Invested

Alyssa started complaining about pain in her hip a couple of weeks after track practice started a couple of months ago. I asked her several times if they were stretching enough, and she admitted that they weren’t stretching before or after practice as much as they had last year.

At her first meet, she did the high jump and ran the four-hundred. By the time she ended the four-hundred, she was limping. She walked half the eight-hundred and was near tears when it was over.

Her coach brought her some ice and told her to sit.

The next day at school, she met with the athletic physiologist (think PT.) He diagnosed her with a strained muscle in her hip/lower ab area. He told her to ice it often and gave her lots of new stretches to do.

She’s sat out the last two meets and will sit out the on this coming Friday.

At first, I was VERY bothered by this sitting out. I don’t know why. I’m trying to figure out why I’m so invested in her athletic career. Why does it matter to me? I mean, I don’t actually enjoy going to track meets and yet…I want her to do them. I want her to enjoy physical activity and for it to become a part of her life.

And there it is…I don’t want her to be sedentary…like me. I don’t want her to get to a point in her life where exercise is a chore instead of a fun thing to do.

But it’s her life and if she’s hurt I obviously want her to take the time to get better rather than hurting herself even more by pushing too hard too fast.

I think when she first got hurt, she was ready to just quit track and move on but since she’s still an official member of the team, she’s still going to the meets and cheering on her teammates. It’s during these meets that she finds herself longing to be on the track, especially during the four-hundred. She considers that her race. She doesn’t mind missing out on the eight-hundred, though and gleefully sits back to watch others run those two laps.

She’s been going the stretches and icing her hip for over a week now. I think she original injury happened about four or five weeks ago, during one of the practices. She’s going to see the athletic physiologist again on Thursday to see if she’s cleared to compete in next Monday’s meet. IF so, yay, if not, well, I think I’m learning to let go of my own investment in her track life and content to just listen to her and her needs. She knows what hurts, she knows how hard to push herself.

She’ll figure it out and I’ll sit back and let her, encouraging her to do things that are hard but also trusting her to know when it’s just not going to work out.