It's been a long road to recovery from the marathon. The sore thigh I had during the race turned out to be a strained muscle that kept me off the road for a month. I really missed the running during that time but did try to keep my cardio conditioning by cycling 3 times a week.
I ended up going to a physical therapist to figure out how best to get back on the road. He gave me some stretches and exercises to do. He also gave me a plan to get back to running. I followed it faithfully and I'm finally able to run without thigh pain. I'm keeping on top of the stretching though to avoid any recurrence. It was amazing how much cardio fitness I'd lost though. Apparently the cycling does not push me anywhere near what the running does.
I'm happy to say that this past Friday I made my best time ever on a 4 mile run. My pace was 10:37 which I hadn't been doing on even 3 mile runs. I was ecstatic!
Unfortunately I ended up with some serious knee pain from the run. I'm thinking maybe I need new shoes. We'll see. A tensor bandage, some rub and elevation seem to have taken care of the problem. So it's off to the races again! :)
