Thigh July

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I'm not sure why, but I decided to put off posting this latest missive until I had some good news, which, erm, rather suggests to the astute reader that there has been bad news in the MLCMM running camp. And there has...

The long and the short of it is that with all the off-road running I was doing, I managed to induce a small tear in the quads of my right leg. At first, I didn't even notice it, but then I started to get nasty, sharp stabbing pains when I twisted my leg just so. Annoyingly, after each stab of pain, I couldn't replicate the exact pose that caused the problem: it was deep and not giving away its exact location easily. Taking things easy only made matters worse; and then even a complete cessation of running made it still worse again. Huh? How does that work??

By that stage though, I had got the message, which was: don't make step up motions at all, and avoid stepping down with a slight twist to the left and at all costs avoid bending over with a slight twist to the left. I'm beginning to sound like a socialist cocktail, but in the end I had to quit running and bending altogether, and finally, today is the red-letter day in which I've finally managed to get through an entire 24 hours (well, near enough) with no discomfort at all. Hallelujah.

But what does this mean for my race plans? I'm now so far behind in my training schedule that it's scary. Worse, I can't just pick up where I left off: this is my first pain-free day, and the tear was in a tricky part of the quads that are being constantly used. Running too soon will only make matters worse again and so I have to get back into it gradually.

I have little choice but to take pressure off myself and just take things slowly for the next little while. If it goes well, I can perhaps readjust my goal to a half marathon, and maybe ramp things up if it all goes well. I am not, however, that confident.

Ah well, c'est la vie, my friends. Such is the life of a middle-aged runner.