Last Friday, after the day after my tempo run (at a 6:30 pace – yikes!), my chest ached. Of course, I’m extra sensitive to this. Wouldn’t you be too if you were asthmatic, had pneumonia twice in the past year and a marathon to run in less than 7 weeks. My first reaction was panic; I was certain that my lungs were just not going to make it through to Hamilton.
Oddly, though, on Saturday, I felt fine. I most definitely didn’t have a problem on Sunday; I didn’t even cough at the finish (which I clearly remember doing last year, and I’m convinced was the start of my lousy winter health). But, on Monday, my achy chest reappeared.
However, I still ran on Monday. I’m coaching cross-country at school so I have to run with the kids to make sure they are safe (losing kids is not a good thing to do). So, Monday morning, I headed out for the 2.5K distance, trying to pay more attention to my breathing and lungs than to the kids. My breathing seemed fine and nobody got lost.
Later, I realized that my aches must be related to the increased intensity of my workouts. Simply put, my chest hurts on the days I push myself more than I’m use to. This makes perfect sense to me; I’m building new muscles as I’m trying to push myself to the next level.
I shared this with Shawn on our tempo run on Thursday night – at a faster clip than the week before – and he hoped I would feel lousy the next day. Thanks! Gotta love your running partner.
And, by the way, I didn’t. So, either I didn’t push myself hard enough or this is all hogwash.
I love that you said “hogwash”!
~RR
Train hard, feel lousy.
Did you share that philosophy with the XC kids?
But it's relieving that your health is not the issue, because you are on track for a great marathon.
Wow, I remember about pneumonia once, but twice!??! jeeze. Not cool.
Yep, you have to think of all of your systems that you're pushing when you run hard. As long as you prepare for it, it is something that can be worked around!
I was looking for things to blame my little aches and pains and issues on, hence my great compression sock debate. However, like you, chances are the only culprit was the added intensity to my training. And happily I'm back to loving my compression socks (got 'em on now).