Ouch

OK, three things to update about today: the run, weights and physio.

Actually, make that four: I continued my controlled eating throughout Thursday and Friday (though I, admittedly, went over my 1000 deficit target yesterday by nearly 400 but that was deliberate to aid recovery...).

The run. It was awful. Absolutely awful. Not from the perspective of groin pain though.

I set off and glanced at the Garmin after 1/4 mile and was at 9:15 pace so pushed a little harder. It felt tough though and the first mile still took 8:49 so I stopped for a stretch. Carrying on it felt somewhat easier at 8:22 and 8:25 with another stop just before three miles where I turned round but it still felt a good 30 seconds faster than that. Mile four was grim. It was like the end of a marathon: my legs felt dead and I couldn't help but slow. I stopped 3 times in the last mile and a half and slowed down to close to nine minute miles again.

I think it was down to two things. First up my hammies felt shot from weight training the night before and I was fairly knackered still overall (more on that later) and also I hadn't really ran for 16 days if you ignore the very slow plods with Beth.

The plus though was my beloved groin. Made a point of engaging the core and suffered no big ill effects during or after. In fact the feeling of stiffness I'd had in the adductors was eased by the run.

So, onto the physio at 8am yesterday morning. The regular physio went on maternity after my last visit in May and passed me on to a colleague (hence the trip to Harrogate). Unfortunately it was her last day yesterday and they'd lost all my notes. That made it a more difficult appointment but the upshot was she thinks a few things combined to bring back the pain:

• I stopped doing the daily exercises a couple of weeks too soon
• I was probably not quite doing enough each week for maintenance
• Its likely that I'd got lazy on form and was treating it as a numbers game just to get through
• I'd possibly not engaged the core consistently through the last runs (where the pain came in)

However, she thinks its probably controllable again by going back to basics:

• Daily exercises for the next couple of months
• Maintenance of 3 times a week thereafter, increasing to 5 times a week if training volume/intensity raises e.g. marathon training
• Be mindful of form - always - starting with pelvic floor exercise before each set

She even thought racing could be OK too. I'm not as convinced of that though.

The discomfort hasn't completely gone and in order to race next week I'd need to feel daily exercises were eradicating this and that I could run on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday with a bit of zip. If I can't run a potential PB I don't see the point in taking the risk. we'll see how the week goes.

Lastly the gym. By Thursday evening my traps, lats, hammies were all very sore with some discomfort also in my calves, glutes, triceps and forearms. The new programme obviously works! Even yesterday I was still sore in lats and hamstrings so I pushed the weights back to today and opted for core, cardio and alot of stretching. Forty minutes on the cross trainer helped the hamstrings and ten minutes rowing certainly loosened the lats. Stretching also helped as my hamstrings were particularly tight.

Today I'll take Beth for a run, go to the gym and cook a curry. Champion.