Well, it’s official. After 3+ weeks of trying to deny the pain and blowing it off, I finally broke down and sought some professional advice and was rudely confronted with the truth - I’m injured.
I’ve already been frustrated with the amount that I’ve cut back on my running - with the exception of last Saturday’s race, I haven’t run once this week. I’m going out of my skull. I’ve been cranky at home and a mopey twit in general. Today I was driving home from my PT appointment and I passed a runner. My first thought was “That bit@#” and I drove home the rest of the way jealous. Now PT wants me to take another week off and skip next Saturday’s race at Wachusett.
My friend Justin went through something very similar , albeit more severe, last year and did what I thought at the time was a pig headed thing to do, he ran the Boston Marathon anyway. Now, that I’m in his shoes, I understand why he did it.
PT gave me a bunch of new exercises and stretches to try, and I have to see them twice next week, so we’ll see how it goes. I think I will skip Wachusett, but the following weekend, I have a five miler that I’m going to do anyway. Against PT’s advice, I think I’m going to do a nice slow short run on flat ground tomorrow on the bike trail. I want to see how much I can tolerate if I take it easy and stay off the hills for a while. But truth be told, even as I sit here typing this, I know I’m a bonehead and I shouldn’t try to push it. The thing I’ve noticed most about being 35 is not that I can’t do what I did when I was 20 - hell, I just beat dozens of twenty-somethings in last weekend’s race. It’s that after I do it, I just feel more sore than I used to. Suck it up.
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