On May 29 I did a short 'post marathon' run of 6.3 miles at just over 8:30 pace average. The average heart rate during that run was something in the mid 150's, a little high but certainly not bad. 3 days later I crashed my bike, severely sprained both ankles, broke my right fibula, and fractured the L2 and L4 vertebrae. Running seized and healing ensued.
Fast Forward -
On Sunday August 3rd, I convinced my wife that I would join her for daily run at the local track and take it 'easy' just to 'test' the legs.
Content: My wife went from a couch potato to dedicated runner over the past year. She runs a slow 10:30 to 11:00 pace but she does this 5 to 6 days a week and does about 6 miles each day.
Back to the story at hand: Damn, my wife runs FAST! She also runs for a LONG time! I ended up doing a run/walk thing for just over an hour. Every once in a while I would run along with her for a short distance. What I found was that at an 11:00 pace my heart rate runs up in the high 160's. I also found that my knee, where the fibula joins, gets very sore with repetitive motion. Oh, and my fibula, where the break occurred, doesn't really like impact. I do think that running may include repetitive motion and some high impact as witnessed by the sore knee and throbbing fibula. I ended up doing approximately 5 miles at an average 12:52 pace with an average heart rate of 144. Not exactly the picture of fitness.
All last week my right quad was sore as hell. Not the 'injury' kind of soreness but the 'holy cow, I did too much' kind of soreness. By the way my legs felt you would have thought I had just done another marathon. I only did a 'short' 5 miler and a good part of that was walking.... Recovery is going to be a long, slow process.
I started the physical therapy thing last week. Therapy is going good but having sore quads certainly didn't help anything. I did 2 sessions last week and after each session I was unable to walk without a limp again. Those PT guys must have special training in torture techniques. Between bending joints into positions they are unaccustomed to and the physical demands they place on muscles you just have no chance of leaving there without intense pain. Oh, joy. I get to see them twice next week!
I finally got the courage to try the track thing again today. According to the PT, probably not a real good idea. What does he know? He causes more pain than that damn track does. Anyway, The track thing went slightly better today than the previous attempt. I was even able to do a lap now and then at a 9:30 pace, blazingly fast! Again, I did a bit more than 5 miles of the walk/run thing with an average pace of 12:20 and a heart rate of 147. I even did a continuous 1.5 miles at an average of 10:40 pace holding my heart rate in the low 160's.
Yep, I'm on the road to recovery and becoming a runner once again but it's going to be a long road and a frustrating one to boot. It is hard to believe just how much fitness you can lose in a very short time. Barely more than 3 months ago I ran 26.2 miles averaging just over 8 minutes per mile. It's a little overwhelming to think about all the hard work I have ahead of me to get back to that level of running.
I guess if you are going to take part in risky activities you had better be prepared to deal with the consequences. I am.
Cheers!
