Too Soon

Well, let's see, what the heck has happened to me over the past week or so.  I begin with Tuesday evening, feeling super great after a solid four mile run where I had no pain or soreness in my legs, I was asked to play indoor soccer at 10:40PM that night.  Heck yeah, count me in.  Well, it all started out great, I scored on my first touch of the ball, a beautiful left footed shot to the lower right corner of the goal.  About 15 minutes later as I was sprinting back on defense I felt a twinge in my left quadriceps muscle, like a rubber band had snapped.  I literally thought that someone had kicked me or hit me in my leg.  I kept playing thinking nothing of it.  Then with around 15 minutes left in the game, I lined up a shot with my right foot, miss hit it and BAM!, a pain in my right quadriceps.  It felt like I strained a muscle or possibly pulled it.  Ugh, not a good night.

I spend the rest of the week taking it easy, knowing that it was probably too soon to get back into my post-Ironman routine or rather starting to do the things that I put off doing because of Ironman training.  It is a week after that night and I am feeling much better but I am definitely out of soccer action for at least a few weeks as I need to let me hip flexors recover (self diagnosis based on experience and the Internet).  I will be seeing my sports doc later on this week for a confirmation and some treatment.  I guess I was extremely optimistic to think that two weeks after putting my body through the toughest of tests, it would be ready to handle a 4 mile run and then a 50 minute indoor soccer game.  I should be sticking with one session a day with very moderate activity.

As for the rest of the week, I took it easy.  There was no running, biking or swimming at all.  That was the good news.  The bad news is that I am still eating like I am in full on training mode and I think I have packed on 10 lbs since November 21st.  Not a good thing, but then again I guess I have earned the right to pig out and eat bacon cheeseburgers whenever I want to....at least for a little while longer.

Sunday I decided to try getting on the bike.  I was nervous about my hip flexors, but everything went pretty well.  I felt very good, not uncomfortable at all.  As for my fitness, well I have definitely lost a bit; however, I still felt solid riding, keeping a high cadence and decent speed for the trainer.

This week I have been trying to get back into running.  Monday I did around 4 miles at a very easy pace, gauging how my quads were feeling.  Still a bit tight, but they loosened up considerably by the time we were done.  I started out today with a trip to the gym and a very quick 600m in the pool  That was all I wanted to do, so that was all I did.  I hit the weights for a bit before heading to work.  My lunch time was spent putting in an easy 4 mile run, which felt much better than Monday, I definitely felt looser.  I am still a bit concerned about my left thigh as it just doesn't feel right.  As I said above, a visit to my doc is definitely in order for Thursday or Friday.

That is about all for now.  I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself on the weekends now that I'm not training.  My wife has been great, letting me sleep in a bit and not keeping me too busy with chores that went undone for the past 10 months.  Of course I am finally able to do all of the family things that I missed during the "training".  Life is good...but of course I am anxious to get back to training for something because I do not like this extra weight I have put one...it has arrived too soon!

Cheers!