1-month and 22-days until the London Marathon.
Back in the UK and today is raining again!
After the fun at The Okinawa marathon, the build up, the actual marathon and the buzz of a great night out to celebrate, I started to get sluggish the day after. I had planned an easy week to cope with muscles soreness, but to be honest I didn’t get any.
DOMS (aka: delayed onset of muscle soreness). This is something that affects us as we get older. My kids are teenagers and don’t know what sore muscles are yet. At 20, I was sore for a day then got over it, at 30 it took 2 days. By 40 it took 2 days even before my legs got sore!
Now I just accept that I will get sore muscles a few days after an event as my recovery slows down, but this time I kept waiting and nothing happened, so that was the good news, however, although no sore muscles, I have been jaded all week and it wasn’t until now that I felt ready to go again with my training for the London Marathon. I was not expecting this. Luckily I planned an easy week to help me recover and this is something I would suggest everyone does after a marathon.
I will settle back down into training again, but on yesterday’s run I noticed that my left knee was aching, it is nothing serious, but how often have you gone for a jog and thought, that it’s not quite right, but kept on running. The next day you think the same, but there is a bit more of a twinge, but still not quite enough to stop you running. After a while it progresses to a dull ache…and finally a real pain in the knee which is unbearable! Only then do you think maybe I should see someone about it, and possibly rest up!
As runners we get addicted to running and cannot bear to miss a day’s training…Is this you? If so change your ways as it will ultimately be your downfall!
I am now pro-active and just in case this gets worse I am cutting back my running to only 4 days a week. This may seem drastic as I am not officially injured yet, but just in case I will introduce some swimming and the cross trainer to let the joint recover from all the impact training. I am also stretching more than before and icing it 3 times a day, not to mention consulting with Alex Drummond from the Drummond Clinic, and getting some good ultra sound. This may seem OTT for something which is not yet an injury, but I have learnt the hard way, be warned and be cautious. The last time my left knee hurt, and I didn’t act fast enough, it took 2 years to get over it.
I intend to keep the quality in my running as I train for the London Marathon. This is the important stuff, all I am dropping is the junk miles those easy runs that we all love to do because they are easy and fun, but really will not help our running economy. A general tip is that it usually takes about 36 hours to recover between runs, but unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day! By cutting back to 4 runs a week, I will extend the recovery time and this should allow me to keep training and ward off an injury…and so with this in mind, I am off to the pool for an easy swim today.