This week was injury week. I am actually surprised I got this far after talking to other people who have trained for a half-marathon but yet it came so unexpectedly. In hindsight I can see how I had over-done it previously.
On the Monday and Tuesday morning I did run rather fast on the school run as we were late and my son took his scooter. Other than that I went with an after school group on a very short sponsored walk but other than that I didn’t do a lot. On the Tuesday morning after I had dropped my sons off I thought I would try the Zombie App which I had heard about in the Fitbitches group. This involves running away from Zombies whilst doing 5k. I thought yeah I could do that and it wouldn’t take up too much of my morning. The Zombies were no-where in sight and I had literally just begun a gentle jog when I felt what can only be described as a spasm all up my leg! It was so painful and when it finished I can hardly walk. I then shuffled back home and this took much longer than my anticipated run!
I did a lot of Googling and talking to others and this is what I tried to get rid of the pain:
Epsom salts – sat in a bath for 20 minutes.
Deep heat – and generally rubbing my legs.
Rest – It hurt too much to do much else though to be honest.
Ibuprofen – why it took me so long to even think about taking any!
Water – apparently it could be dehydration.
Gentle stretches – I especially like the one with my foot hanging half way off a step.
Better diet – although this mainly includes a lot of stir-fry and I still need to improve what I am putting into my body. And if I am totally honest I ate out a lot – but it is better than all the chocolate and hot cross buns right!
A sports massage – if you have ever had a nice relaxing massage then let me tell you this is NOTHING of the sort. Torture massage would be a better description and I left bruised and in pain. I do believe that it did the job though!
I did not run all week. I walked the school run, I missed running club and was a marshal at Park run and Park Run Junior (where our 9 year old collected his Half Marathon band).
I cannot tell you how gutted I felt for this to happen. It was so depressing. I feared (irrationally I know) that I would never run again (it hurt okay). To get so far and to be stopped in my tracks. I have no idea how some of these inspirational runners do it – who have really bad injuries and come back from it. To not to be able to run for months at a time (at least). I was just glad that the half marathon wasn’t too soon and that I had chance to recover. Now just to keep injury free as I head towards tapering time (not that I have been doing enough to taper lol).
I have also been told to use a bottle of ice-water or a tennis ball and roll them under my feet. Do you have any other tips for preventing or alleviating injury pains?
I am running the Tewkesbury Half Marathon on 14th May 2017 for The Roses Theatre. Please sponsor me: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/glosbloggers