I ran 6 miles on Thursday night and rested yesterday. Today my legs are KILLING me. It feels like I just ran 15 miles last night and my legs are crushed. Nothing is healing, there’s no recovery at all. I don’t get it. Last fall I felt nothing after the long runs. Felt awesome. Now it sucks.
I’m narrowing down the possible causes:
1. New shoes – the should I bought last fall are much stiffer than the Adizero’s. I think they are quite flat and light, but the sole definitely does not like to bend. Maybe it is affecting my stride?
2. More new shoes – last fall I also bought a new pair of work shoes. My old shoes were flat. Not like boat-shoes, but definitely did not have a heel. These do. I noticed when I walked in them the first time, it felt funny. Like I was hitting the heel very hard. I used to own a pair of cowboy boots, and when I walked in those, the heel would hit first and made my knee kind of lock as I walked. It gave me a funny gait.
Anyway, the point about the work shoes is that I spend A LOT of time walking at work (when I’m not off-site), and I wonder if having the heel on the shoes is counteracting the effects that the running flats are having on my Achilles tendon. The flats lengthen it, but the work shoes let them heel while in a shortened position. That might explain the calf pain and lower leg pain.
3. Fat – oh yes. My good old friend, fat. I gain 15 pounds since the marathon (which is what I do often), and I know that affects the force on my legs when I run. Although, I was this heavy last spring and I don’t recall having these issues. But still, its a factor.
4. Lack of sleep -I’m stretching here, but less sleep lately because of work stress may contribute to lack of recovery.
So those are the causes I can think of. I need to come up with some actions here to fix the problem. I’m trying to work on the fat problem. I’m off the candy (finally!), but still a little stuck on carbs (crackers!) at night. I think I will wear my dress shoes at work for a while (their both black) and see if that helps. The dress shoes have a lower heel.
I can’t do much about the running shoes at the moment. Its hard to find flat shoes these days. Lots of people tell me the flat shoes they wear, but when I try to find them in my size, they are discontinued.