Rectus Femoris Strain

It's fairly typical for me to set a plan or schedule and then modify it on the fly.  I had mapped out my week preceding the Scripps Ranch 10K, but by Tuesday I was already changing things up. 

Tuesday was to be crosstraining at lunchtime (swim + spin) and in the early evening an easy 10K run.  On Wednesday, I anticipated attending my morning bootcamp session and doing interval training in the evening. 

But I didn't go to work on Tuesday, and since my gym where I swim and spin is next to my office building that meant I was going to miss the cross training.  Instead, I took Quin over to Hilltop park to run the fitness course there, and I wound up running a set of 440 intervals at the tail end.  I hadn't quite worked out what that would do to my schedule when I ad libbed the workout, but by the evening I wasn't really ready to log 6 miles, even easy.

More notably, I felt a strain in my left quad while running the 440s.  I eased up a little, but ran through it and did some stretching and massage later that evening.  Then it passed from my mind.

That is, I forgot about it until this morning's bootcamp session.  I did fine through the first 45 minutes, which included a lot of leg work: squats, lunges, jumps.  By the time it came to do the sprint set, my legs were noodles, but I felt like I was sufficiently warmed up and didn't even remember the quad tweak from yesterday.

But on that first sprint (which I took easy), I felt it right away.  I ran through it as I had on the 440s, but I babied it a little and didn't go full tilt. 

We did 4 100m sprints, and each time the quad muscle felt a little more tender, and I slowed and even limped a little to keep it from really stressing.  I did all four runs, but probably shouldn't have.  The strain doesn't seem that bad, but it's definitely sore along the meaty part of the of rectus femoris.


I went searching for an image of the quad muscles, and found this article describing almost exactly what I experienced and how:
http://ericcressey.com/newsletter155html



I've typically felt the fatigue in what I've been calling "hip flexors" for months now, each time I explore new boundaries of distance or speed.  I recently discovered that I may have been misidentifying the muscle group that was experiencing the most stress, learning that the quad complex is also part of that hip flexion function and may be bearing the strain.

I've always felt my quads were pretty strong for my size and probably even the best feature of my small physique.  But lately, I'm beginning to believe that they are not conditioned for the tasks I'm putting them through.  The quads were part of the cramping incident I experienced in the marathon.  The quads are almost always fatigued after practically ever run these days; even the lighter workouts.  And now, here I am nursing a light strain on a particular muscle within the quad group. 

What am I doing wrong? 

The article linked above provides some explanations and suggestions which I intend to follow.  I've been doing slower, longer distance runs for so long, the switch to shorter, faster running -- especially sprinting -- is new, and I have to constantly remind myself that I'm not a kid anymore.  I've got to build up gradually and allow for more recovery time. 
With the 10K now just 4 days away, it's probably prudent to lay off the running and let the muscles recover, and hope that my aerobic conditioning is sufficient.  I was hoping to shoot for hitting the goal target of 46 minutes or better in that race, but I may just have to resign myself to enjoying participation for the sake of participation.  The last thing I want to do is incur injury that will have more longterm consequences, all for the sake of pride. 

The injury isn't too bad right now, but I don't want to become bad.  So I'll stay off the running legs for awhile; maybe even until the Sunday morning race.  I'm done for the day, will swim and spin tomorrow, and reevaluate on Friday.  If there's any sensation of muscle pain in the rectus femoris, I'll stick with the pool and do some circuit training (with row machine and elliptical trainer).  Saturday will remain a rest day...well, rest as far as athletic exercise is concerned.  I'll be doing necessary household and yard chores; probably selling at Kobey's swap meet Saturday morning if I can get ready.  Could sure use the cash.