Injuries

These feet are made for… falling over

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ITBS Physio session number 3: I learn how to bend my knee.

Single knee dips are my focus for the week – trying to do so without rolling my right kneecap in or my pelvis sideways, both tendencies I have. The former is a consequence, apparently, of my flatfootedness and tendency to pronate.

Upshot of all of this is lots more physio over the next couple of weeks, lots more painful rolling on reinforced foam rollers, lots of hamstring stretches and eventually – hopefully by mid/late August – I’ll be able to hop on one leg and demonstrate to Sudhir that I’m able to run again.

Giving me less than four weeks to complete my training for the half-marathon. At best.

It’s massively frustrating, and even worse my weight has gone up a bit due to poor diet control in the last month or so. I’m reinstating Gyminee this week so will try to regain control there, and keep my snout out of the office biscuit tin.

Encouragement appreciated…

Injuries

ITBS treatment: phase 2

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I had really hoped that when I saw Sudhir today that I would be given a running and schedule and sent back to resume my training. Such was not to be.

Instead, I underwent:

  • Acupuncture – which apparently works by stimulating blood flow to damaged areas that your body may have ‘forgotten’ is damaged. The 1.5 cm length of needles going into my skin didn’t hurt, surprisingly, but when Sudhir twisted them, making an analogy about slicing through a steak with a knife, the combination of the pain and the disconcerting metaphor shook me somewhat
  • Cupping – which isn’t a thing that dirty tailors do when they’re measuring you up for a suit, but a chinese massage theraphy involving the creation of suction in a cup, and then pulling that over your skin. It looks a bit bizarre but wasn’t too bad an experience.
  • A couple of other types of massage on the IT-band on my right leg.
  • Being taped up with kiniesthiotape (or something: essentially long strips of sports tape) which will stay on for a week in its bright blue splendour. The idea is to provide a passive reminder of which muscles are overtight and which are underused.

Sudhir helps sell me on this stuff by explaining in more scientific detail than I can absorb how each of these therapies is having a bio-mechanical impact on my recovery.

Tonight, I did my own remedial work at home, having received the polystyrene roller from the store I found on Amazon. It involved:

  • Rolling around on the roller, putting my weight on the IT-band. OUCH, goddamn that thing hurts. I mean really, like you wouldn’t believe.
  • Clams – to strengthen my glutes.
  • Leg raises – to loosen my hamstrings and work my quads.

And that was it. Having to do this on a daily basis will be substantially less satisfying than running, but as Sensei Paul said to me tonight, I need to shift my targets and expectations and take it at a sensible pace or I’ll risk further injury.

Next visit to Sudhir is on Tuesday; will see what comes next. First I have a weekend down the South Coast, where it will take all my will to keep the exercises up…

Update

Continued silence

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Many, many things keeping me busy. The Long Slow Run has turned into Long Slow Recovery, somewhat, as I’ve come down with ITBS (more on that blog), my sister’s wedding had me in Malaysia for a week (also busy), shenanigans with prepping for family life, including sorting out house and car, many good friends’ weddings and stag dos etc. etc.

But I’ll try to be a bit more present on here… maybe a few more tech-related posts, maybe even (shock, horror) something related to my job (which has been through a sustained period of being both busy and fascinating). Any requests for a theme for my next big blog post?

It probably won’t be about soup, although I’m determined to get back onto that wagon soon!

Injuries, Training

Iliotibial band syndrome, apparently

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I saw Sudir at the Westminister Physiotherapy centre today in a bid to heal myself faster and get myself back into my full training regimen. Good news; Sudir’s amazing blend of Eastern and Western science has a treatment programme ready for me; bad news; no running till Thursday at least and a reduced schedule whilst I heal from what he thinks is the dreaded (apparently) Iliotibial Band Syndrome (I think). Read more here.

In brief; I have an imbalance in my leg muscles, very tight in the Iliotibial band, very weak in the inner quad and glute. I have a range of dispiriting and painful stretching exercises to do and will shortly be ordering a ‘foam roller‘ and some tennis balls (!)  to help with my recovery. Other treatment will include strapping myself up with special sports tape and some acupuncture – which is a new one for me… but I trust Sudir, he’s a great guy and exudes knowledge and, for me, this translates into confidence. It could be complete BS, but it doesn’t sound like it, and his assessments all carry a logic to them that he explains as part of the consultation.

It’s massively frustrating, but good to know there isn’t a structural issue with the joint. It makes the GP’s assessment completely wrong and means that I’ll have to stretch these muscles out for the rest of my (long distance running) life, but at least there’s a plan for recovery now. Not sure I’ll be in great shape for the New Forest Half, but I’ll give it everything I got.

Anyone else had to contend with this?

Running, Technology, Training

Running at the Equator

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In Malaysia helping prepare for my sister’s wedding. (Half)-Marathon training is easier, but not nearly as fulfilling, exciting or entertaining.

I have managed to get in a couple of runs, which, because of the 30 degree+ heat, take place shirtless, indoors on a treadmill, usually under a fan with accompanying air-conditioning. It’s very, very sweaty. But oddly satisfying.

On the plus side – am actually enjoying treadmill running for the first time in ever. Doing some moderately quick sessions with some intervals – run 1 saw me alternate between 10.5 and 12 km/h, completing the 5k circuit in 26.13, and run 2 saw me jogging at between 10.7 and 11km/h, finishing in 27ish minutes (run briefly interrupted). I’m discounting these as ‘personal bests’ as treadmill running is just so much easier than real life running…

My Dad’s treadmill setup includes a box set of ER, which you can’t really hear over the running (my Dad tends to just use it for walking so less of an issue), but is totally watchable with subtitles – good motivation to keep going for 4o minutes tomorrow as the knee recovers and strength starts to build again…

Guest post, Race reports

Guest post: Claire’s British 10k experience

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Fellow B2L Blogger Claire made a running-oriented new year’s resolution and kept to it! Here’s her race report. If you want to read more from Claire, and are into film, check her and colleague/co-writer Katie out over on idontwatchcoolmovies.

My New Years resolution was to get fit and start doing some exercise and the only way I could imagine motivating myself to do this was by signing up for a race. The British 10K presented the perfect opportunity – it was in July so there was plenty of time to train and it was 10k, which I thought was an achievable target but one that would take a bit more work than a 5k.

So July 11th soon rolled round and it was race day! With my dad by my side, amongst 24,998 other runners, we set of on our 10k journey. 1k came around much sooner than I expected and an attitude of ‘I can do this’ washed over me. Regrettably I lost my dad somewhere between 3-4k and I hit a real barrier around 6k, having to slow down to a fast paced walk. However, I soon picked it up again after a few minutes and got myself back on track. After another burst of walking around the 8k mark it was nearly over and I managed to push through to finish – and it was great. In my training I had only probably run up to about 8k, figuring if I could make it 80% of the way I may as well carry on until the end, and it completely worked. I wasn’t aiming for a ‘time’ as such, just to get through it, but I ended up feeling really pleased with myself as I did it in just over an hour (and ended up just one minute behind my dad after all). It was also a very hot morning and I will be eternally grateful for all the water points along the way, although you do have to be careful of the bottles littering the floor around them – a few accidents almost happened.

I have to say I wasn’t expecting the crowds and constant cheering to really have much of an impact, but it does and I have to admit I almost enjoyed it ;-) I have been for one (short) run since and plan to keep it up, so perhaps the next guest blog post from me will be for a much longer race……

Injuries, Juneathon, Running

Clambering back on the wagon

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I never know whether its good or bad to be on or off the wagon. I guess you want to be on it, right? Unless it’s going to a bad place? Let’s say it’s going to a good place.

Regardless of the state of that metaphor, I’ve been in a post-Juneathon haze. Having injured myself midway through the month but not modified my eating habits, I’ve been feeling fat and unhealthy. The attempts at runs have been tentative – I’ve done four or so 5k runs in the last couple of weeks, but given that my caloric intake has been disproportionate these haven’t really figured in either the fitness/training or the weightloss efforts.

The mysterious “they” say that the hardest thing is getting out the door. That’s true – but when you’ve allowed yourself to lose the routine, each step on the way out the door gets harder. Waking up. Getting ready. Getting past the first 2k. Not turning around at 2.5k when it would be a nice “5k” round number. Keeping momentum. Even dialling in Runkeeper to act as a motivational partner. Pushing to meet the optimistic target pace. And going the full distance you intended.

This morning, I did it. A 10k, in 60 minutes flat – a pretty good time when you remember that my personal best for 10k is 59.06 and I’ve been off for some time. I was flagging from the 8k mark – a mysterious pain in my lower back which sometimes kicks in when I’m doing longer distances – but manage to exert will, apply thumbs to the afflicted spot, and dodge traffic on the final stretch to maintain the 6 minute/kilometer pace needed. And then I cycled into work. AND the knee is OK.

Feels good. Going to take tomorrow off and see if I can manage an LSR on Sunday, but am at a wedding this weekend so efforts may vary. But hey – it’s not Juneathon anymore so I won’t feel too bad about it.

Next week: we may have a guest post from Claire, a colleague who is running the British 10k on Sunday as she fulfils a New Year’s Resolution, we will hopefully see @jimbocoyle return as he comes back from vacation and settles in to his new job… and we may even get a mystery, triathlon related guest post!

Oh, and we didn’t win Juneathon, unsurprisingly, but had great fun doing it. Thanks to the organisers, was great fun and good motivation!

Friends

Valete @jimbocoyle

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My colleague and co-blogger @jimbocoyle isn’t leaving this blog, but he is moving on from B2L towers for new challenges. “Valete” is Latin for goodbye, but literally translates to “be well / stay strong” which seems a more than appropriate wish for me to send in the direction of a man who is training for both a half marathon and a triathlon simultaneously. And no, I’m not some great Latin ponce, but I picked up a few words by osmosis as a result of having been schooled poshly.

James delivers his running wisdom directly to me at the moment (he’s sat behind me at work for about three years) — so really this is good news for you all, devoted readers of LSR, as it means we’ll have to use communications platforms like this one to discuss our running geekery.

Join me in wishing James luck as he goes off to work in, it won’t surprise you, a more sport-related field [sic].

In tribute to his departure, I returned to running this morning and recorded a personal best time for a 5k, 28.53. That’s an appropriate leaving tribute for a man who can beat my time by nine minutes.

Juneathon

Juneathon 2010: Armand’s wrap up

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Here are the final scores:

Runs    (14 days) – 59.8 miles
Cycles    (11 days) -  73.3 miles
Crunches   (11 sessions) – 1200
Push-ups    (3 sessions) -  45
Blog posts – at least 30 from me

Zero days with zero exercise, although my poorest effort was the 26th – which featured a pathetic 15-push-ups and amateur street-golf game – and few days had zero aerobic exercise except at the height of the injury.

The knee is still recovering, physio session pending, but a brief holiday is coming and am much looking forward to it. Happy Juneathon everyone – and here’s to a busy (but less injury-filled) July – and a calmer and more thought through series of posts on the LSR as we go forward.

George Wright; Giles Fraser

Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.