All posts by Armand

Injuries

Physio week 4: getting impatient

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So, I’ve been studiously doing the physio exercises, and, miracle of miracles – the ITB rolling doesn’t even hurt any more! But – I need more strength in the relevant weak muscles (quads, etc) so on Thursday I learn how to jump.

ARGH.

I know how to jump. I know how to bend my knee. I know how to run. But evidently everything I know is very slightly wrong.

Unlearning my bad habits is unbelievably tedious and nearly as frustrating as the perpetual hunger that surrounds dieting (now back in medium swing). I’m very, very tempted just to pop out for a quick 5k tomorrow morning to see if the physio sessions and exercises to date have had an impact – but is that a terrible idea? I suspect so… the last thing I want to do is delay my complete recovery. But the half marathon is weeks away (6 weeks!) and its been a long while since I’ve run more than 10k.

Any encouragement, advice, wisdom appreciated. In the meantime, I will fume quietly in the corner, trying not to run….

Guest post, Running, Training

Guest post: sk on preparing for the new season

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This post comes courtesy of  fellow B2L-er and ‘True Lad’  Sam Kane – always an inspiration… Follow him on Twitter at @SamKano.

I’ve loved sport all my life. You name it, I’ll try to play it. In the off-season though, I’ve never really done much training in preparation for the new season come September-time – I’ve always much preferred Red Stripe, crisps and Nandos (because I really am a True Lad) if I am honest. However, last season, I had a bit of awakening. I always used to be able to go out drinking on the Friday and still turn in a half-decent performance on the Saturday. The past season, I found that this was no longer the case… any boozing on a Friday meant sheer fatigue on a Saturday. I’m sure turning 30 and a visibly slowing metabolism is nothing more than a mere coincidence.

So this summer, I thought, for once I am going to make sure I am in some sort of shape for the coming September. And naturally, working in such close proximity with James and Armo meant running was front of mind. So I have been attempting to do a couple of runs a week to help with the upcoming season. The main sports I play (football and rugby) are very stop-start, and when it comes to running are much more about pace over 40m than any distance. As a result, long distance, which for me is about 800m, has never been a forte.

However, after talking with the LSR boys about their running exploits and the fact that a certain other person recently smashed a 10k run (it’s either talk “running” with them or actually try to have a conversation with them… the former always wins). The Charminator put me on to a really useful app, RunKeeper, which uses GPS to monitor your distance, heart rate, calories burnt, pace and speed. Despite the new advertising campaign for Adidas’ miCoach, starring SK-rejects Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton (unlucky ladies), I can’t recommend this app highly enough. I have been running for about two months now and was taking on 7k runs. I’ve got my time down to 31.26 from an initial 34.50. This week however, I hit a true personal milestone.

I knew I was meeting a friend for the football last night, am going to a pub quiz tonight, have a birthday tomorrow and wedding reception on Saturday, meaning running won’t be too high on the agenda for the coming days. So I decided to do two laps of Wandsworth Common instead of the normal one, which transpires is a 10k run (ok 9.8km, but I’m new), to justify the impending drinking. I’ve only ever run as far once before in a Nike 10k, when the aforementioned age was considerably lower and the aforementioned metabolism was considerably faster. I got round then in 48.17. I surprised myself with the result (and believe me, my ego is often off the Richter). I clocked 44.28.

Now, I’ve seen what James and Armo do on this blog, so here are my mile times or “splits” as I believe people in the know call them:

Mile                  Pace (min/mile)

1                                             6.33
2                                             6.26
3                                             7.59
4                                             7.20
5                                             8.15
6                                             7.30

I think it’s fair to say I went off too quickly, but was pleased to almost keep under eight minutes a mile. There’s no doubt that the regular running has improved my fitness and probably put me in better stead for the upcoming season. And there are two other points to end on. 1) I’m now obviously completely ripped and 2) it is undoubtedly completely down to the sheer inspirations that are Armand David and James Coyle… Both are gospel truth…. Obviously…

sk

Running

Running and fatherhood

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Wait, wazzat? A post not about my injury? You better believe it.

In a little under 10 weeks, all things going well (fingers crossed, touching wood etc) I become a Dad. I’m vastly excited at the prospect of it and we’re busy preparing for the little one’s arrival. A lot of people, aware of my current obsession with running, have asked me two things:

1) Am I going to stop running and turn into a slow-moving, sleep-deprived vegetable when it happens
2) Am I going to go running with a buggy

The answer to both, I’m hoping at least, is no.

On point 1), It’ll definitely be harder to find time and motivation to go running when I’m busy figuring  out how a baby works; sleep deprivation and motivation have never been good bedfellows. However; one of the things I’ve realized about myself over the last couple of years is that if I really decide something’s important and build it into a small, obsessive routine – I make it happen. I’ve also come to realize that running is pretty much the ‘quickest’ aerobic exercise you can do – all you have to do it get out the front door and you’re away and back in the minimum time you could pretty much do anything. So I’m hoping, really hoping, that the running will continue.

On point 2), if you’ve met me you’ll know that even keeping a glass of water upright on my desk at work is something of a risky proposition. Running whilst pushing the most precious cargo I could ever carry — lunacy. I’m sure that the more coordinated amongst you could manage it, but it’s not for me!

If you’re interested in more specific Dad-blogging, I’ll be doing some over on Division6, and my friend Ricky Bobby (who becomes a Dad in the next three weeks or so!) has started writing on “how to hold a baby” – and his blog does have a section on running, so its not completely OT ;-).

Dadblogging, Personal

Planning for Hippo

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10 weeks till I become a Dad. I’d be anxious if I wasn’t so busy getting stuff sorted. It’s weird, only a few years ago and I’d have thought this wasn’t something I could do, and yet here I am, more excited than I have been about pretty much anything in my life (with the exception of my wedding). My brother and sister and brother-in-law are getting used to the idea of becoming uncles and aunt. Our parents are getting used to the idea of becoming grandparents.

I’ve made endless spreadsheets of things we need to do and buy before the little one, code-named ‘Hippo’ until s/he arrives, which Amanda is doing her best to ignore (the spreadsheets, not the nickname – Amanda came up with that).

And we’ve had dozens of lovely conversations with interested friends and family about the new arrival. I’ll answer some of them here for you, beloved readers.

1. Do we know if it’s a boy or a girl?
No. We’re excited about the surprise, and would decorate neutrally anyway!
2. Have we discussed names?
Yes, we’ve started to, anyway. No final decisions taken as yet, except definitely *not* Hippo.
3. Are you telling?
No.
4. Are you going for the classes?
Yes, we’re doing the NCT classes in Basingstoke in a few weeks time.
5. Basingstoke?
Yep, we’re moving. S/he will be a Hampshire Hippo. I’ll still be commuting into London as I love my job.
6. Are you going to get any sleep when s/he arrives?
Probably not.
7. Will you go running with the child?
No. See this post.
8. Are you anxious?
As above, kind of too busy to be anxious. Recent experience babysitting my cousin tells me that I will be anxious, but as the Hippo’s Mormor (Danish for ‘mother’s mother’) will be 5 minutes away, we’re reassured that experienced wisdom is nearby.
9. Have you bought/chosen…?
Virtually nothing yet, except for the car (my fault). Our friends Farrah & Vik sent some lovely gifts and we’re getting some lovely offers from some of my Brands2Life colleagues for the kit you only need for the first three months. I am seeing the pram as yet another car purchase, but this one Amanda is leading. Advice on everything appreciated.

More fatherhood posts will ensue in the fullness of time; in the meantime if you’re interested in parenting blogs, my friend Ricky Bobby has started one over here.

Technology

Laptop advice – get a SSD!

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As the unofficial tech support for a number of my friends, colleagues and most of my family, I’m always, *always*, asked what Laptop people should buy.

After a couple of weeks using a new machine with a Solid State Disk (SSD), my advice is fast becoming: get whatever you like the look of, but make sure it has an SSD in it if you can. Sacrifice the storage space for the speed…

Hard disk technology has been largely static for the last 10 or so years – platters spinning like super-condensed long-play records. The things that have moved along include reliability, energy consumption, storage density and the like. However… speed wise, they’ve not progressed substantially. Most consumer drives have platters that spin at 5,400 (slow) or 7,200 rotations per minute (rpm). The read/write and seek times on these disks (which determines, by and large, how fast applications respond when they need to access the disk) are limited by these spin rates.

With SSDs, there are no moving parts – we’re talking the same storage technology used in USB keys, iPods, etc. So a) read and write times are often much, MUCH, faster, b) performance doesn’t degrade over time (no platters to get worn down), c) energy consumption is reduced and d) they deliver much awesomeness. They’re totally worth the extra money if they are an option from your laptop vendor of choice… Oh, and if you get Windows 7, it’s written to take advantage of them…

Injuries

Ongoing ITBS treatment saga

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My physio Sudhir is on holiday this week, on a meditation retreat (!), so he’s having his colleague torture me for the week.

Anna was disappointed to hear of the forgotten orthotic as it limits the exercises I can do, but instead I received a pummelling to my ilio-tibial band, more acupuncture and instruction in stepping up and stepping down (I’m sure regular readers will not be surprised that even the act of climbing up one step I can screw up…).

I was also subjected to “active stretching” for my hamstrings – code for my resisting a reasonably painful stretch – but did feel distinctly more limber after it, if slightly sore.

It’s odd, having gotten so used to the orthotics  correcting my flat-footedness, even a day and a half without them has me feeling slightly weird of leg. Hopefully it’ll arrive in the post tomorrow and the regular routine can resume – now supplemented with elaborate “clam” exercises for my glutes (which I need to be working to exhaustion a couple of times a day, apparently). Ah well.

In related news, the diet continues. I’ve managed to keep to it for 5/6 days now, 1,500 calories or thereabouts a day, only breaking the day of a pair of friends’ engagement drinks (although I broke it in style thanks to the BBQ – doubling my calorie limit for the day). Hopefully the weight loss will resume shortly and I can at least prepare to have less weight to carry around the half-marathon circuit! I’ll blog more about the diet over on Division6, seeing as it involves soup once again and that’s more a topic for that blog…

Food

Diet resumed

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Longtime followers of the blog will know the saga of my weight loss. Ahead of the wedding last October, I started dieting, losing about 19-20kg ahead of the wedding. The best part of a year later, I’m holding more or less steady – around 80.5kg to the pre-wedding weight of 79.5kg, depending on what the weighing scales feel like… BUT:

1) I’m on the threshold of overweight against a healthy BMI
2) My doc tells me that my threshold for BMI is lower on account of South Asian origins, so need to aim for BMI of 23 (instead of more normal 25)
3) New BMI target means I need to lose another 9kg or so, which was my long term weightloss goal anyway.
4) I’m not running due to an injury at the moment

So the diet has resumed, and a week in I’m already rediscovering the satisfaction I derived from last year’s obsessive geekery, diet-logging etc. Gyminee is proving invalauable.

I am, however, persistently hungry, quite tired etc., but thanks to quite a bit of exercise I’ve done between then and now, my fitness seems to be carrying me through this a bit more gracefully.

This does also mean that my journey of soupsploration will begin again; however there’s a piteously small selection of new offerings from Eat and Pret a Manger… so hoping for some variety come autumn.

Not sure how Hippo’s arrival in the autumn will change my dieting – some friends have said that they dropped weight on account of sleeplessness and baby-caring-busy-ness, but I can see myself eating more than strictly speaking necessary…!

Anyway, wish me luck and point me to vendors of good, interesting, meaty soups! Sorry for the slightly unstructured brain dump…

Injuries

Argh, forgotten orthotic

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My flat-footedness has seen me in orthotics for the best part of the last three years. And today, for the first time, I left my right orthotic  60 miles from my right foot. Which means I have to get through a couple of days of physio exercises without it, as well as generally walking around, and I’m feeling ever so slightly fragile – like I could lose stability and pronate the hell out of my foot at any moment. Thankfully, my lovely mother-in-law is rescuing it from the Wellington boot in which it is currently ensconced and dispatching it back to me by the Royallast of Mail-services on offer in these British Isles.

Here’s hoping I make it to Wednesday.

For the curious, the rolling continues to vary in its painfulness. It is distinctly diminished from when this whole debacle began, but still quite bloody painful.

For the curious about James, I’m hoping he blogs his London tri experience soon!

Film

Infidel on DVD and Blu-Ray from tomorrow!

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Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! I promise you won’t make my brother rich, but you will a) be entertaining yourself, and b) helping out a little bit. If you don’t remember, it’s the film Arvind produced that came out to vast amounts of press and warm reception from the critics earlier this year. It tells the tale of a moderate British muslim who one day finds out he is really Jewish, was written by David Baddiel and stars Omid Djalili et al.

Injuries

Keeping up diligence with my ITBS physio exercises

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This isn’t easy.  It’s never been easy to maintain a fixed regimen of daily, tedious, repetitive, and in this case distinctly painful exercises. My routine involves:

  1. Morning rolls on the foam roller – 3x sets of 10 with pauses on the particular pain points for as long as I can bear. I started just on the injured side but am extended to both legs as my left side seems pretty tight too.
  2. Knee bends – 3x set of 10, one legged, slow, pointing my kneecap between my second and third toes (working against my tendency to roll in). Just the right leg at the moment.
  3. Standing on one leg for 2 minutes (more uncomfortable than it sounds)
  4. Hamstring stretches

I’m probably worst at forcing discipline with (4), as is always the issue with stretching.

However, between my newfound passion for running and determination to get on the road again, and my primary external motivating factor (wanting to be in shape and impress my beautiful, increasingly pregnant wife who is understandably scornful about my determinations on quantifying pain) – I’m managing something of a routine. As I head to the village this weekend, I take with me a foam roller and all the willpower I can muster.

Wish me luck – hopefully next week I hop, which is the last recovery stage before being allowed out on the roads again – but it might be a couple of weeks yet!

Postscript: Sorry this is turning into an injury blog at the moment. normal running service will resume soon as I can manage it!