Guess what? Yep, I'm short of my weekly target, this time by a whopping 29 miles. The hip niggle I reported last week curtailed my midweek runs. Not only that but my right calf has started to complain, the same one that put me out of the Highland Fling last year.
The midweek lunch time runs were done with Lynne, a nice easy 2 miles to allow the hip to recover. The hip seemed fine towards the end of the week but the calf remained tight. It was always going to be a long shot at the weekend with 25 and 13 miles to run. On Saturday I had to listen to my body (see, I am learning) and limit the miles to 15. Today was a beautiful clear day but my running mojo was gone. I seriously contemplated junking the run before dragging myself out for a late afternoon 8 miles at the Braes. It was an ugly run, shuffling along with a tight calf and short of breath even with the slow pace.
On the way out I passed an elderly gentleman walking his dog. His car was parked by the track, I thought nothing of it and continued to do the Braes loop. On the way back I was disconcerted to see the car still parked at the track. It was completely dark by then, especially in the trees, I was glad to see him a mile further on still walking his dog as I ran past. I then had a thought, I stopped and switched off my torch. I couldn't see a thing and wondered how on earth he was going to get back to his car without a torch. Luckily, as well as the hand torch, I was wearing a cap with LED lights. I ran back and gave the gentleman the cap which he was most grateful for. That was my good deed done for the day.
I have a rest week coming up which I'm going to stick with, even though this past week has been lower miles there's no point in trying to catch up on what's lost. Looks like I'll have to squeeze in a visit to the physio as well.
Tues 2, Wed 2, Fri 2, Sat 15, Sun 8. Weekly total 29 miles.
I can understand your frustration with injury niggles - until last year I have always had several bouts of injuries that laid me out for months on end.
ReplyDeleteWhat seemed to help me get over these injuries was spreading my mileage more out through the week, running more often, but with each run less far and less intense. Only doing long runs when I felt my body could handle them comfortably rather when it was scheduled in a training plan. Doing shorter long runs (<15 miles) bit done more often seemed to help as well.
I also found that my body can handle different amounts of weekly mileage depending upon other stressors in my life. If the week is sunny and work stress is low and I'm sleeping well I find I can put lots of long runs in and recovery right away. If the stress levels are up, sleep is compromised for whatever reason then fatigue and injury niggles tend to build up with much less mileage.
Best of luck and the physio and training.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Robert. I am struggling with the back to back runs at the weekend. It remains to be seen if I can hang onto my chosen training regime which is looking unlikely, I may well have to look at an alternative such as yours above. Thanks again, George.
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