I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but I injured my groin on my 10.5 mile run on Saturday. At the time, I thought it was my groin muscle or inside thigh. I ran on Sunday anyway. Had off Mon, Tue, Wed from running, giving it time to heal. Decided that with a 5k on Saturday, and actually racing it with a friend, I decided that I needed to get at least a 5k in. Plus, it felt decent enough to try running.
So I brought everything in with me to work on Thursday. Got on the treadmill at lunch. Set the speed to 7.0 mph which is 8:34 min/mi and soon enough, at 1/4 mile my leg started to hurt. And it hurt all the way to the end. I did end up going 7.1 (8:27) for a mile from 1.13 to 2.1. I was sweating a lot so that was fun. Breathing felt OK. I didn't hurt that badly either, other than my leg, I mean. I did stick it out though. I even felt like I could speed it up but I didn't want to injure myself further for no reason.
But after the run, I was limping. All through my short walks up and down the hallway to the break room or the door. It hurt to do anything. Not so much of bringing my leg up and forward but moreso extending it back behind me. The pull of my muscle. Great. I put ice in a bad and had that on my leg for a while but then the pain started to change positions on me. Instead of the inside of my thigh, it moved to the front of it and near my hip flexor muscle. The same one giving me problems back in 2006.
Then later last night, Luke & I went rock climbing for the first time last night. He plans on going out to Arizona for a rock climbing weekend/class but has never been. I knew of this place by him called Vertical Endeavors which I always wanted to go. So off we went! Thursday is half price for ladies, by the way. :-)
I thought I might have a problem with my leg muscle and so I was a bit nervous. On top of that is the whole, "Will I actually be able to pull myself up on any of these?!" I'm not exactly the strongest person in the world arm wise.
After a short introduction of our harness, the carabiners and how to use the auto-belay feature (which means that no one had to spot us or each other), we were set to rock (hehe) and roll!
I failed miserably the first 2 times I tried going up one rock. I was about ready to give up. Luke, of course, cruised by and was actually doing quite well. Then I looked at the signs they had posted on the bottom of the wall. They had numbers on them. I took it to mean that the 5.6 was a lot easier than 5.9 or 5.10. I left that rock and tried finding a lower number. I found a 5.6. I went up it and managed to get nearly to the top! It was awesome and that boosted my confidence!
We were there for a total of just over 2 hours. Climbed on a few different walls. I realised that along with the number they were also colour coded so that can give you a route already to use, depending on how difficult you choose to go. I tried using the route but sometimes I wouldn't put my feet on the right rock which then would make me have to deviate slightly for another hand hold rock.
Towards the end, we were both complaining about our fingers strength and forearms. We could close our fist but just couldn't make a fist! It was the weirdest and strangest feeling! But we kept going with breaks here & there. I got a few videos of Luke and he got one of me.
My favourite picture from the evening:
And then there's today. My leg is hurting still. Can't tell if it's worse or the same as after run/before climbing. I plan to take it easy today & tonight and maybe my limp will go away for tomorrow morning's 5k race. I plan on taking some ibuprofen and hope that will dull the pain enough that I can race it. Luke and I originally had planned on going running in Rock Cut again on Sunday but I really don't think that my leg will hold up for a trail run. So maybe while he's running, I'll be biking? Heh. I've never done that before. It's always been people biking with me! We'll see though how my leg is after the 5k.
Man, I hate being injured. No running ALL OF NEXT WEEK. Oh wait. But I like running on Thanksgiving morning! Gives me a reason to eat myself silly that evening. OK, so maybe then. :-)
