Quads

You've heard me complain about my hamstrings. You've heard me complain about my ITBs. You might have even heard me whine about my arches. What you've not heard is any complaints about my quads. You see, long distance runners don't really hammer their quads like they do to their hamstrings. Quads are a sprinting muscle. The only time distance runners seriously use them is when they are going downhill. Well to my surprise, my quads have been sore for a week.

Last Tuesday I did my usual track workout (5 x 1600s). Wednesday I was fine. Thursday morning I woke up and my quads were sore. This was surprising, but it wasn't painful, just sore, so I ignored it. However, the soreness has continued. It's a little baffling. I went faster than normal last Tuesday (about 30 seconds per mile faster - 6:30s) in anticipation of Richard yelling at me to run faster for our relay this weekend, but it didn't hurt at all. I've run a 1/2 marathon doing 6:30s the whole way and I wasn't sore afterward. I haven't run any massive downhills lately.

The only thing I can think of is that my shoes have broken down a little earlier than normal. They have 480 miles on them right now. Usually I retire a pair of shoes at 500 miles, even though I know they probably have another 100 miles or so in them. I just do it to avoid injury. However, the only other time I've run in shoes for too long and felt the pain, the pain was in my foot and calf, not my quads. It's puzzling.

The other thing is maybe I'm just getting old. I thought I had another 5 or so fast running years left in me, but maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I'll still be able to run fairly quickly, but will be made to pay a price. I really am not looking forward to the breaking down of my body. Maybe I need to look into the whole Barry Bonds regimen. So I live to 85 instead of 100. Not that big a deal.