16 kmOn Friday, I joined our Running Room group as we embarked on our attempt of 16 km. It strikes me odd that our program was structured to have the long weekly run at 10 km for a month and a half, and then wham, increases to 12 km, 14 km, then 16 km, over just three weeks!This week has been a struggle for me. After my 14 km last week, I felt some tightness developing in my left leg, about four inches above the ankle. The next day I should have run really slowly and let the group get away from me, but not only did I keep up, I felt energetic so I stayed to the front of the group. When I got done my run, that left leg felt very tight, almost to the point of feeling injured. I came home and put ice on it, elevated it, and tried to rest it as much as possible the next two days. I think that helped, but having a 16k run on Friday was rough. I simply couldn't keep up with the group. Rather than quit and go home, I decided the best thing was just to take it very slow and try to favor my right leg a bit to take some additional stress off of my left leg. I made it, and by the end, my left side felt fairly loosened up. Not to my suprise, my right side now feels a little strained from overcompensating! So I'm not sure where to go from here. I should probably talk to my chiropractor about getting some ART (active release therapy) done on my calf muscles to work out some of the tightness and possible scar tissue, but that doesn't answer the question of how I should modify the training program so that I maximize the benefits while mitigating the risk of injuring myself. |