Although the doctor gave me the green light to start running again this week, I’ve been very cautious. So, for those of you who were worried that I would head out there with a cavalier attitude and make everything even worse, you can now breathe easy… I actually have some good news to report.
I went out for a four mile run Tuesday morning and ended up finishing the whole thing. There was some pain in the last mile-and-a-half, but it was not nearly as severe as it had been in the previous week and I was able to push through it. I took a day off yesterday, then, this evening, I headed out for another four miler and finished it with hardly any pain at all. I felt twinges a couple times, but it never escalated. Needless to say, I am thrilled about that.
I definitely did feel some discomfort out there on both those runs from a lack of regular training though. There was just a lot of soreness all around (muscles, both knees, respiratory, etc.) that I think was coming from the fact that I’ve been so sedentary lately. Plus, I never really was able to get into a groove — Maybe that’s because I was paying attention to form so closely, or “listening” for pains to pop up, I’m not really sure.
Anyway, the plan is to continue building up slowly. I’ll take another rest day tomorrow and then maybe try for a slow loop of the park on Saturday (I’ll bring my MetroCard just in case). Of course, I’ll keep doing the whole stretching/icing/medicating/foam-rolling thing too. And I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for Monday afternoon. So, it looks like things are finally headed back in the right direction.
Yay! Glad you’re feeling better! Continue to listen to your body and don’t push it too hard for risk of not fully recovering.
Best!
I know how frustrating and scary these short runs are, but don’t give up, recovery is just around the corner and soon you’ll be blazing off to get more PRs!!!
Yay from me, too! The fact that the second run was better is music to our ears. ;-) Here’s to more steady progress and the end of this annoying injury for good!
Congratulations. You recover quick! I’ve just gotten back into a regular training schedule myself, now that my IT band issues have cleared up. Good luck with your gradual ramp-up.
Hello darling. (I feel like you are my little brother is that okay?) I am so relieved to read that first of all you are done with the Nike Free and five fingers. Barefoot running is all well and good for whacked out hippies who live in the country but honestly you are a city boy (Colorado roots notwithstanding) and you need to wear your sneakers.
And another thing,. Are you not going for PT or anything like that? They just insist you foam roller yourself to health? I am leery. You run high mileage at fast speeds. Take care. The thing I loved about my recovery was that when I finally began running again, yes I was herky-jerky because I was so focused on form etc (as you wrote above) but I had no pain. None whatsoever. It was awesome and liberating and confidence-building.
I am on your side, Cowboy! See you at the rodeo soon.
TK, haha, yes you can be my honorary big sister. And, although I’m very disappointed the barefootish running experiment failed, I think you’re right — that I’m a city boy who needs to stick to sneakers. They didn’t send me to PT (I thought they said they were, but I guess I was wrong) but I am scheduled for deep-tissue massage on it tomorrow to try and get the fluid out. Then, the plan is to see how that goes before trying anything else.
Good plan, bro! You will be even faster once you get the poison out.