not sure if the run was a success….
Yesterday, the architect & I headed out for my first run since pulling that silly muscle over a week and a half ago. About 1/2 mile into the run, I had to slow to a walk, because it HURT. It didn’t hurt to walk, so sped up again. At that point, I was about in tears (more from frustration than pain), and told the architect to finish the run without me. I was going home.
I turned and walked towards home. Then I walked a little faster. Then I jogged. I could feel the muscle, but it wasn’t painful. So I kept going. I knew at this point I wouldn’t be able to catch the architect (I certainly wasn’t interested in turning my first recovery run into speedwork), but I also had our housekeys, so I didn’t want to just wander off & leave him locked out, so I crossed my fingers that he was going to do the same loop he & I usually do together, and ran to intercept. Other than a brief pause for traffic when doing a street crossing, I jogged for the next 1.5 miles. My first mile (with all the walking) came in at about a 12 minute mile. My second was 10:45 – just where I want to be for my slow/easy runs. I took a 0.1 mile break at mile 2, and then jogged for another little bit with the architect.
My total mileage yesterday was 2.25 miles in about 25 minutes. I could’ve gone further, I think, but I didn’t want to push it too much. My leg was pretty sore last night, though. However, the pain has been getitng lower & lower – and now is 100% in my knee – the same knee that I injured last year. The knee that gave me problems off & on all last fall & winter. The knee that maybe, just maybe, I stopped doing my PT exercises for a few months ago after I declared myself cured.
So – it’s not breaking news that I’m a dumbass – we covered that earlier this week – but I think my PT was right when she said “run three days a week & do those damn exercises for the rest of your running life”. Today I’m going to go dig out all those exercises & start adding them back to my routine.
Tomorrow, I’m going to try to run 15 miles. I will, however, walk if there’s pain. My plan right now is to run the first 5 without stopping & then do a 0.9/0.1 run/walk for the last 10. Also, I definitely need to pay more attention to warming up before starting running – that is something I always used to do, but have lately stopped doing. When I walk 1/4 – 1/2 mile before running, things usually work better.
So – today is a swim & a bike (leaving soon for the pool – I have homework!) and then stretching & icing. I’m just hoping that I can recover from my own idiocy and still have a good marathon. In six weeks. ACK!
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