Still OK past 1 mile |
Well, I was writing about how I got
back on the road and started running again the last few weeks, eventually
culminating with a 10 miler last weekend, then as suddenly as I seemed to be
getting better, disaster struck on the way to 12 miles this week, perhaps
jinxed by what I was writing about. So what happened? Did I tweak one or both
of my perpetually injured ankles? Did that developing knee pain from last week
get worse? No and no. I consider this more of a freak injury and the same type
on the left leg that stopped my every day running streak of 21 years several
years ago. It seems to be a deep tissue muscular strain on the outer left thigh
just below the hip that happened for no apparent reason. I wasn’t pushing the
pace, or pounding the ground too hard, or bounding up 6th Street
hill at about 3 ½ miles when I felt it. I was actually having a decent run up
to that point. One moment I’m telling pregnant Ellen “walking pace, right?”,
and urging the walking Kenny (or Tenny) to continue running up the hill, then the
next moment pain struck. A normal or sane person would have stopped and walked
at that point but since I’m neither, I continued running hoping to work the
kink out. Based on previous experience though, I knew it wasn’t going to happen,
but still I pressed on until the pain became too sharp and unbearable at about
6 ½ miles. So I sputtered and walked back to the finish using a short cut on
the course.
Just smiling for the camera at about 5 1/2 miles but I was already in excruciating pain |
Since AREC training started this
year, I’ve been running with other people, but last Saturday I did not. In retrospect, I should have stayed back and
ran with someone rather than going on my own. There was just too much
separation between me and the next runner ahead that I should have pulled back
and made the pace a lot more conservative.
So how bad is it? The thigh hurts
even just pressing on the clutch while driving and it’s going to hurt like the
dickens when I do my cycling workouts. Certainly it will keep me off the roads
for at least 2 to 6 weeks. It almost never surprises me any more when I get
injured because that’s been my history in at least the last 5 years. It
surprised me more that I ran 10 miles last week.
The Aftermath: Thigh bound in elastic bandage and ankles braced. |
Despite the protracted run and the
weeks of rehab ahead, I’m still I’m grateful to have had 6 or 7 good weeks of
running and met new people in the process. Old and new running buddies, please
forgive me if I’ve gone missing and you don’t see me on the roads any time
soon, but like a bad rash, I’ll be back.
p.s. I’ll post the blog about my running comeback (the one
that caused the jinx) after this one.
Public comments below, private comments: E-mail Me!
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