Tag Archives: Rest

How many recovery days over Easter?

Last run was last Thursday – 4 days off over Easter and then back tomorrow.  That’s a whole 4 days with no running (or any other exercise).  Too many recovery days this close to the marathon?  Don’t know.  Feels good but not quite right – part of the taper feeling.  Feet working nicely and not sore, and blister that I’d had on one big toe has gone, so all good.

Recovery days are definitely a must and I normally have one day of no exercise, between runs when training.  Got to let the body get back to it’s best and get ready.

First image that showed up with Google search for “recovery” was Eminem’s album cover – never heard of it before (a quick listen on iTunes and not for me).  Never mind it being the first image on the search – it’s like the first page of them.  The power of page ranking!

No running today but will do some stretching and strength training later.  And get the foam roller out for some torture training.  Nice site here with some good hip stretches in – worth a look if you’re not sure how to stretch or need some new ones.  Still not got into the habit of daily stretching – rubbish really.  Can’t get my head around why it’s so difficult to do.

Do you stretch every day?  If yes, how did you get yourself started?

Running with sore legs

After a good week – with some nice shorter fast runs – I strained my left hamstring on Friday night during karate training (just during some fast runs in the warm-up before any kicking or anything).  Not ideal and ironic that it was running that did it.

Nothing major but it hurt enough to make me reconsider the longer run plans yesterday.  It was meant to be a faster 1/2 marathon.  I did some foam rolling before the run and set off ok but about 20 seconds slower per mile than planned.  It was ok running with the strain and after a while not painful to notice.  Pace slowed down a bit further but then after 3 miles picked up and kept picking up, right until 3 miles to go when it slowed a lot.

Had a very nice sports massage from a good friend today (after karate training) that really helped – and the left hamstring is much much better.

Need to do more stretching and foam rolling (and general strengthening work).  It’s obvious really but for whatever reason I’ve always found it difficult to get it into a habit and do it very regularly.  Rubbish – that needs to change today.  It’s so important to help keep injury free particularly as the longer runs kick in.

All sorts of advice about running with sore legs – or injuries.  Rest is needed when it’s bad and you shouldn’t run if it hurts a lot.  But as always it’s also down to knowing what you can do and how your body works and feels.  For me I had to slow the run down – rather than not run.  And just take it easier.

Longer runs again this week and the first 20+ mile one next weekend.