Monday, April 20, 2009

No gain without pain...

...or so they say.

That's what I thought on Friday morning after Thursday's physio session. I had no pain before the visit to the physio but my leg was certainly sore afterwards!! 'That's what sticking needles and an electric current into your leg will do Brendan - serves you right', or so I thought.

I went for my easy run on Friday as planned. A very slow (8:30 pace) 2.86miles. Neither the distance or the pace will set any records but at least I made it to the end, almost in one piece. My knee area was generally OK although pain did begin on the few occasions I ventured into 7:xx pace and when I ran uphill. In particular, the last uphill 200m was particularly painful. :(

Saturday and Sunday were busy at home and to be honest I thought that a bit of recovery after my 'long run' :) on Friday would be good! I did some stretching though.

Today was a lovely sunny day and I felt like a run. Again completion of my almost 3 mile route was the plan but I decided to push the pace into the 7:3x zone just to see if the onset of soreness was a function of distance or speed. Mile 1 was OK - a good start - no pain in my right leg/knee but my left quad, hip, calf and achilles were all sore for some reason (over compensation or maybe I did some damage working in the garden over the weekend??) The pain in my left leg continued for Mile 2 until...... the back of my right knee (top of right calf area) become sore followed by a sudden sharp pain at the top of my knee cap...Ouch - time to slow down. So I hobbled home at 10 minute pace. Walking down stairs later in the afternoon also proved painful.

Right now I've no pain in either leg so I think another 3 miles tomorrow is on the cards.

3 comments:

Richard said...

As long as you know the difference between aches and pains and a serious (chronic) problem you'll get over it. I learned the hard bway.

Grellan said...

Trial and error is the way to go. I'm keeping a close eye on proceedings to see what is the optimal downtime required to facilitate full recovery as I am about 2 weeks behind you.

Before you ask, i'm burning the midnight oil as my early morning runs are on hold.

bricey said...

me too!!