No pain, gain.

I’ve had a load of running injuries recently—right ankle injury followed by left knee and calf/hamstring swelling followed by a left calf tear-like pain. After two months of running something hurting or hobbling on every run, I nearly gave up on running two weeks ago. Quitting running drove me crazy. I suffered bad withdrawal issues, and was in a near constant state of depression. Meditation, Chewie and some small successes at work helped me survive.

After 10 days of rest (with one test run midway), I started running again on Saturday. I love Parkrun, and it was a great reason to test the legs. It wasn’t perfect, but the legs hurt a bit less than before the break. On Sunday’s ten miler, I noticed that the left leg only started hurting on the uphill banked section on the ridge. Monday’s five miler reaffirmed the observation.

My hypothesis was that my old Torin shoes and the banking on uphill section of the mount may have a big hand in the left leg’s recurring problems. So, today I tested the hypothesis by running on the path in Stoke park in the new Torin shoes.

The results are encouraging 🙂

Today’s run was the first one in two months with no injury related pain. The left knee and muscles behind it didn’t hurt at all, even on sections with banking to the right. The tear pain in the left calf hasn’t occurred for last few runs, and stayed away today too. The right ankle has been aching, off and on, where it was injured last year. It was good throughout the run as well. This was a happy, injury-pain free run.

It was not all pain free. Intervals, even at 5K pace, never are. The freezing gusty wind also gave me a mild headache. And hamstrings and quads were aching a bit by the end—indicating probable overuse.

Tomorrow is a rest day so the hamstrings will get some recovery. I just finished a deep foam rolling of the quads. I’m happy that today’s experiment turned out so good; I’m almost looking forward to Thursday’s painful 8 mile tempo run.

No pain, gain.

Tomorrow is London – today was stomach butterflies day

Kit for London marathon 2018
Kit for London marathon 2018

Volunteer at parkrun, buy a running vest, stretch, light foam roll, rest, lunch, rest, rest, rest, stretch. Oh, and shit 4 times.

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Tomorrow is London – today was stomach butterflies day