Stand Down, Attack Later

After two days of running this week, 4 miles on Monday and 3 yesterday, I’m thinking I’m going to need a little more time off. I don’t know if it will be a few days, a week, or maybe even two (shouldn’t be any longer than that), but I’m going to have to wait for a little more healing to take place. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve known all along that I was pushing the edge of being ready based on the amount of elapsed time since I got hurt, and I just don’t think I’m quite ready yet.

My runs the past couple days have been odd. Early on I’ve been ok but after just a short period of time the pain comes on, and while it never gets unbearable, it is significant enough to be pretty annoying and I think indicative of more than just scar tissue. Last night started out feeling a little better than the night before, so I was encouraged, but by 15 min I was worse than previously, so I cut it short and called it a day.

The good news is I know I’m making progress because I’m not worse walking around after and not worse the next day either. That’s a sign that I’m not doing any damage, so the healing must be close to complete. It’s not quite there, though, so rather than risk a major setback, I’m standing down for a while. The other good thing about this injury is it’s been so extended and so frustrating that it’s really gotten my attention. Losing a couple weeks to a month numerous times was bad, but obviously not enough for me to learn my lesson. This time I’m determined not to put myself in this position again, even if it means being a little undertrained a lot of the time. I’ve always said that I run for the competitive aspect of it, and that remains the case. However, when you just plain can’t run for such a long period of time, you realize that you miss other things about the sport as well, and I want all that back. Hopefully it will be soon.