Tonight I joined my Tuesday night running group for the first time since my injury. I did high knees, butt kickers, and 4x4s with no pain. And then the most exciting part: I did 3 strides that felt AMAZING. I felt light on my feet, strong and it just felt amazing to be running fast again.
The group work-out was a 5 mile tempo run, and there is obvsiouly no way I was doing that, but I decided I wanted to try to do 1 miles (from 72nd street transverse up to Engineers Gate) with a bit of intensity. I did a few intervals on the treadmill last week that felt fine, so I was confident my leg would hold up. My coach did not agree, but I had my mind set on it.
It felt GREAT. It felt so good to push the pace, to make my lungs burn a bit, and the best part was that my legs felt STRONG. I held myself to 1 mile, and ran easy the rest of the 4 mile loop and did my normal 1/2 mile cool down walk home from the park.
The minute I got home, I emailed Dr. M, the ortho, to make sure it is OK to start adding in a bit of tempo. I don't want to add in speed work, per say, but I am hoping to add in a short tempo run or fartlek every week. I do have plans to do some racing this summer, and I think the only way to prepare my legs and hip for race pace is to do some strong running.
So I am keeping my fingers crossed for a positive response from the Doc, and optimistically I can share this with my coaches so they are on board with me adding in some intensity (notice I am not saying SPEED, as this is not what I mean...I just want to feel a bit of a burn in the lungs, and get my cheeks pink!!)
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