Have you ever noticed that when you are recovering from a major running injury, your recovery seems to gradually improve, then plateau for a bit, then improve again, then plateau again and so on until you are fully recovered? That is certainly the rehabilitation pattern that most of my running stress fractures have followed over the years. This weekend marks four weeks since I fractured my pelvis and up until Monday of this week I'd have said that any improvement was so minor that it hardly counted. In other words, for 3+ weeks I really felt that my injury was pretty much in the same state as it had been from the time I did it both with respect to pain and functionality. But then .... on Monday I felt this sudden, significant improvement :). Oh boy, did that make my day/week! :). I then continued to experience small daily improvements up until Thursday when it all seemed to plateau again albeit at a higer level. While it would be great if all injury repair occured linearly, and every day felt better than the day before, I'm grateful for the period of improvement I've just had as I was really starting to think it was never going to improve. All I can hope now is that this current plateau is short and that the next peak in improvement is even more signficant than the one I've just experienced and that soon I'll be back running like a little steam train.
Our Coastrek team, "The Skinny Flat Whites", planned some months ago to do a 25km training walk this weekend, and up until a couple of days ago I was VERY concerned that I may not be able to do that session (and that I may not be able to do Coastrek in 6 weeks' time either), but with my improvement peak this week and the more comfortable plateau I've reached, I decided to give it a go this morning with two of the other "Skinny Flat Whites" (unfortunately our fourth "Skinny Flat White" has been knocked flat with a non running related ailment :( ). To my delight, I finished our 22km training walk and talk in the same level of comfort/discomfort as I started. Being almost half the Coastrek distance, having another 6 weeks before event day, and not experiencing any worsening of pain during the training session this morning is certainly encouraging.
Finally, while it has been particularly hot this last week - ie, 35-40deg each day - I have to say I love it! I figure that winter is very cold and very long in Canberra, and so we should lap up the heat while we have it.
3 comments:
Hmmm .... am paying for yesterday today. As you do ....
A slight trough - nothing to worry about (I hope!).
I've noticed the same with my aerobic fitness recovery - very small (or no) gains from day to day, then suddenly this week a big gain. Probably plateau for a bit before another gain.
I'll keep a look-out for skinny flat whites on my runs this week.
Certainly hope the improvement continues nicely in time for Coastrek. Yep as well, last week was a good one weatherwise, loved it as well. Today at 24 degrees this afternoon felt cool, no one at Pine Is playing in the river.
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