Many running injuries that we get are so easily preventable and/or curable if we only knew how to address them from the beginning. Hindsight is always 20/20... and I absolutely HATE that saying, but it is so true! Chalk this up as a learning experience and maybe someone else out there will benefit too.
For the last month and half... if not longer... I've had what I've been describing as Chronic Dead Legs. My quads have been completely trashed. It was as if I was constantly trying to recover from some race. My stride went to hell, as every foot fall was met with some sort of monster charlie horse in my quads and IT-Bands. Was it runnable? Sure. But it was painful and I was miserable doing it. I wasn't able to get any quality, and I was gradually being forced to slow down and reduce my mileage. After pushing hard for over two years without any significant break, my legs seemed to be finally going into revolt. With each run, I was taking a step back in my training.
Some initial self-diagnosing on the internet had recommended some time off, massage, and maybe some changes to my diet... though I didn't think my diet was significantly different than in the past several years. So in mid-July and following the Boilermaker, I chose that as my remedy. I reduced my mileage for a couple weeks, sometimes taking up to three days in a row off from running. I also had several massages with my Serbian miracle worker. I used ice often. Started taking vitamins and eating a little more red meat. All of this allowed for at least some relief but never a cure. Occasionally I'd have an OK run, otherwise I was still trashed and not recovering.
By the end of July, and as I still had a glimmer of hope for racing the Chicago Marathon in October, I knew something had to be done quickly. It became a "do-it-now or don't run the damn race at all" decision... So with about 11 weeks out from the marathon, I shut it down completely and took a eight straight days off from running. During that period, I dusted off the goggles and hit the pool as a means to maintain some fitness. I foam rolled like mad, still iced, elevated legs, took more vitamin supplements, etc.
Once I got started running again, the first couple days were significantly better. Not perfect, but better. I thought I might be in the clear. I ran three days in a row, then took the fourth off... kind of standard practice in a bounce back. But then the soreness crept back in to my thighs. All I could think of was "What the fuck!?" After the 4th and 5th runs, I was back to square one. 48 miles in a week (not the 80-100 that I should be running!), and I felt completely trashed again. The only other way I could describe this is that my legs felt full of lactic acid and micro tears... as if I just ran a marathon and it refused to flush out.
That was about a week and a half ago.
I then resorted to trolling the internet more aggressively. I started searching several message boards for solutions. Most of the stuff was useless, and probably provided by non-competitive runners or doctors (what the hell do they know about training for 100 miles/ week anyway?). Some of the stuff on Letsrun.com and a few other sites rang similarities but never offered a cure for dead legs. Common things that I saw were:
I needed to take time off... I'm over trained... I'm over raced... I'm chronically dehydrated... All of this potentially true, but after a month of down'ish time and a week completely off, I'd think that things would at least be marginally better!? More digging had me thinking I'm iron deficient and anemic. Maybe my diet was in fact fucked? I probably drink more alcohol than I should, and maybe I'm not balancing the right carbs to protein or red meats?... I dunno.
Some jackass even pointed out to another runner that changing your mattress could result in dead legs... OK, so I was like, holy shit I did that too!...
I mean come on though, that couldn't be it!!!
For all I knew, I was coming down with multiple sclerosis or muscular dystrophy, or hell, even cancer!! Thank you, Internet for providing me with some sound advice.
Bottom line, yeah maybe I've over done it. I've been pushing for a hell of a long time and I'm not getting any younger. But I just couldn't be satisfied with that thought. I was finding causes, but no credible solutions aside from things I was already doing to try to fix the problem.
So what did help?
One piece of sage wisdom I stumbled upon was a Runners World article... It suggested I shouldn't stop running... BINGO! Actually, that wasn't their solution, but that's certainly one way to get a runner to not stop reading!! However, the biggest takeaway was that they suggested hitting a few hard intervals, and especially doing downhill repeats to shake up your legs. Doing several of those a couple times a week could significantly help - even though it would be painful. Almost as if it was an eccentric workout er whatever. Call it what you want, I call it breaking up the crap in my legs. So there might be something to that.
One other piece of advice that I received was from another local elite runner - suggesting I buy a car buffer and use it on my quads. Yep, you're gonna do a double take at that one and laugh, just as I did. But when you think about it, it completely makes sense. Massage wasn't working because it was slow, deep tissue, or trigger point. It might break up some knots, but it wasn't flushing me out. That's the theme! I needed to flush my legs out. The car buffer has high oscillation or pulsation and that should knock out whatever lactic acid or junk was trapped in my legs.
I immediately went to Home Depot and bought this for a whopping $40:
And one other thing... After being told about the car buffer, I remember that I actually did have one of those stupid $200 massage tools!!! I couldn't believe that I forgot about it, because I had hardly ever used the stupid thing - but some years ago, I picked up one of those electronic pulse things on the cheap at a marathon expo... It's called the Magic Massager. I can't say that I ever had success with it in the past, but it sounded like it couldn't hurt here.
So after having a completely miserable 6 mile run a week ago Sunday, and then having my conversation with that other local elite runner... I embarked on the following regimen and as far as I can tell, this is my Cure for Dead Legs:
- I used that car buffer AND that electronic pulse massager, each twice a day, for three days in a row... about 5 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively on each leg. I then took a day off from massaging because I probably over did it and was maybe more sore from the massage work than my running. I then used one of the two devices each day for the next 3-4 days. Ironically that car buffer actually feels really really freakin' good on your legs!! Just make sure you have that cushy pad on there. Oh, and you don't need car wax.
- In the mean time, I also forced a moderately paced run early last week that included 12 long strides downhill (maybe 15 seconds each strides, mileage pace was about 6:15-6:30s excluding the warmup / cooldown).
- I had my legs vertically elevated for about 20 minutes twice during the week. I did this after the 15min per leg sessions with the electronic massager.
- I used ice two times each day (soft wrapped packs on my quads w/ ace bandages).
- I increased my calories a little bit. I made sure I ate red meat each day, and was getting more colorful veggies and fruits than usual (just in case something was truly wrong in my diet... though I would think it would take longer to fix that?)
Today is Tuesday, 9 days later... I haven't had any pain in my quads since Friday, after 5 days in on the regimen. My legs quads feel fresh and my legs are actually responding positively. I've been able to run hard and comfortable. As of today, I'll have slightly over 75 miles in the last seven days.... A HUGE knock on wood here... but I think I might've figured this thing out. It's been a really annoying "injury", and nobody was able to give me a useful solution until just recently. I actually can't remember the last time that my legs have felt this good! It's probably been at least 2 or 3 months, maybe even since Shamrock Shuffle?
So now what? I'm still trying to be cautious, but if I'm going to run the Chicago Marathon in October... then I have seven weeks to get my shit straight. I can probably do an abbreviated taper to help. I've gotten by with worse before. I actually think with my solid base this year that I can really have a serious race. I won't say PR just yet, but another sub-2:40 should be in the bag if this goes as planned... Like I said, I'll have over 75 miles in the last seven days as of now. That puts me in the mid-80s by the end of the week. Next week will be mid-90s, then push for 100 for two weeks, then a cut to the 80s and one week to taper. No sweat, right?
It won't be easy, but I've been here before. In the meantime, I'm dedicating myself to one other trick for training -- after each run I'm going to religiously take a cocktail of Endurox and amino acids + glutamine to try to help reduce any soreness in my legs. It can't hurt! If anything, it'll help me recover a little better and train harder.
Game on, Chicago!
