After almost a full week away from running, my groin/thigh is feeling almost normal. Even though taking these days off has been frustrating, I think it was the smart thing to do. I got up this morning and headed out for a short 3 miler to try out the injured muscle and see where I stood on the recovery timeline.
The good news is that I had very little pain during running and nothing quite as sharp as last week when I actually injured it. After giving it some serious thought, I think my injury actually stemmed from two things: not stretching properly and stopping too abruptly at cross walks. At some point in the first 4 miles of my run last week I must have stopped too suddenly and put too much stress on my groin.
Anyway, more good news is that I've been diligently icing it and pampering it this afternoon and have just a tad of residual soreness when I sit down, but nothing sharp or debilitating, which is a change from last week.
The bad news is that the strain is still there and I can feel it when I run. Once the muscle gets warm, it's fine. However, when I stopped today mid-run to navigate around the Red Bull Dragon Boat Races that were going on in the Inner Harbor (totally random event, by the way), it tightened up nicely and was tender when I restarted to run. So, I'm going to have to monitor that.
But in all, I'm pleased with the short run today. Tomorrow I want to head out again and maybe go 5-6 miles at a gentle pace to test it again. I think it should be OK if I take precautions before and after my run to manage my pain and soreness. I would anticipate this injury being with me at least another week, maybe longer since I'm determined to get back to training this week, albeit at a slower pace as my leg allows.
In the future, I now know that I need to allot enough time before my run to stretch out my legs properly and I need about 15 minutes afterwards to ice and control any muscle fatigue. But, live and learn.
I'll be ready for the half in four weeks.
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