Just 2 miles…
My run last night was pretty hard from an RPE standpoint. My heart rate never went way up, but my legs felt heavy and my form honestly sucked. The whole thing felt very labored and lacking in smoothness. I kept telling myself though that I felt very much the same when I first got back on the bike. The smoothness and ease I was accustomed to wasn’t there, but it came back quickly enough. I think honestly I just went back to back a little too soon, I just felt fatigued. I would pick up a good pace then my legs just didn’t want to lift my feet up, and I would drop my arms and before I even realized it I was shuffling. In hindsight I should have seen that my form was off, and that’s always been a recipe for getting hurt. I seem to have survived unscathed, and I’ll chalk it up to a “return to running” lesson, it has been a while after all.
Body parts.
My knee is troubling me today, I could feel that it was a little stiff during my run last night, but it didn’t seem any worse really than the other two runs, so I kind of disregarded it. This morning it’s hurting along the left front inner side, kind of between my knee cap and shinbones. It’s a little sensitive to the touch there as well. This is in keeping with the bruising I developed a few years ago when I initially injured it, so it’s something to keep an eye on. It hurt a bit more coming down the stairs than when walking on flat ground, and I remember reading something about that being significant with knee injuries. My right calf is more sore than my left, and I think that’s from my leg being stiff when I ran last night, putting more emphasis on that muscle, which is probably contributing overall. I may let it go another couple of days before I run again.
My lower back has been what I would say is best described as “tight” the last few days, maybe ten days overall. It isn’t painful, it just feels like it needs to pop. This is centered right above my left hip, low down on my back, maybe toward where the bottom of my kidney would be. There is a slight twinge that carries from there kind of out to the outside of my hip, and down across my sit bone. Further evidence of the need to ease back into this running thing. I don’t think it’s “injured” I think it’s just letting me know it’s there, and that I should proceed with caution.
I did a little easy yoga both before and after I ran, though afterward was pretty weak, really more of a light stretching session. I focused on my lower back and hips, but I didn’t do any time in the pigeon, which always seems to open up my hips when they are tight. I probably should have.
Tonight is “Mount Field” on TrainerRoad, and I may work in some resistance band time to focus on hip and knee strength before hand to maybe ward off either of these maladies becoming more serious.
Cogito, ergo, zoom 