Ouch!
"Listen to your body" is an oft-heard phrase that is rarely heeded in running circles. We get so obsessed with our training logs and mileage targets that we're afraid to recover. So here I am two days after a hilly 10K and my calves are shot. I was limping around the office yesterday and still gimpy today so I'm just going to wait until I feel like I can run again. If you're too sore to walk much, why run? Lesson learned from ignoring my quad injury this Spring.
Pete Magill just published an excellent article about post-race recovery for masters runners in the new issue of Running Times. You can find it online here. As Pete puts it:
Most masters runners treat training as if it were a bank account.
We believe the more distance, tempo and interval work we can deposit into our training logs, the more we can withdraw come race day.
Only one problem: Our bodies aren't S&Ls. They're complex organisms. We don't "bank" workouts; instead, we use them to stimulate physiological adaptations that lead to better running performance. And these adaptations can occur only with proper recovery.
