The morning I went for a slow, recovery paced run, 11km, on a regular route down by the riverside. The niggling calf ache/pain (I guess it's really my upper ankle, or 'fankle' - fat ankle - as its painful and slightly swollen/has a bruised feeling) was still there, and it felt like it got better and then worse, then better, then worse again throughout the very slow run (20 minutes slower than usual). In fact, my legs felt tight and achey all over, and by the end of the run my right hip had started to ache and feel strange too. What’s going on? It feels like I have just run a hard race or a marathon yesterday or something. Perhaps, this is a delayed reaction to my 50km trail race (back on 7th June), and I didn’t get away with such an awesome, quick recovery after all? Hmm… Not good. But, I think I will do the sensible thing, and cancel my runs for the next two to three days, so the rest of this week, and rest my legs (albeit for the usual walking and cycling as transport, and maybe some yoga too) and see how they are feeling on Monday’s planned 9.66km easy paced run. I am still thinking about the 16km run I should be doing over the weekend though, hmmm. If I can, I may also get back to the hotel’s swimming pool for some active recovery pool running/jogging.
I will also be eating lots of healthy, healing foods, and will be aiming to get more sleep than I’ve been getting recently.
I hope my legs are back to normal by next Saturday!! How annoying. It’s got me worried that maybe I have reached my peak during my training and that when I come to run the actual race, I won’t be able to repeat and emulate the successes I have had when training. Hmm, maybe running an ultra 50km trail race just one month before this half marathon wasn’t a great training idea, in hindsight…
Have you got any secrets/tips for a speedy recovery?
How many days would you take off from running if you’re feeling sore?
Aaaand, a few shots of the beautiful Gold Coast, in the hope that this mental motivation helps my legs return to 'normal' in time for next week (and ideally in time for Sunday so I can get my final long-ish run in):