I have to acknowledge that I am now officially in injury management mode. I think I have a relatively serious problem, strain or inflammation, in the long head of the biceps femoris, hereafter referred to as the sore bit.
The sore bit was feeling good yesterday and otherwise my legs felt recovered. But as I got into my warm up last night I could feel some creaks and groans from the sore bit. This SHOULD have been enough to tell me to abandon my plans for running the monthly 5-k time trial as a tempo run (heart rate capped at 165). But I had done it for the past three months and was getting hooked on seeing the trend in the numbers. It was hurting a bit doing the T/T, but not really getting worse or hampering me. The numbers were coming out OK (1:29 to 1:33 per lap; not really any different to last month) and I was feeling quite comfortable at that heart rate. Then in lap 11 the pain went up a notch and was causing me to alter my stride, so I finished the lap and stopped. Today it is sore. There goes my hope of running every day in September. Only four days to go too...
I am kicking myself for not changing plans and just having an easy run in the park, that should have been a no-brainer. And I can trace the injury back to a couple of other strategic mistakes as well. Chasing Hadd's final time & intensity program before I had actually worked up to the weekly mileage involved at easier pace. Not responding more quickly to the realization that HR150+ was just too hard on my legs in the early morning (hence a couple of forced-pace runs when I must have laid the precursor damage to the injury). Of course it is easy to be wise after the fact, but in reaching for the highest fruit on the tree, it is pretty obvious you are eventually going to fall off the ladder. I should have been more cautious. Shoulda known better...
Well, day one of the recovery starts today. Complete rest. Tomorrow morning I will head into a gym and see if I can do some cross training, like on one of those dang cross-country skiing type machines, maybe some pool walking or swimming. Tomorrow might even be too soon for that. But whatever the case, I have to force myself to let this thing recover...and need to downgrade my marathon goals.
Damn.
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9 comments:
Bugger! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Unless you're a monkey reaching for the highest fruit ;) I think us human types should reach the fruit by building a huge mound of dirt with a small shovel. I wonder how long that would take?
Make that 2 "buggers"!
I wouldn't be downgrading expectations just yet - a little rest might actually have a positive affect.
Very sorry to hear that. It's always hard to judge the point when you should stop pushing hard...
Rest, ice and don't rush. Couple of days of rest could make difference to the situation.
Yep bugger - I hope Hadd is not the culprit.
cheers PLu
I blame myself, if If hadn't gone on holidays I might of been reading your blog more regularly and picked up on the signs. Sorry mate, I won't let you down again ;)
Slowly, slowly catchy monkey as they say, you may just be able to salvage this.
Sorry to hear of your injury Steve. Hope you improve soon. I occasionally look at your log on RunningAHEAD and the intensity of your training scares me.
Can you work through this with some sessions in the pool and/or the gym? From reading about Toshihiko Seko recently, it seemed he simply swapped running for walking or another activity when he got injured. He walked as much as 30km. Walking and pool running would perhaps let you recover without losing fitness?
i tend to agree with 2p. one day (or even a few) of rest will not completely kill your fitness. not that i know what i am talking about, but i hope it to be true. for you and for me (i took a day off yesterday because my knee felt not good at all - it will not ruin our plans, right?)
Still, thumbs up on what you have achieved so far! Your blog has been one good read.
Maybe we all have to go through this one way or the other like you have to burn yourself to know that fire is really hot.
There probably is now serious runner who never had a running injury. It might slow you down or even interrupt your plans but you'll be a much "better" runner after this. That I am sure!
Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!
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