Running with Jack

Last night I went on a nice comfortable 14K/8.7M run. It was a mild 19C/66F, overcast, windy, and humid. I started out a little faster than I wanted, probably 5:30/K (8:45/M), but adjusted it to around 6:00/K (~9:30/M) which I kept fairly consistently for the rest of the run. I wore a T-shirt and a light long sleeve Cool Max running shirt, and long running pants (some say tights, but I’m a macho-type).

Anyway due to the high-humidity I was sweating like a hog after about 15 minutes. But I heard thunder in the distance so was still glad I wore the long sleeves. Just before I arrived home it started sprinkling, a few minutes after that the rain came down in buckets – with thunder, lightening, wind, everything but the hail.

I woke up this morning with really tired leg muscles, which kind of surprised me as I really didn’t push very hard last night on my run. Is this some kind of delayed reaction to my long run last Saturday? But my legs were fine after my run on Monday night. Maybe I’m just starting to get paranoid about injuries?

I had a lot of stress this week at work, maybe the effects are being played out in a slower recovery time from my running. I know its harder to get out and exercise when you’ve had a bad day. It makes me wonder if ones mental state also has a direct effect on muscle recovery?

Another thought is that I may have dehydrated too much last night. The high humidity definitely made me sweat more than normal and wind also tends to dry you out. I didn’t drink quite so much last night after the run as usual, a result of getting to deeply involved in answering my pile of e-mail and forgetting about everything but (my wife was at her Business English course). I have read that you get more muscle cramps when you are dehydrated, maybe the muscles also take longer to heal if you are dehydrated? Kind of makes sense - where’s my bottle of water…