W6R1- pushed through the pain

[Shivani05]

I was supposed to have started week 6 on Wednesday, but after the 20 min run my ankles were quite painful. There was no swelling and I wasn't limping, so I figured it wasn't an injury and just my muscles getting used to all the running. I took an extra couple of days of rest but they still hurt today. I decided to just go to the gym and if I couldn't do the podcast I would stop and do some resistance training instead. Well, I did it! The ankles did hurt, but never so much that I wanted to stop. And in each run about 1-2 minutes in I stopped even thinking of the pain...I just ran. I did the entire run, and found the last 5 minutes of running difficult, but plodded on.

I don't know if what I did was stupid or smart...I'll find out soon. I was thinking about weeks 1 and 2 when my knees and shins hurt but I kept running and I guess they got stronger because they stopped hurting entirely. That's why I ran today.

Today at least my ankles are hurting less post-run. I will give them some TLC and report back on Monday about whether I could do R2 or not. Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post with suggestions for how to take care of my aching ankles

[ju-ju- Graduate]

Well done... I had pain throughout C25k but gait analysis sorted that. Its really hard knowing the difference between niggles and actual injury. Do take care and a huge well done on your progress 😎

[Shivani05 Graduate in reply to ju-ju-]

Thank you!

[Ugifer]

Take care!

In general, I would say that an ache is OK (even a good sign of your body adapting) but pain needs to be treated with caution. Sometimes the hormones that get released when you are running mask things so that you don't always feel an injury until after you finish so just because you can run on it does not always mean that it's OK to do so.

If your ankles remain painful then maybe you should consider a week of non-impact eliptical or cycling at the gym as recovery for your joints before moving on to week 7.

In any case, it sounds like you are storming through so well done! And happy running!

Ugi

[Shivani05 Graduate in reply to Ugifer]

So I guess I use the words ache and pain interchangeably...it was definitely a dull ache that came only two only when I walked. And after yesterday's run it got better! Much, much less pain today. I even managed to do run 2 today.

Definitely not storming through this week is an anomaly, but I'm usually very liberal with my rest days. I should technically have finished week 8 by now, but I've taken many extra rest days so I'm taking longer than 9 weeks.

[Slowstart Graduate]

All you can do is listen to your body, which is what you are doing.

In general it's good to run off an ache, and better to rest a pain. It's a pity that it's not always obvious which you have.

[Shivani05 Graduate in reply to Slowstart]

It's annoying when you can't figure out whether you can run or that'll make it worse. I agonised for half an hour about whether I should go for a run yesterday and drove my sister (also a runner) crazy. This time at least I made the right decision.

[B0bP Graduate]

I'm glad you managed to finish the run.

Fingers crossed for your ankles.

Bob

[Shivani05 Graduate in reply to B0bP]

Thanks, Bob. Ankles are holding up well today