Recovery Road

It is, once again, with the help of Captain Hindsight that I write this post! Yesterday (in hindsight) I should have had a rest day. 'What? But you've made the same 'in hindsight mistake' before Maggie!' I hear you exclaim. And yes... I know. I have.

This time wasn't quite the same as the last though, and thankfully doesn't seem () to have been as disruptive. I set off for club feeling good; a little stiff, granted, but good. The session started with a mile warm-up and I felt good. We set off on our first hard interval - the session (courtesy of Sara) being an interval pyramid of 1-2-3-4 minutes hard, with 1 minute recovery between, then back down - and I still felt relatively good. My knee twinged, so I stopped, reminded myself about my bum, readjusted my posture and running gait, set off again, and felt fine. It soon became clear though that however 'fine' I felt (or had convinced myself I felt?), I wasn't. My legs felt as though they were running through treacle; they were very stiff and as much as I tried, I couldn't maintain a speed anywhere close to the rest of the group. Steadily I was falling behind.

Right. Time for a new approach. The others were doing an interval session, with hard runs and jog/walk recoveries between, which meant that if I simply maintained a steady pace, by the end of their pyramid, I wouldn't be that far behind them. My legs still felt stiff but nothing hurt, so drawing on a little PRB, I began my own session - a steady run! Meeting the others at the end, still recovering from their last interval, it was clear that my strategy had worked and I was now back with the rest of the group for the cool down run.

With just under 2 miles back to the track, this shouldn't have been a problem. Except, of course, it was. All of a sudden, the back of my left knee (which has never caused me any problems in the past) started to pull so tight, I could barely get any range of movement out of it. I persevered but the more I did the tighter it became. Eventually a pain started, in the back of my knee where it felt taught, and I had no option but to stop and walk; unlike last time, walking didn't hurt but I was still about half a mile from the home base and it  was a slow return back. Pete very kindly walked with me, for which I am very grateful - thanks Pete - but needless to say, I have now learnt my lesson: no running the day after a 'hard' / 'long' run, my legs just aren't up to it and I will only ruin someone elses session!!

Thankfully, I'd had the foresight to think that I may be in need of a sports massage following the half marathon yesterday, and had a session already booked for after work today. Evil Lovely Jo, squidged and squashed, poked and pummeled my muscles once again, whilst I lay on the table with gritted teeth and curled toes. Acually, It's testament to how good a job she does that I went back today, as whilst lay on the table it's the last place I want to be; however, last week once all the pain had subsided from the torture massage, I'd felt better than I have in ages and I truly believe I wouldn't have managed that 13.1 miles without her... and to be fair, she is also really rather lovely which (almost) makes up for the pain she inflicts... alright, I did say almost!

So now I wait to see what tomorrow brings which will hopefully be a run, though I am going to be boringly (actual made up word) sensible as I've the Trimpell 20 on the training plan for Sunday; my first 20 mile race. The word 'race' being a loose term. However, I would like to try and maintain the 10 minute mile pace I managed on the half this weekend. I'm also hoping that by Sunday, I will have actually gone to the bother of finding out where Trimpell actually is... as currently I've no idea... it sounds rather nice though: Trim-pell, just trips off the tongue and conjures images of a little wooded nook full of peaceful pixies and impish elves and... well, runners I guess.



Distance: 5 miles
Feeling: good... until I broke!
Weather: nice.