It's been a slog but I am back running with some regularity and pain
free. It has been relatively simple to recover if incredibly
frustrating. That's the thing with an injury that you needn't have
suffered anyway. Nothing popped, cracked or went bang. One day I was
fine and then I wasn't.
So what was it? A muscle injury to my left quad, essentially as a
result of poor maintenance. Ok no maintenance.
What does that mean? It's a really simple answer, it means stretching,
it means foam rolling and good core strength. All the things that as
runners we know we should do and yet we don't. My weakness is that if
I have 45 minutes to train I will run for 45 minutes and 30 seconds. I
will squeeze everything out of it leaving no time to stretch or do the
good things.
Most runners I know are the same. Very few do the maintenance unless
they have had issues. Even then as they recover the slide into the
familiar pattern of training until they break and then repeat.
Why is this? If we love running so much why not spend the relatively
small amount of time doing the stuff that keeps you running?
In this 6 weeks or so where I have not been able to run I have been
doing other things. I've rediscovered swimming using the lido
regularly and even putting on the wetsuit to head up to the lakes at
South Cerney. Taking care not to push to hard to fast I have built up
starting with 1km distance and being at 2.5km. In the last couple of
years I've not swum enough and when I've needed too pushed to hard
hurting my shoulder. This approach has kept that part of my body safe.
The action of swimming front crawl with scissor legs has also helped
my quad. I can definitely feel a benefit. I will keep with the
swimming through the summer, the lido is just stunning and now I'm
back into it why wouldn't i!
Cycling is more a means to an end, I quite enjoy it for short
distances but just find it boring. I cannot imagine spending more than
couple of hours in the saddle, conversely I can easily imagine and
want to spend 6-8hrs running. I guess that's what shows where the
passions lie.
The plan now is to build slowly to running regularly without pain. T
allow time for other training and to take rest days. Rest days will be
cycling days. Training without the impact, plus I really don't cycle
far at all.
This week I want to build to a 10k - see how I feel and then step up
again. Nice and steady. I have no pressure of a race or event coming
up, although I do have some ideas so will see how I progress over the
next 3-4 weeks.
It's good to be back, now where's my foam roller?
