Back at it

I spent three weeks not running after being broiled in Vermont. I usually take at least a week, usually two, but I had some nagging aches and sorenesses that I thought I'd give an extra week to recover -- most concerning was the lower abdomen muscle situation that never really kept me from doing what I had to do (except once), but also that hamstring/leg cramp that happened during the race on top of the usual marathon-induced aches and weakness. I'm usually chomping at the bit to get back on the road after the first week, but this time, I rather relished the first two of the rest weeks, sleeping in to 6 a.m. and changing right into comfy clothes upon arriving home after work, taking time to enjoy my other hobbies. I had to be more disciplined during the third week, telling myself it was better to give it all just one more week at least. I traveled to Iowa during the third week and it felt peculiar not to fill up half the suitcase with running clothes, and to not spend an hour each day traversing the east side, but I obeyed my rest plan.

I did go biking three times during those three weeks -- twice road biking (~20 miles each time) and once mountain biking, which was a lot of fun as I had not been on my Rumor since early last fall. (I hadn't been road biking since early last fall, either, but while I enjoy that pursuit, it's not "fun" in the way mountain biking is.) The first road bike outing was a week after VCM, and at the end, my legs felt very like noodles. I had thought I might like to mountain bike the next day, but my legs were not having it. The next weekend, I hit the trails on the 29er and my legs were less noodly, which was encouraging. Road biking the next day, my legs were more or less fine. I didn't feel any of the aches and soreness that I'd ended the spring's running with.

I thought about taking one more week off running, but from an emotional standpoint, I was ready to run again, and my aches and soreness hadn't bugged me while living my life, so I was willing to test that out too. I set my alarm for 5 a.m. Monday, but my internal clock was on Central Daylight Time, so when 5 a.m. came, it felt way too much like 4 a.m., and I bailed. Instead, I ran after work, which wasn't optimal because it was in the upper 80s, but I wasn't going to be running hard and I thought I'd enjoy a trail run for the first time in a month so I'd be out of the sun. I got home, laced up my Peregrine 5, and headed out.

Almost immediately, the lower abdomen/groin discomfort flared up. Not so as I couldn't run through it, but it was discouraging. Three weeks of rest did nothing to calm that down, it would seem. I ran about an hour, feeling it in the background the whole way. I thought that because I'd run with it for quite some time at the end of the training schedule this spring, how much more could it hurt it to run tonight? My right leg was OK, but not great or normal; I could feel that hamstring still.

I didn't run on Tuesday, because my legs were sore -- quads in particular, calves a little tired-feeling. I guess three weeks is plenty of time for your muscles to forget everything they'd only recently gone through. And not just muscles; I ran quite slow on the trails, but my heart rate was higher for the same pace than it ever was this spring. I thought I might be able to attribute it to the heat, but I ran this morning (70F and humid, not too bad, and so lovely around the reservoir) at a pace that would certainly be considered "easy" but 40-60 seconds slower than the corresponding heart rate would have allowed me to run only a month ago.

The lower abdomen/groin thing felt about the same as my quads did, which is to say not too bad, better than on Monday. The hamstring was OK this morning too, less noticeable. I will run again tomorrow and see how it goes. I feel I am trying to be overly optimistic about the lower abdomen, but that's only because I don't want to sink immediately to doom and gloom conclusions (though that is what I really fear, deep down). I have an appointment with a doctor on July 13 to discuss this discomfort. I made this appointment a couple weeks go. It was the soonest I could get in. Ridiculous.