On Saturday I did my long run. My left leg was still sore and tight behind the knee but, I hoped, if I dropped the pace a bit it would ease off over the miles. My aim? .. a half marathon distance .. this time I wasn’t going to let myself miss my target by half a mile (see my previous post ‘When is..’)
I connected my iPod to the treadmill speakers, did a short warm up and off I went listening to another great podcast from MarathonTalk. The pain in my leg never seemed to go away so I kept to the same steady pace of 9.5kmh .. a bit slow but I convinced myself that banking the miles was a better option than trying to break the speed barrier!
On and on I went, checking off the kilometres (the treadmill only works in km which confuses an imperial girl like me). I kept up my fluid and carb intake with bottles of water and carb gels.
At about mile 10, I noticed some pelvic pain and my leg wasn’t feeling any better. I struggled on and finally got to 20km and wound down to a walk! Hurrah, I’d done a half marathon distance.. but oh dear..I was in pain..real pain.. and then Andrew came in to film me (nice of him to catch painful expressions et al!)
“How far did you go?” he asked
“20km!” I replied with a smug smile
.. “Oh, didn’t you want to hang on to get the half marathon?”
“WHAT?” alarm bells started to ring
“Well, you had to get to 22km to make sure you did the half” he explained, whilst zooming the camera in on my expression
“Oh #@$*!”
I couldn’t believe I’d done it again…I just can’t keep a number in my head…I wasn’t going to be beaten..I didn’t care how much everything hurt, I’d only stopped for about a minute. I punched the treadmill buttons and it quickly fired back into action putting me back into running mode. Everything hurt more than before.. I was so cross with myself .. for being useless with numbers, for being injured, for being in pain .. arrrghh! I finished off the last 2km, securing the half marathon distance but I wasn’t happy.
Hoping to take the sting out of screaming muscles, I held ice packs and bags of frozen peas to my legs, hip and back. Running sure ain’t glamorous!!
A visit to the Physio yesterday confirmed that an initial calf strain had made me change my gait to compensate for the injury. This in turn had put extra pressure on an already weak pelvic area. The upshot of all this is that I’m injured and laid off from running this week.
However, to turn a negative experience into a positive one – I’m using this week to work hard on strengthening glutes and abs and get as many physio sessions in as I can. This should produce a stronger, fitter, calmer and less injured me! As usual, I’ll keep you posted!
