Saturday Workout = Sunday Recovery and a Yellow Light Workout is not the end of the world!
Why do runners have such a hard time taking a short break to recuperate from injury? This coming from a warrior-athlete friend of mine, Kimberly, as our paths crossed at the clinic. She was coming out of massage with orders to relearn how to walk first for 2 weeks before running again and I was going into physio, trying to avoid a panic over weird sensations in my hip. I had been questioning during a run with Jody and Allana whether it was pain or just an ache (as if either are good news), and the decision was to just get it checked out. Stop the guessing.
Over the past couple of weeks, I had not been able to stretch my hip flexor enough. After some runs, it would be achy and sometimes sore and then it would disappear for a day. I had fessed up to Coach so she reduced my runs by one and yellow-lighted my workout for the week. Physio was great and she gave me some hip flexor exercises and lasered the heck out of it for 3 days. When my 24K came along on Saturday, it was all systems go. By the time that run was finished, my hip was one of body parts that survived the best 🙂 Need to rework my on-the-run nutritional plan though….That’s another story!
I’ve just recently switched my long runs to Saturdays and it’s not been easy. Being a creature of habit and a distance runner means that particular routines around food and sleep are quite often non-negotiable. I usually feel more rested on Sunday especially a lovely pasta feed, so as a result I had convinced myself that long runs on Sunday are easier. Now that I’m in my third week of Saturday long runs, I have realized the benefit of Sunday recovery…..not just for a run, but we can now go out on a Saturday evening! To celebrate this realization, the hubby and I spent quality time on a Saturday sunny patio sipping strawberry rhubarb ciders. Sunday recovery runs are now multi-purpose 😂 and I can get used to that !
This week brought a couple of lessons about balance and while I did not need to take a break from running, Kimberly’s question still haunts me. Yellow-lighting a training schedule certainly helped this week and yet there’s not enough wood around to knock on to state that all is good. There’s still that little niggly voice at the back of my head warning me to be careful …. or else. Or else what? Runners are funny creatures that way. The dreams and the possibilities of running faster, farther or better than ever before…regardless of the kind of runner you are this is a tie that binds us all. So what do we fear from a rest break when we’re injured or even flirting with injury?