Aching quads - why & how to recover them?!

[pagey3]

I have done regular exercise for about 2 yrs now about 3-4 times a week (mixture of circuit training /spinning/running 3-5km)

Recently i have stepped up my training to incorporate the cross trainer too (brilliant fat burner) and running longer distances once a week as i'm training for a half marathon (eek!)

Problem is, about 10 days ago i increased my cross training sessions from 35 minutes at level 8-9 to 40 minutes at level 10-11, which fitness-wise i found quite easy, but since then i have had very very badly aching quads. When i run i get to about 3 miles and my thighs just go to jelly, which is unusual as can usually do 5-6 miles when i do my distance runs.

Do you think i have strained them - and if so how do i stop them hurting so much??? Is it bad to run with aching quads, or should i just lay off the cross training for a bit, or just make it a lot lighter?? Or is there something i can drink/eat to help them recover?!

They are generally aching day to day as well i feel like an old woman up and down stairs!

Please help as i was making good progress on my running, and have also been enjoying losing weight and toning up - i want to make sure i can keep it up!

thanks :-)

[teag1rl]

Hi Pagey 3. I'm no expert but it could just be the muscles need time to recover. Could be that by ramping up the cross-trainer it's affecting muscle like another long run and therefore like you're asking your body to do more than one long run a week which it can't do. Velvetee will probably answer-she knows about this stuff. I would ease up on the x tainer a bit-maybe keep incresed time but not all at such high level (just intervals).

[daffy654]

I don't think Velvetee has time to answer these q's at the moment as she gave birth via c-section a few days ago :)

[teag1rl]

oh yes! Sorry-must have a look on family!