THE SLOW ROAD

When this post injury nightmare period (pain, discomfort, trouble sleeping, no running, no ball playing, malaise) came to an end...that is, when I began to run again...my spirits soared and I looked forward to picking up where I left off in an almost manic kind of way. I was SO happy!!

But it isn't, of course, that easy. My quad is much, much better, but touch it even lightly along the IT Band and it is still incredibly sensitive and painful. And the injury limits my stride. The ribs are also much improved but a wrong move in bed...or even getting up from my chair...still hurts. Not a whole lot, but enough to make sleeping...and getting up from my chair...uncomfortable. And the soreness affects my breathing when my respiration rate quickens during a workout. I'm far from 100%.

So, too, with running. I've run 4 times this week for 28 miles, including a moderate tempo on Thursday and an 11 mile semilong run today. Not bad at any time and literally night and day compared to last week and the 1 before that. But my times are about 30 seconds per mile slower, my heart rate is up, my side is uncomfortable, the quad hurts as my left foot strikes the ground....

Yes, the Slow Road to full recovery!!

I have races scheduled on the next 2 weekends. There is NO WAY I can run them at my pre injury pace. And I wasn't delighted with that pre injury pace; I was hoping to speed things up. That's not going to happen for awhile. So maybe I'd be better off to skip the races and, therefore, skip the pre race taper. I could then do 2 extra tempo runs on the Thursday's before the race and do long runs on race day. Maybe that's the best way to speed up my progress down the slow road??