Sunday 15 January 2006

Sun 15 Jan 06, Coburg Harriers 6k fun run

10km today & for the week so far. 13/15 runs for the month & year

Rested yesterday in some form of an attempt to allow my hip problem to improve. I arrived at the Coburg track around 8:20am (40 min before race time), registered, chatted with a few guys (GaryO, Tigerboy, Jegster & a few Burgers I knew) I knew and then went for a 3-4km warm up, which I felt very good, afterwards stretched and I thought all was ok, don't get me wrong I knew the legs were not overly fresh but there was no hip or hammie pain/discomfort.

As I was on running the 6k race I ensured I started on the front line to get a good start, but surprisingly once the start happen I was 'way' back, at the 250m mark we crossed a bridge, I counted more than 20 in front of me, wow there are lots of very fast starters, don't get me wrong, some of these guys remained in front of me, but not many, well that is before everything turned to disaster.

I was sitting 6th when I first started to feel some tightening in my hip area, I checked my watch it 7 minutes, I slowed a little to see if that would help, but just after the 8th minute the first cramp happened. I'm not sure if cramped is the right description, but a lot of discomfort which made running extremely painful, I pulled over and stretched the area until the pain went away, which it did fairly quickly. I returned to the course and tried to get the pace on again, but within minutes I was off again, after the third time I knew the race was gone and I would just cruise in and finish it at training pace. I finished the course in the horrible time of mid 26 minutes, after pulling off the course 7 times to stretch my hip area. After the race I did lots of glutes & ITB stretching which seemed to help. I hopefully will be able to get a massage on Tue/Wed, I can see a very light week coming up which will involve lots of stretching. Not happy!

Whilst my running is temporarily down other aspects have improved and I can only hope they may continue, but I will not hold my breath. :-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope taking it easy for the week and having a massage helps Stu Mac.

Pity you don't elaborate more on the other things.... for nosy readers like me...but very happy to read things are looking up :)

Thanks for the advice on the socks too, I went sock shopping and this mornings run was much more comfortable

Anonymous said...

Stu,

Have not read your blog for some time...
mmm how you have fallen since October. As usual my comments will be brief and to the point
1) You have described classic overuse injuries...REST for 3-4 days..massage/acupuncture will help
regroup and move on.Anti Inflammatories will assist. BUT STOP running until you are right!!
2) For God's sake stop the King Lear routine.
3) Best wishes for 2006