chantelle
Also taking a step back to think about like, what other stories am I maybe attaching to this? 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, no, that crap is true.

25:35.27
Chantelle
Right. So again, like feel the feelings, ditch the story and then like come back to some of the other things, right?

25:36.68
Alyssa
Yeah.

25:42.94
Chantelle
Like how can I stay connected to my friends when I can’t necessarily do the same activities that they are doing? I can also um 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.

26:00.25
Chantelle
They may feel bad about inviting you to do something and they don’t know where you’re at in your journey yet. So it’s probably better to say, 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 you can’t expect other people to know where you’re at on the journey. so

26:34.12
Chantelle
You know, 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. um And so, you know, have you ever been in a situation where You know, you see your friend has something going on and you want to help, but like you’re really hesitant, right, to ask.

26:53.81
Chantelle
So try to remember that, how that feels, like offering help, how sometimes that can be difficult. And just remember, like the people who love you, like they want you to be okay and they want to support you.

27:06.17
Chantelle
And it will be 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 OK. I’m good because you don’t want an inconvenience.

27:24.93
Chantelle
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 a couch that’s being delivered and I don’t know how I’m going to get it up the stairs and into the house.

27:41.97
Chantelle
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?

27:46.73
Alyssa
Yeah. yeah

27:49.49
Chantelle
So just like, you know, get over yourself and, you know, examine those stories that are going around in your head and really examine those.

28:00.04
Chantelle
Like, is that true? Is that logical? And then, you know, I would think about 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?

28:12.98
Chantelle
And I often will start laughing at myself at how silly some of the stories that I tell myself are totally unfounded.

28:24.39
Alyssa
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 say, you know, they might ski, but they don’t.

28:41.28
Alyssa
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

28:53.80
Chantelle
Yeah.

29:09.17
Alyssa
You know, I have my sports friends and they’re very, 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 with it. And not that my value 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 they’re like, oh yeah, Alyssa runs. But like, that’s,

29:39.38
Alyssa
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 and all a sudden it’s like, Oh, let’s go like walk on the beach or pick up seashells or something like that.

29:51.35
Chantelle
Yeah.

29:58.47
Alyssa
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 the time to.

30:10.20
Chantelle
Yeah, that’s a great suggestion. Or even if you’re the type of person that only has 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?

30:20.65
Alyssa
Totally.

30:21.98
Chantelle
And maybe it is signing up for a paint and sip class and you might make a great, cool new friend. 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?

30:47.60
Chantelle
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.

31:04.53
Alyssa
Yeah. I think that’s, yes, so true. um Did you feel, and 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 or did you feel at times that you were pushed out a bit of whatever that community was at the time?

31:37.78
Chantelle
I feel really fortunate that I have really good, good people around me and good friends around me. And I feel like I had, it wasn’t too hard for me to be able to stay connected when I put out the effort.

31:54.28
Chantelle
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 sad for you.

32:01.66
Alyssa
rub your face. Yeah, yeah.

32:03.55
Chantelle
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, um of, of just being able to like, you know, they’re trying to be in trying to be very sensitive.

32:21.60
Chantelle
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.

32:33.44
Chantelle
Oh, how would I meet you afterwards? And so once I started offering those things and like was, you know, kind of showing up, then 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.

32:48.08
Chantelle
I think that that was particularly helpful, um you know, for them to get some cues from me rather than, you know, it being the other way around, like me waiting for them.

32:58.09
Alyssa
Yeah.

33:01.45
Chantelle
It worked pretty, pretty well. And I think, you know, for me, it was kind of a way 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.

33:18.22
Chantelle
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 do again. And then I was able to start running again. And, you know, I had a race that I had been training for.

33:34.00
Chantelle
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, OK, 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.

33:55.38
Chantelle
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 would like to share about those things, get it out of my head.

34:17.19
Chantelle
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.

34:29.68
Alyssa
Definitely. There’s, I’ve started doing this a lot more as part of my own growth where I’ll be like 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.

34:45.01
Alyssa
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. Um, not that he’s saying I’m being silly. He’s just like, that’s a ridiculous thought.

34:55.15
Chantelle
Yeah.

34:56.74
Alyssa
Yeah. And it helps so much just to like, 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.

34:57.50
Chantelle
Yeah.

35:04.69
Alyssa
Um, actually I am first off, gosh I feel like the fact that you just said, Oh, 50 K is really short. So it’s, you know, it’s like, Oh my gosh, we’re better in the ultra running world too far.

35:20.79
Alyssa
We’re like, gosh, it’s the 50K in the Gans.

35:20.89
Chantelle
Well, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not like I had a June or 100 miler, you know?

35:27.62
Alyssa
Fair. But how do you like to handle your athletes? Um, and also with yourself, 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.

35:49.79
Alyssa
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 that kind of balance?

36:02.44
Chantelle
I think the thing is like not having that as the sole goal. Like my overall, you know, my big goal at the beginning of last year was not to, you know, go and crush this race.

36:08.16
Alyssa
Thank you.

36:17.00
Chantelle
My goal was to have 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, 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, I was like, okay, that’s there. It’s on the calendar. It’ll be fun to do.

36:40.46
Chantelle
um But if I am not able to do it, like that’s fine. I’ll go and I’ll volunteer at the race. I’ll go and volunteer at the race and I’ll be there. And I know I have friends running and 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’m not running, then I can go and be useful and I can help out at an aid station or, or doing something else.

37:07.16
Chantelle
And I think I try to do the same with athletes of 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.

37:23.25
Chantelle
And that’s a really great goal. But if you’re too focused on that summit, you’re not gonna put enough into the journey of getting to that summit or getting to that finish line. So always remembering that, you know, so it’s kind of cliche, but not really, you know, it’s about the journey, not the destination. So it’s like 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,

37:54.97
Chantelle
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, the way that you’ve improved your, maybe your health, your fitness, your strength, your physical and mental resilience, all of that is not lost, you know? So that,

38:24.10
Chantelle
You know, I think that the most important thing is not being too attached to that particular outcome. 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 the outcome or the perfection or whatever, you lose the joy.

38:48.35
Chantelle
You know, you lose the joy in the process and all the time preparation, like that’s not for nothing.

38:56.52
Alyssa
Yeah. Well, and also, I mean, it’s when you hold it 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, was like, well, there’s only one outcome that could make me happy from the race.

39:14.51
Alyssa
It’s like, well, that’s a really narrow-minded way of looking at a race.

39:18.04
Chantelle
Yes.

39:19.49
Alyssa
It’s like, if you have only one way of a race that has millions of variables, 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.

39:34.83
Alyssa
I think that the biggest piece, too, is besides, I mean, this is talking about,

39:34.79
Chantelle
Yeah.

39:43.27
Alyssa
like we’ll say placement where I actually really encourage, like, you know, I do think there’s something to be said about being like, I really want to win a race. Like 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.

40:00.23
Alyssa
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, but I’m not saying that I need to make the outcome win one of the outcomes.

40:08.06
Chantelle
Mm-hmm.

40:10.42
Chantelle
Or one of the outcomes. One of the outcomes could be.

40:12.88
Alyssa
Yeah. Yes.

40:13.67
Chantelle
Yeah.

40:14.87
Alyssa
Um, 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, okay, you’ve, you’ve rehabbed your shoulder injury, everything’s going well.

40:29.71
Alyssa
And then the day before you get strep throat where it’s like there, you know, there’s, yeah.

40:32.90
Chantelle
Well, funny story. You remember what happened to me last year.

40:35.92
Alyssa
Oh yeah. You did get sick.

40:37.96
Chantelle
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 had a silly little tumble.

40:53.36
Chantelle
And I have like, I cut up my hand.

40:54.26
Alyssa
Oh yeah.

40:57.42
Chantelle
I still have 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.

41:04.52
Alyssa
I remember that now.

41:08.71
Chantelle
I could walk, but it was excruciating to run flat and it was an excruciating run downhill. I could hike though. I could hike uphill just fine.

41:19.82
Chantelle
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 um drop out of the race altogether.

41:35.19
Chantelle
Option B was to drop to a shorter distance. Or my third option was just see how far I could get. And the first two thirds of the race were all uphill.

41:44.52
Alyssa
Yeah.

41:47.42
Chantelle
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, don’t worry about it. Just go and try. And if something happens, you can hang out at an aid station, you can help out till the end of the race and then get a ride back down.

42:07.38
Chantelle
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. And turns out I could get two thirds of the way through.

42:19.40
Chantelle
And then, yeah, all the uphill and I was, I was crushing it.

42:19.58
Alyssa
All the uphill.

42:24.30
Chantelle
And then, you know, I knew that that, that was not going to, it 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,

42:36.00
Chantelle
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 particular aid station was finished. And then, you know, I, you know, a bone bruise takes a long time to heal. And I was like, okay, well, looks like I’m not going to run for a while.

42:58.64
Chantelle
I rode my bike a couple times and it didn’t hurt. And then i thought like, oh maybe thinking about getting a new mountain bike for a while. If I’m not able to run for a while, like maybe this is the time.

43:12.81
Chantelle
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 it, I’m going to, again, control the controllables.

43:23.77
Chantelle
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,

43:35.11
Chantelle
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 and that’s what I did for the summer and I had I 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 to feel about that?

44:04.35
Chantelle
You know, you were like, but I wasn’t attached, right? I wasn’t attached to that goal.

44:08.01
Alyssa
Yeah.

44:08.95
Chantelle
I wasn’t attached to it, and it’s not my career. Like it’s, it’s just something that I do for fun. And now I just joke, you know, 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.

44:24.89
Chantelle
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. And I’m not going to jeopardize my health and my well being for some silly goal with one space and time on the calendar.

44:45.59
Chantelle
That’s to me just not worth it. Like there’s so much more in my life to enjoy besides that.

44:53.73
Alyssa
Love it. Yeah, I mean, that’s the…

44:57.91
Alyssa
I mean, when you have something very singular on your calendar, you’re going to have to recover from it. You’re going have to take it before it. You have to recover from it. And it’s going to take a while.

45:10.12
Alyssa
I, it’s funny. I had a friend once who was like, I mean, she’s had some very successful races and there was one year and she was just like, yeah, I’m not racing because I want to, there’s too many things I want to do.

45:23.38
Alyssa
I don’t want to have to stop everything to race and then start it up again and then take time off and then start it up again.

45:28.81
Chantelle
yeah

45:29.16
Alyssa
Like, I just want to go do the things. And I thought that was really profound on her part. She was quite young at the time, um 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 these things. And, um you know, racing and the kind of what it forces you to focus on just doesn’t fit into that scheme right now.

45:54.87
Alyssa
was like, that’s really cool. Yeah.

45:56.60
Chantelle
Yeah, and it’s just a right it’s a right now, right?

45:57.23
Alyssa
Whenever I’m tapering.

45:59.55
Chantelle
It’s just right now, like it’s not forever.

45:59.85
Alyssa
Yeah, exactly.

46:02.16
Chantelle
It’s not forever

46:03.94
Alyssa
Yeah. Whenever I’m tapering, I think of her and I’m like, oh, she was so smart. I don’t want to tape her either. And then it’s just because I didn’t want to tape her.

46:10.34
Chantelle
Yeah, and that’s and that’s the thing, like you know recovering, just like when you’re recovering from a race, um it takes time, right? Recovering takes time, healing takes time, and it isn’t linear.

46:23.39
Chantelle
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, four weeks later, they’re still feeling like crap and they’re just not recovering.

46:48.72
Chantelle
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 um It could be, you know, maybe the, maybe they really went into the well during that race.

47:04.19
Chantelle
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.

47:14.29
Alyssa
I mean.

47:19.12
Chantelle
um And, you know, certainly there are times where ah people do, you know, come back a lot stronger physically, physically, And mentally, but there are also times where they don’t.

47:34.56
Chantelle
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 Um,

47:51.78
Chantelle
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?

48:07.39
Chantelle
And you’re allowed to change that over time with time.

48:09.90
Alyssa
Yes.

48:11.08
Chantelle
And you don’t owe anyone any explanation. You know, like your friend who just decided she wanted to do something different for herself.

48:14.59
Alyssa
yes

48:18.12
Chantelle
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.

48:40.86
Alyssa
It’s really not. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was going down the 200 mile track and I just decided, uh, there was, I did one, is 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.

48:57.50
Alyssa
Like maybe I’ll go back to it and you know, late thirties, forties.

48:58.21
Chantelle
Yeah.

49:01.58
Alyssa
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 or as fast saying that quotation mark.

49:11.14
Chantelle
Yeah.

49:12.12
Alyssa
And it’s just, yeah, it’s like, just because, you know, so and I get all the time people like, well, when are you doing 200? Cause like that makes sense. I’m like, I don’t know.

49:23.17
Alyssa
I think I’m doing fine at the hundreds right now. Like I think, but yeah, 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.

49:35.71
Alyssa
Doesn’t mean It can’t change. It doesn’t mean I’m not psyched for everyone else.

49:38.06
Chantelle
Right.

49:39.85
Alyssa
Like so psyched. I love Cocoadona just popping off. It’s so cool. But it doesn’t really appeal to me right now. And that’s okay. And you can change.

49:50.01
Chantelle
And yeah, you can change, you can do different things. You know, I know I sometimes get people when I, I think I got it a lot when, when my accident happened and people were like, oh, how did that happen? And I would say like dirt biking, like dirt biking.

50:03.37
Chantelle
I can’t imagine someone like you dirt biking. you know, injured and different.

50:07.45
Alyssa
It honestly is one of the many reasons I love you so much, but like, it’s so cool.

50:10.70
Chantelle
Like, why? why? is that so

50:11.92
Alyssa
Yeah.

50:12.76
Chantelle
Why is that so hard to imagine? You know, and 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.

50:20.70
Alyssa
Yeah.

50:30.41
Chantelle
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 are you going to do another 200 miler?

50:43.71
Chantelle
um It’s um I don’t know. 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 there their babies like two months old and they’re they’re harassing them like, oh, why you having another one?

50:57.32
Chantelle
You know, it’s like.

51:00.16
Chantelle
Maybe some questions don’t need to be asked.

51:00.62
Alyssa
Yeah.

51:02.29
Chantelle
I don’t know.

51:03.19
Alyssa
This is very true. I will. I think that’s about it. I feel like we’ve set a good precedent, or not, but just, yeah, covered a lot of ground on this.

51:19.38
Alyssa
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?

51:31.63
Chantelle
Um, painting, painting.

51:32.96
Alyssa
or meaningful. Love it.

51:36.61
Chantelle
Yeah, because I don’t see myself, I don’t see myself as a creative person.

51:37.11
Alyssa
didn’t know you painted.

51:40.99
Chantelle
But it was something that I could do um And so I took a couple of little painting classes and it was quite relaxing.

51:51.95
Alyssa
I love that.

51:53.26
Chantelle
It was quite relaxing. Yeah.

51:55.75
Alyssa
Nice.

51:56.29
Chantelle
So yeah, I mean, 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, train smart.

52:18.28
Chantelle
to start with as much as possible, avoid the overuse injuries, fuel yourself well, you know, we know that fueling ourselves well is really important to, to bone health and to performance and to our recovery.

52:19.07
Alyssa
Yeah.

52:31.92
Chantelle
So training smart is a really important first step here. 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,

52:44.52
Chantelle
that depending on the type of injury that you have, it can actually, you know, lessen the impact of certain injuries and help your recovery along. So I think we can’t really stress that enough.

52:58.18
Chantelle
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,

53:09.84
Chantelle
Um, 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.

53:22.08
Alyssa
you

53:25.42
Chantelle
Um, stay connected to your sport if you can, in some way, ask for help. I can’t stress that enough because so many of us are bad at that.

53:38.15
Chantelle
and be patient with yourself. um Again, it’s, you know, whatever you may be going through and where you’re at, it’s important to trust the process that you’re going through.

53:50.11
Chantelle
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.

54:02.77
Chantelle
And do everything that you can to support that. Think about this as you’re training. So good sleep, good food, um balancing stress load, all the same stuff you do in training, treat it just like training.

54:16.45
Chantelle
And hopefully some of these things, you know, can help you, um you know, recover physically, but also, you know, mentally help you stay a little bit more sane.

54:30.77
Alyssa
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 as well.

54:42.00
Chantelle
Yes, oh my goodness, yes.

54:43.95
Alyssa
Animals are so great for these moments too. If you love animals, yeah, they’re truly, I think, godsends when you’re injured or sick or yeah, you just need a fluffy thing to love you unconditionally.

54:59.35
Alyssa
I think that helps a lot.

54:59.79
Chantelle
Absolutely. Yeah, that’s a great addition point, Alyssa.

55:06.20
Alyssa
Awesome. Well, Chantelle, thank you so much for being on 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.

55:23.53
Chantelle
Oh, thanks, Alyssa. It was great to chat.

55:26.89
Alyssa
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. It’s not just one, but a community.

55:39.53
Alyssa
We are Uphill Athlete.