Soreness V Pain

This weekend, played 3 hours of pickup on Saturday and about a solid hour of Mini on Sunday.

At pickup, I slowly accelerated speed, cutting, and jumping, until by the end I was nearly at max on all 3. It felt great, and I wasn't sore at all that evening. The next day i was definitely somewhat sore in my patella, and as I played Mini, felt more sore as I went on. I was on a team that held the court for about 8 straight games (losing the 8th, which sucked, because it was not only my fault, but would've allowed us to make a rule for the rest of the day).

However, afterwards, I felt quite sore, and the following Monday, was much more sore than ever. I was actually worried. However, that Sunday night/Monday morning, i had also not slept at all (guessing the post-superbowl decaf wasn't actually decaf at all).

Hypothesis-- sleep, and not just rest, is HUGE in muscle and ligament recovery. Sleep more and stay healthier? Obvi.

But, my query rests more in what constitutes soreness (acceptable, almost good, denoting pushing to a good limit, and extending that limit) vs pain (bad, denotes crossing threshold from helpful to hurtful training).

Investigation continues this evening on a stairs workout-- will the knee be fine my mid-workout per usual, or will soreness/pain persist? Time will tell.