I don't feel pain much, but when I do, I get all dramatic. I'm all, what's wrong? What's happening? Waaahhh! This isn't fair! Why should I suffer? Why me? I get all whiney. It's not pretty. Then I look up stuff on the Internet and get seriously hypochondriacal and anxious.
When I do have pain I don't push through it. That is not My Way. I don't stiffen up and hobble. Instead, the offending limb protectively goes completely limp and I go DOWN. So, in the marathon I would stop running at the aid station, the nerve would tweak, and I would almost fall over, and EMTs would rush at me shouting YOUOKAYOUOKAYYOUOKAYYOUOKAY?
Yes, I'd tell them. Thanks for being here, now relax and put that stretcher away.
It stopped hurting when I ran. But I couldn't run forever.
Right after the marathon I came across the finish line, stopped, grabbed my left leg and just about dropped to the pavement. I think Pirate has the picture. After the marathon, it was gone.
Then, yesterday, I did some sprints. I started out at the gym ran easy about 2 miles at a 11:15 or so pace out to the bosque. It was dawn, and it felt AWESOME.
I stopped, stretched a tiny bit, and then started the first of my 1-minute sprints. In these, I sprint 1 minute, and walk one minute. Rinse, repeat.
Then a really cool thing happened then: During the 2nd or 3rd sprint interval, suddenly I felt smooth and swift. I sped up. I glanced down at the pace meter on my Garmin, and it said 6:53. Holy smokes, for nearly a whole minute, I ran a a sub-7 minute pace.
Then, the nerve tweaked, and I was all like, Yay! Ow! Yay! Ow!
I did a couple more sprints after that and then jogged the last mile back to the gym. Ow, ow, ow.
Last night, while sitting, it tweaked again, and all day today it's been constantly there. I looked up stuff and knew that it wasn't shin splints, a pulled muscle, or stress fracture. There was no swelling or bruising, so what the hell was it?
I went to see Tiger Lily for a message and she pressed 2 places that made it tweak: the back of my hamstrings, and the muscle that runs down the outside of my calves. She also noted that my left leg, for some reason, was way tighter than my right. The tight muscles are probably pressing on this
The solution? Lots of stretching, no running for 1 week, and THE FOAM ROLLER.
Pirate, of course, is gleeful because if there's anything she loves more than an assisted lat pull-down machine, it's the foam roller. She's into pain and suffering, that one.The rest of the rx:
Lots of stretching, every single day, after soaking in a warm tub to warm muscles. Stretch my ITB, hamstrings, and anything else I can access.
Lots of cycling and then stretching immediately after THAT.
No running for 1 week.
Wednesday, another message.
Then, I should be in good form for the Colorado Relay, which starts next Friday morning at 6:15 am. Fingers crossed. We've been planning this for 11 months, and I don't want to let anyone down.
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