There's probably a fine line between paying close attention to your body while training and over-thinking everything, worrying about every little hiccup.
I had today scheduled for a light treadmill warm up of about 30 minutes and then a few laps around the strength circuit: upper body. I wound up running a little harder than I anticipated, turning my light run into a short tempo workout. I was feeling good and didn't see the harm. I cooled down, drank plenty of water and then got started on the weights before noticing I was running out of time and had to get back to the office. So I cut the workout short, but still pleased with the little bit of speed work I'd done.
Now, it's evening and my head hurts, my left ankle is sore right below the malleous, and I've got a weird, new point of on-again-off-again pain in my right knee. What did I do to myself? Is this penance for not sticking with the program?
I'm putting my weekend long run in jeopardy if I don't recover. As good as yesterday's out-and-back run was, and even though I thought I kept it as a nice, base pace, I was sore this morning. I don't feel like I should be sore after that kind of run. And now with a treadmill run that previously would have been pretty standard fare, it's as if I'm taxing myself too hard.
Could be my nutrition. Could be I'm not getting enough sleep. Am I drinking too little water? Too much?
I wish the body had little gauges or idiot lights that could tell me, plainly, what's up. Instead, I'm having to read between the lines and try to figure out if I'm turning into a hypochondriac.
I'm about to head back over to the gym to finish up my weight training, now that the workday is done. I have to hurry. The new Survivor season starts in a few hours and Quin's been eagerly anticipating it for weeks now. Don't want to be late.
I'm going to have to rethink my running plan between now and Sunday. I need to tackle this 15-16 mile long run, but I might have to take a two-day break before I do. The last thing I want to do is put myself behind the eight-ball because I didn't heed my own body signals.
Edit: Later this evening...
The post-work workout did wonders for my headache. At first, I had to concentrate to avoid straining and putting pressure on whatever blood vessels were hurting, but after about 15 minutes, I was actually feeling pretty good. It's a hour later now and I still feel good. Headache is completely gone.
I also think I've diagnosed my ankle pain. It could be the shoes. The new-ish Sauconey's are basically identical to the shoes I've been using for months, but they come up below the ankle just a tad higher. I guess I hadn't noticed, but I put my old shoes on tonight and, oh, how much better my ankles felt. I wonder if my knee isn't somehow related to the shoes too. I'm thinking about switching back to the old shoes for awhile and seeing if the pains go away. Then, if it does, I'll give the new shoes a try again and see if the problems come back.
Or maybe not. That might be dumb.
