I had a timely sports massage booked for the afternoon so I opted to put in a banker run in the morning in case I came out off the massage table in no fit state to run.
With no ill effects from yesterday’s run I set off to do the regular 6.15 mile run out to Dysart Park and back. Pleasingly it was an unspectacular run with very little in the way of discomfort – a few aches on the right quad early on and some tingling on the inner thigh near – otherwise nothing. I was putting in very little effort which made it quite pleasing I averaged 6:56 per mile, the second half significantly quicker thanks to a tasty tail wind – albeit no where near as strong as the gales that battered us and the rest of the country through the afternoon yesterday and into the night.
The run over, it was just a couple of hours and I was with David, my massage therapist. After five minutes of detailing my physical breakdown over the past couple of weeks, he set about putting things to rights. It was, at times, hellishly painful: when you have a thumb stuck deep into an already tender groin, you do wonder why on earth I do what I do to leave myself in a position where this treatment is necessary.
After 50 minutes or so the session was over. We’d found evidence of previous pulls (Presumably when I slipped on the club Christmas Eve run) halfway down the inner thigh, in the groin and tightening of the Psoas. David warned me I would be quite tender for a day or so and suggested ice when I got home. We also went through some stretches I can do to help the Psoas.
As he predicted the area was soon sore so any thoughts of running again in the evening was put to one side: be thankful that I was at least able to run in the morning and that he thought I should be okay to race on Sunday – although he advised against racing too hard and to think of the bigger picture.
He is, of course right. It is too tempting to ignore the fact I have been and am injured and to resume full training as if nothing happened. What I need to do is to build the mileage and intensity up slowly, assured in the knowledge that the past months of solid training should hold me in good stead come April.