Sunday, October 27, 2013

Perhaps I've Been Going About This the Wrong Way . . .

So, since late April/early May I've been hobbled by a left heel/left hip issue.  I have grumbled about it many times in my posts.  I took most of May and June off from running (almost) entirely.  Since then my mileage has been very low as I've focused on swimming and biking to keep my fitness up.  The injury has been stubborn, and I've tried not to run two days in a row.  When I've run, everything has been tight.  It has, truth be told, felt like the beginning of the end for my running, as I've shuffled through every workout.  This week, I've run 5 days in a row, and bizarrely, I'm feeling better.  I ran two  miles to swim class on Wednesday, 5 incredibly slow miles on Thursday, a solid 8 on Friday with the SBRC bunch, 4 hard, for slow, and a respectable 7 with C___ on Saturday.  I would normally have spent Sunday in the pool or on the bike, but a law professor friend was in town, and wanted to run in Central Park.  I woke up feeling okay, so went for it.

Truly an awesome run.  We ran from Grand Central to Central Park, ran the lower 4 and then back to GCT.  The weather was perfect, the leaves are turning.  We got in and out of the Park before the Marathon Kickoff race came thundering through.  Most importantly, we ran pretty fast.  Almost all of the miles were at a sub 9 pace.  These days that qualifies as a tempo run . . .

For once, my hips didn't start to seize up after 5 miles, and my calves and heel held up through the whole run.

I'm wondering if I've hit a point in recovery where it's time to start running more rather than less.

5 comments:

  1. Hmm. Keep us posted. I would write that I had a similar experience this weekend, but I might jinx myself. That will suffice.

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  2. Such good news!! I forget, do you have your own foam roller? I'm back to using it on my hips, ITB, etc, big time. Some lingering PF pain following Dutch run.

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  3. I like your diagnosis. Recovery with a light run keeps you loose while keeping the miles up. Fingers crossed!

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  4. Philip, Vicki is getting annoyed with the fact that the foam roller lives in front of the television. I think I may need to find one that is coordinated with the living room decor. Max, It is interesting that the nature of my heel pain now seems to be more driven by variations in hip and calf tightness than by the heel itself . . . Today, for example, I only swam, and the heel was pretty painful as I started my walk to work, but loosened up as I walked.

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