Adductor Injury

Sunday, July 20, 2014:

Since the adductor injury still hurts, I cross-trained on the bicycle today, going about 6.5 miles in about 45 minutes, using both the paved and the grass trails.  I must admit that was fun. If I ever reach a point where I can no longer run, I sure hope that I can still ride a bike.  These hilly trails provide a wonderful mix of hard-work uphills, level pedaling, and refreshing downhills.  The rutty "grass" trails are actually grass, dirt, and gravel, so the ride is a bit rough, but that adds to the charm.  I hope my old $160 Target bike holds up.

Anyway the bike riding may not last for very many days.  I'll be running again as soon as the adductor injury heals sufficiently.

Thursday, July 17:

Adductor Injury   Adductors are the muscles that pull the legs together.  They don't move the legs forward and backward, so I have no idea how they get involved in running forward, but they do - I've had trouble with adductors before.  This time it's a small muscle high and deep within the left thigh.

I ran about six of the intended 14 miles, doing my usual 1 to 1 run/walk, feeling an ache in the inner side of that left thigh during the last mile or so.  Then the ache disappeared entirely, and I thought I was home free, but a minute or two later the ache became the sharper pain of an actual injury.  It even hurt a little to walk, so I strolled slowly back to the car, about three miles away.

Looking at previous log entries (see, this is why a log is good), in the past I have dealt with ths injury by gradually ramping up the length of my runs, each time stopping just when the adductor starts to complain.  The last time, in January of 2012, it took just a few days to start running, and I ran six miles a week later.  So that's a plan.

11:30, 11:32, 11:04, 10:52, 11:13, 11:40, 13:53, 20:11, 15:03, total 1:57:00, about 9 miles.

Wednesday, July 16:

After five miles with no walking yesterday, and with a planned 14-mile run/walk tomorrow, this was an easy day, just a nice little 3-mile romp through the grass trails.  Lovely weather - cool, sunny, very little wind.

Time 37:12, distance 3.01 miles, pace 12:22.  No whining to speak of.

I took a good look at the "post hole" that I stepped into 11 days ago - it does look like a post hole.  It's only about two inches deep, but of course that's more than enough to cause an injury.  It could actually be a post hole that someone tried to fill with dirt, and that dirt has compressed somewhat.

Tuesday, July 15:

Five miles, no walking    I haven't done that for a while!  I'm trying to extend my long run by a couple of miles every week, while also extending my no-walk distance a mile or so every week.  Next week I'll try to run a 10k with no walking.  I'm due for a 14-mile run/walk long run yet this week.

5.03 miles in 49:02, for a pace of 9:45.  At that pace I should easily be able to finish a 5k race in 30 minutes.  Maybe I should sign up for one and see.

Indeed this was a race pace for me, as judged by the breathing.  I know from experience that when I take a breath every four footfalls, I'm running a sustainable, long-term pace.  For the last half of this run, however, I was breathing once every three footfalls, a race pace for me.  I was able to charge the last hill, and enjoyed that, but I won't claim that I finished with much energy left over.

Whining:  None!  Nothing hurts.  It's possible that the strange tibia pain will bother me tonight, we'll see.