After my challenging four hour trail run at the weekend, I have taken two full days of rest.  This should have resulted in my legs felling pretty good this morning.  They did not.

More specifically, when I woke up, I was aware that my right quad was very stiff and I was very sore just above my knee.  This wasn’t a feeling of tiredness, it felt like I had an injury.  I hadn’t had any issues over the previous two days, so why would an injury appear, 48 hours after my last workout.

I have had this kind of feeling many times before.  It usually occurs a few days into a taper for a big race.  I become convinced I am injured, and then start to panic about not being able to race.  Each time however, a little massage or rolling, and continuing with some easy workouts, has solved the issue.  I now call these feelings, my ‘Phantom Taper Injuries’.

What I think is happening is that I have put my body through such a demanding training load, that when I stop for a few days, my body thinks it is time to recover.  In fact, I am pretty sure that is exactly what is happening.  The sudden lack of workouts, puts my body into ‘fix it’ mode.

So today, I have spent a good deal of time rolling and massaging my leg.  Then after work, I went to the local park for a one hour, easy run.  My leg was still hurting as I got out of my car, but less than two minutes into my run, once my muscles had warmed up, everything was good.  I was able to ignore my leg and enjoy the beautiful foliage on display.

I am pretty sure my leg will feel close to same tomorrow morning.  I just need to keep working at massaging my muscles, and continuing with my workouts.  If it is anything like the past, the whole thing will just disappear within a couple of days.