Ooops! Fell of the wagon again. It does take me a while to build a habit but then once I do I'm on rails and dislike not doing what I'm supposed to so need to treat this blogging like salads and lunges!
Speaking of habits I need to pick up I had been dallying with some strength work and a bit of stretching to compliment my running but not with any regularity. Well trust the universe to give me a good kick in the arse quite literally.
To give you some background I have been building up my mileage from a base of about 20miles a week after the marathon and in January back to 25-30miles in the last few weeks. I was hoping to then gradually build this up to 40-50 by mid summer with the aim of being able to build up to a marathon from that base quite easily should I feel like it. Anyway there I was going my merry little way with nary a thought of my poor stressed muscles, ligaments and tendons. Surely disaster was about to strike!?
Last week I had put a target of 32 miles in place. Started well with 10 on Monday feeling fine. Rested Tuesday and went to the track for 8x400 on Wednesday which with a warm-up and cool down came to about 5 miles total. Thursday was where I made a major mistake. I usually meet similar paced friends from the club for a couple of easy 2.5mile laps following the speed work the previous night but wanted to get some extra distance in so arrived early. Only to be met by the friendly, lovely, but much too speedy L & P. Now these guys insisted that I should tag along with them as they were doing an easy recovery run anyway. I argued briefly but allowed my arm to be twisted......silly girl!!! I could tell they were slowing down for me but we still did the first lap at an average 8:10min/mile.......this is not recovery pace for me and I was not warmed up after a long day at a desk and an hours drive home. Sure enough I started to feel discomfort along my left side about half way through the first lap. Oh no! Typically I was too busy trying to pretend I was ok at that pace to say anything so I waited until the end of the lap to stop......and then continued to do two more laps at a slower pace for a total of 7 miles. By the time I got home I couldn't even decide where it hurt except that I ached all down my left side from under my ribcage to the ankle. Fully. My. Fault.
This is where I do something smart for a change!!! I rested. I was very scared that this was something that would put me out of running for a few weeks or even months so while the discomfort wasn't that bad I decided to be conservative. I read around and figured out it could be my IT band (have had issues there before) bursitis of the hip or something involving one of the glutes. Or! Or! It could just be my back which might sound more serious but if its only my back I know exactly where I stand from long experience and I know I can run on it. Yay!
So I foam rolled and had a hot bath. I self massaged and yoga'd. I youtubed and as a result, myrtled (look it up!) Everything that was in my arsenal I used except painkillers as a) I wasn't in enough pain and b) I wanted to locate the source of the discomfort. By yesterday I still had pain to my ankle and this was very good news! I've had sciatica enough to know that thats probably what it was.
I was going to go for a short trot yesterday to test it but sanity ruled and I left it until this morning. There was a group from the club doing a ten miler at ten but again, good sense reigned and I decided to go by myself so I had control of the variables. I wanted a few things. Firstly I wanted time to do a proper warm up and to start slowly and work up to my own easy pace so I could watch my form. Secondly I wanted to run on grass and I'm fairly sure the 10 miler would be mostly on road and thirdly (and relatedly) I didn't want a road camber to irritate my hips. Anyway I set out in the pouring rain but I didn't care cos it was pain free for all 6 miles. Yippee!! Got back and did the stretches and strength work again and I'm still feeling good....pretty sure it's lower back pain. Fingers crossed I can get back to building up my miles....phew!
Also I bought new shoes but I haven't gotten to wear them yet and this post is too long so I'll put up a pic in my next post.
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