The Knee

When I first realised that this knee issue wasn't just going away overnight, I almost had a meltdown. I like to think of myself as a rather grounded and rational person but the thought of an injury 4 weeks before the Euros was a bit too much to bear. Even in the best case scenario I would be missing a good chunk of training and the last thing I wanted was to start yet another ultra in sub-optimal shape.

Anyway, by Thursday morning I knew this was already getting better and the coach told me to keep running, albeit at a much lower mileage than originally planned. The workouts last week were all scrapped and replaced with a few miles of easy running. I looked at the bright side and reckoned it was a good way to dial into 24 hrs pace.

As far as I can tell, running does not aggravate the injury, at least not running at low intensity for an hour or less. The knee feels a bit stiff at the start but settles after a while and there is no additional stiffness afterwards. However, as it turns out, there is one thing that does aggravate the stiffness, and that is sitting in a car for 4 hours when driving to Dublin. That's what I had to do on Saturday morning and when I got to Dublin it felt quite bad again, I did a run to shake out the legs and bought another knee strap in Dublin, and the next day it was fine again. I made sure to wear my knee strap on the drive back home on Sunday evening and that went much better,

The big news is that I think I know what caused the problem in the first place! When I ran the marathon in Tralee last Saturday, I did not have a table for my nutrition so I simply placed it all on the ground, That meant that I had to bend over to the ground almost every 2 laps, about 15 times in all, while running a marathon. My best guess is that this put a bit too much pressure on the knees. I almost got away with it but running for 3 hours on Sunday obviously proved to be too much.

There's nothing I can do to change it but it's a case of lesson learned. Obviously there is no way to be 100% sure that my theory is correct but I'm reasonably certain. It would mean there is no big underlying problem like weak hamstrings or a wrong gait, which comes as a relief. With the knee improving steadily left on my own devices I would ramp up the mileage a lot more but the coach is much more cautious. It basically means I'm on a 4 week taper, which is unlikely to be a big problem. The Euros are most definitely still on!

30 Sep

4 miles, 39:23, 9:50 pace, HR 131

31 Sep

3+ miles, 28:56, 9:18 pace, HR 131

1 Oct

6 miles, 54:29, 9:03 pace, HR 135

2 Oct

8 miles, 1:11:58, 8:58 pace, HR 133

Setback

Photo by Peter Murphy

When I finished Sunday's long run I thought I had gotten through the most brutal set of training I had ever done completely unscathed. I knew there were still a few tough workouts left but I felt the back of it was broken and the taper was getting close.

Just then, during Sunday evening, my right knee started to stiffen up. It did not hurt, and since Monday was a rest day I just hoped that things would clear up over the next 36 hours. Well, unfortunately they did not. If anything, the knee got worse during Monday. I think sitting in the office chair did not do it any favours (I sure have experienced that before). Any time I got up from my chair my knee felt very stiff, but it did loosen up somewhat after a minute of walking around.

It did not hurt as such. It just felt very stiff. But I find any issues related to the knee scary, so I was freaked out about it. I have certainly run through much worse pain and gotten away with it (expect for the one time when I did not get away with it), but with 4 weeks to go until the Euros I certainly wanted to err on the side of caution.

Probably my favourite photo from Tralee
Photo by Peter Murphy

When I got home I put on a knee strap. It immediately felt better, which made me question how much of it was psychological. I had a Yoga class that evening, and after consulting with my Yoga teacher I went ahead and got through it just fine.

I could not tell if it was any better on Tuesday morning but I binned the run. I did my usual dynamic stretching exercises (usual since I got the coach that is) and when doing lunges there was a tiny bit of discomfort when the right leg was bent, maybe 1 or 2 out of 10. Single leg squats on the right leg hurt more (3 or 4 out of 10) so I stopped immediately, not because the pain was bad but because I did not want to take any risks.

Googling symptoms can be a bad idea but it seems to match patellofemoral pain syndrome, though that is a bit of an umbrella term for various knee issues and not overly helpful (apart from the advice to rest or at least cut back, which is pretty much universal).

The coach advised me to go for a test run on Wednesday morning because full rest can often be counterproductive to healing (something I have found to be true on many occasions, even if it is counter-intuitive). As soon as I woke on Wednesday morning I noticed that the knee felt better, which pretty much made my day already. I did the same dynamic stretching exercises again and this time got through the entire set without discomfort.

Photo by Peter Murphy

However, running wasn't quite so straightforward. While the knee did not hurt as such, it was definitely not quite right. But things did get better as the run went on and there was no discomfort afterwards, which I take as a very positive result - I sure would gladly have accepted such an outcome before the run. In general I felt really stiff, awkward and unfit in this run, which is a bit weird after only 2 days of no running.

It looks like I'm in for an extended taper after all. The last few hard-ish workouts that had been planned for this week are off the table and there won't be time to do them, which basically means that the hard training is over and done with. Now it is a question of getting to the start line uninjured but after today I am feeling rather optimistic about that - a lot more so that I would have been yesterday.

Apart from that, I want to wish all the best to Anto, Rolando, Billy, Keith, Vilnis, Eoin, Bob, Pam, Harald, Andreas, Sung and every other runner in this year's Spartathlon. I really wish I would be there with you, guys!

26 Sep

0 (planned rest day)

27 Sep

0 (knee issues)

28 Sep

3+ miles, 30:23, 9:46 pace, HR 131

Life's A Beach

Things are continuing to improve but I’m still a good bit off from where I could say that I’m over that injury. After the hip had felt so good on Monday I thought I could start trying to run on consecutive days again but Tuesday was a big disappointment in that respect. From the first step I could tell that this really was not going to go well and after one mile of hobbling along I turned around and hobbled back home. Just to show how bad this had been, I had not even managed to average 10-minute-miles! I went cycling for an hour instead – we have the use of some bikes here, though they were clearly not purchased with the intention of cycling fast or long. However, for the week they’ll do.

Maia's gone native again

After that new setback I was a bit apprehensive on Wednesday but it was so much better! I could just about feel a tiny twinge in my hip at the start and even that went away completely after a mile or 2 and I was running completely unencumbered – well, apart from the fact that the temperatures were over 30 degrees, even at 8 o’clock in the morning! I managed to hold it all together for 10 miles but noticed a lot of ups and downs - in my fatigue levels that is, the road around the lake is entirely flat.

I went cycling again on Thursday but spent more time cursing at that bike than enjoying the ride. I also got a bit lost and was completely parched over that last few miles and suffering badly over one last hill, small as it may have been – exercising for over two and a half hours in that heat without bringing water was probably not my smartest idea ever.

I had recovered from that ordeal by Friday morning and once more the hip seemed in perfect condition, so I drew the run out a little to 12 miles, my longest run in what seems to be a very long time. I noticed the same highs and lows but figured they were closely coinciding with whether I was running in the shade or directly under the sun. Thursday had been incredibly hot, the temperatures had reached 38 degrees; Thursday was slightly cooler at 36.5, but that was still hotter than anything encountered in Ireland, ever! Well, I guess it will give me a fair amount of heat adaptation, which will only help. It probably also explains why my pace is only around 8:30, even when I could have sworn I was running faster than that, and the rather high HR is a bit of a concern. Obviously my lack of recent training and the subsequent loss of fitness has something to do with it as well.

Early morning visitors

Even though my hip had felt great all day, it was bothering me once more on Saturday morning, so another cycle was on the cards. This time I fulfilled a very long dream of mine – over 30 years ago I had learned about the Leithagebirge (“Leitha mountains”) and wondered how the flattest part of Austria could have a mountain region – well, even the hills around Caragh lake are higher and steeper than this but a 38 mile cycle through the country side was great and the mere fact that they have a network of cycle lanes going through the country here makes things so much easier and better – Ireland could really do with someone having a look how infrastructure works in other places, but I won’t be holding my breath.

I’ve actually done a ton of exercise this week, with the long cycles and the running supplemented by a fair amount of swimming and rowing as well as my exercises from Derek I must have done close to 3 hours a day – hopefully that will kick-start a last-gasp bout of training that may still get me back to a reasonable level of fitness. I have 6 weeks left.

11 Aug

2 miles, 20:05, 10:02 pace, HR 128

12 Aug

10.1 miles, 1:26:11, 8:32 pace, HR 146

14 Aug

12 miles, 1:43:00, 8:35 pace, HR 153

Back And Forth

I was absolutely sure Derek told me I could try and start running every day once the daily mileage had reached 6 without issues, but now he denies saying that - must have been a misunderstanding on my part. I noticed straight away after Monday's 3-mile run that the hip wasn't feeling great and despite Tuesday going reasonably okay, it was not as good as Sunday and had to be counted as a setback, albeit a minor one. Obviously I sat out Wednesday - well, I did do a tough cycle program on the trainer with a set of 60 sec intervals on/off that had my legs shaking like jelly once I got off the bike. I've also spent between 30 and 45 minutes every evening on the trainer (my unwatched video collection is running out at an alarming rate). I'm not sure what cycling does to my fitness (running fitness is definitely reduced significantly, no matter how much cross training I'm doing), but it feels good on the hip and has to be better than sitting on the sofa.

Cycling really doesn't impact on the injury or I surely would have felt it on Thursday. Having said that, something felt off and I very nearly did not run but in the end I was glad I did because I actually felt pretty good on yet another 6-mile run, so on the whole I'm still making progress. The way to build on from where I am now is to take the body's feedback into account, and at the moment the feedback is that I need to take a rest day between runs. I will try and gradually increase the mileage of my runs, once again progressing carefully and gradually.

I know I have already run out of time. The Spartathlon is 7 weeks away and there won't be time to get fit, simple as that. As I've said I will still travel to Greece - the flights and the race entry have been paid months ago and we're going to turn this into a holiday. I will most likely start and use this as a recce for next year, which also more or less settles what races I should focus on in 2016.

Oh, and congratulations to Torill Fonn, who I was lucky enough to meet in Turin after she had gotten on really well with Maia (not entirely sure how they had become such great friends). She had told me that she would try and break the 48 hrs World record. She sure gave it a good go at the weekend - she did not get the World record but she did get the European one as well as the age group World record (not bad for a fallback option!). Congratulations, I'm in awe and feeling very inspired! I just need to get back to full health first.

4 Aug

6 miles, 50:38, 8:26 pace, HR 148

6 Aug

6 miles, 48:54, 8:09 pace, HR 152

Progress Or Not?

When I first got injured I could not have imagined that recovery would take so long. I remember thinking that the Spartathlon was 3 months away and it would not really matter all that much. Reality has been very, very different. I guess I just don't do things by half - when I got my first injury in 8 years it had to a serious one that would take a long time to heal!

I'm generally not someone to follow rules and commands (my managers over the years can testify that). However, I quickly realised that I needed help with this injury and it would be just plain daft to go (and pay) for advice and then not follow it, so I'm following Derek's instructions very closely. I did think at times his progression program is overly cautious but always knew that erring on the side of caution is by far better than doing too much too soon and getting injured again, and recent events suggest he was right all along.

I did a fairly long cycle on Saturday; not long by serious cyclists' standards but the longest bike ride I'd ever done. It took me slightly over an hour to reach the top of Ballaghasheen, partially because I cracked on the final climb and had to take a breather, but it felt good to feel some good pain in the legs from the exercise rather than the bad pain from the injury. On the way home I got rather tired and started wishing to be home sooner rather than later, something I've experienced often enough at the end of a long run, and once more a good thing to suffer through. I don't know if I still have a realistic chance of making the Spartathlon but if I do then some serious work that includes a bit of suffering will be unavoidable.

Sunday was good. Really good. I almost felt like I was over that injury. The hip was fine, just a very dull discomfort, barely worth mentioning. I increased the distance by yet another mile. 6 miles was a significant marker: Derek had said that if I could run for 6 miles/10k without issues than I can start running every day, though the intervening days would have to be short. I did start feeling the hip again in the afternoon but I have done that after every run and the fact that I had been sitting in a car for a few hours sure did not help. Was it worse than on other days? I can't tell.

Unfortunately, as soon as I woke on Monday morning I immediately noticed that the hip wasn't feeling great. I did my 3 mile run anyway and it felt like a run a week or two earlier, not great. The pace was pathetically slow, despite the effort being the same as the day before. It was the first time that I had to deal with a setback since starting on the way back and it did nothing for my mood. It really is possible to hate your own body. I followed the run with 50 minutes on the bike trainer, the longest I have ever managed to train on a stationary device, be it trainer or treadmill. Maybe I did it for self-punishment but, as always, the hip felt better after cycling - unfortunately, the Spartathlon is not a cycling race!

A few hours in the garden had me knackered, especially after the morning workouts. I figured that anything was better than sitting down.

I think I'm pretty much on the edge. Of course I don't want a significant setback but with the lack of time it feels worth taking a few risks - if I miss the Spartathlon I have several months throughout the winter to get fit again. The next few weeks will tell.

I need a new HRM - my present one keeps dropping out. It's the least of my problems, though.

2 Aug

6 miles, 47:26, 7:54 pace, HR ???

3 Aug

3 miles, 26:49, 8:57 pace, HR 143

Cautious Optimism

18 years ago Niamh dragged me all the way to the altar.

It's the same news as for the last few weeks: things are getting better, but very, very slowly. I saw Derek again on Tuesday; he reminded me that 3 weeks ago he predicted 4-6 weeks of healing time and so far it looks like he was right. He also thinks that the Spartathlon won't be happening for me. I, on the other hand, haven't completely given up hope yet. Someone who is daft enough to sign up for a 153 miles race in the first place might be stupid enough to try and run it even without the necessary training done, and I might even treat it as a recce for next year. I've signed up and paid the full price for the race and the flights already, so I'll definitely head for Greece, assuming the country is still around in September (signs for that are encouraging at least). As Anto pointed out, the worst case scenario is one extra night in a 3-star hotel on the beach. If you look at it like that ...

With Derek's permission I have slowly, very very slowly, started to increase the mileage again but I'm still only running every second day. I did 4 miles on Wednesday, which is less than I would even consider getting out of bed for under normal circumstances but still longer than all the previous runs. I felt reasonably good on the run, similar to Monday though it's hard to be sure. The hip injury is still very clearly noticeable. I was perfectly fine immediately afterwards but the hip felt rather stiff once again after lunch time.

That evening I dug out my little bike trainer that had been gathering dust for almost five years in the attic and set it up. Derek wants me to start doing hard intervals on the bike, which would be too dangerous to do on the road, and I wanted to set it up and test it out first. I also figured 30 minutes on the bike would loosen up the hip again. Things worked on both fronts; it's a very basic, simple ans sturdy trainer, which meant the previous 5 years did no harm to it and the hip did indeed feel better again afterwards. The one downside is that I noticed how quickly the tyre gets worn down on the trainer - now I'm paranoid to take the bike back out on the road in case the tyre is worn thorough and will fail me when I'm miles away from home.

I have some little tests for the hip. Balancing on one leg while putting on a sock on the other one would have been utterly impossible 2 weeks ago, still required something to lean against until last Sunday and is now perfectly doable. It might sound silly but if I can manage that then I feel I can manage to run a few miles as well. Getting up from a chair and walking around for a minute is still a very good indicator; the only problem I have is to figure out if the stiffness is better or worse than the previous day. Changes are small and therefore rather subtle.

Anyway, after that successful test on Wednesday evening I did an interval session on Thursday, a short one because you have to build up slowly - after all, building up too quickly was what got me into this situation in the first place. I do hope it will get my system going again so that I can reap some benefits once I am able to return to running properly again. Who knows, I might even come back stronger eventually - you have to live in hope!

The 5 miles I did on Friday morning were the longest run I've done for several weeks. The hip felt good first thing in the morning so I more or less knew that this would go reasonably well. Indeed. it was probably the best run I've had since getting injured. I'm not sure why the HR was so high, maybe it's because of the fitness I've lost over the last few weeks, but that's a very minor concern right now. As long as the hip behaves I can extend it to 6 miles on Sunday and if that goes well I can start running every day again. Hallelujah!

The Tralee 100k will be on tomorrow (Saturday). My heart is bleeding. Good luck to all the lucky runners; I'll be at the Brandon this evening for a short talk unfortunately but I won't be joining you on the course.

29 Jul

4 miles, 33:36, 8:24 pace, HR 149

31 Jul

5 miles, 41:25, 8:17 pace, HR 153

The Light

I probably should have stayed away from Facebook the last few weeks. Reading about all those races my friends were doing broke my heart every time. However, I was delighted to see Fozzy Forristal win the 100k in Courtmacsherry on Saturday, and in a very good time as well. The next time Marcus Howlett introduces me as Kerry's best ultra runner he may have to qualify that statement. Well done indeed, Fozzy!

I awoke on Saturday morning with the thought that there were now less than 9 weeks until the Spartathlon, which did not exactly fill me with joy. Even if I were able to return to training sooner rather than later, I have missed so much training that it may well be too late already. Last week I ran all of 8 miles, which is about 92 fewer than I would have done had things gone to plan. I did cycle a few more, though that doesn't even come close to compensating.

I'm not dissing cycling, it's actually quite fun; certainly a lot better than sitting at home feeling sorry for myself. I'm working fairly hard on the bike and hopefully my cardiovascular system will remain somewhat intact, though I'm not quite sure how much of that translates into running. Of course, nothing makes up for the fact that I need to get my legs used to the pounding on the road.

I was quite surprised to see just how much more popular cycling is on strava compared to running. There are way more segments and they are way more competitive. I own a few local KOMs in running even though every single one of them is rather soft - I will never even come close to a single one in cycling, I think we can be pretty sure of that.

Anyway, on Saturday I made my way around the lake road for an hour long trip. Initially I was planning on turning around after 30 minutes until I realised that a full loop would take me pretty close to one hour, so I decided to do just that. However, just after the halfway mark I encountered a fairly big group of cows on the road. Initially they started moving away but then a big bull stopped dead in his tracks and started eyeing me suspiciously, at which point I decided to get back to the original plan and turn around after all. Shame, I had been looking forward to the 3-mile climb I had only just started on.

On Sunday morning I immediately noticed a big change in my hip as soon as I woke up. It felt a lot better than before, though there is the distinct possibility that this was down to the ibuprofen I had taken the evening before rather than a genuine improvement in my injury. It was raining, so I decided to go for a flatter route because I did not fancy descending on narrow, twisty, pothole-strewn roads in wet conditions. The last thing I need is to acquire an additional injury from a bike crash. Cycling felt fine, an hour passed very quickly and I got home without incident. The hip continued to feel okay and for the first time in weeks I was actually looking froward to my next run, full of hope that things were finally getting better.

Well, I did my by now customary 3 mile  run on Monday morning. For the first time in a month I felt like I could actually stride out properly, though the injury was still clearly noticeable. However, the discomfort level was now down to a 3/10, better than ever before, and the level my physio told me would be acceptable to continue running. I ran a little bit fast once more because I have lost my ability to judge pace and effort, though that's a minor issue for a 3-mile run.

I think I can finally see some light at the end of that far-too-long-already tunnel. Let's hope it's not the oncoming train.

27 Jul

3 miles, 23:55, 7:58 pace, HR 152

Wrong Sport

If I weren't a runner I would think I am no longer injured by now. The discomfort after sitting is virtually gone and even the chairs in the office's meeting room that were just pure poison on my hip only a week ago are now perfectly tolerable. Unfortunately there is still one activity where I can clearly feel the effects of my injury, and that just happens to be running.

After 12 miles had turned out to be too much last week (well, running 4 and 5 miles on consecutive days was too much) I have been much more careful this week, just running 2 miles on Monday and then 3 on Wednesday and Friday. I cycled on the other days and since cycling does not cause any discomfort (in fact I feel better after it, though that's probably down to endorphins) I got permission to extend the duration of the cycling, so I did a bit over 30 minutes on Tuesday and about 40 on Thursday, with the plan of cycling for an hour on the weekend. I expected the cycling HR to be lower than what I usually do when running but I averaged as much as 151 on Thursday. This may be down to a loss of fitness; I didn't think I had been working particularly hard. When running a HR of 151 would probably be a tempo run and my cycling effort was definitely not an equivalent of that.

Cycling is actually quite fun at the moment, I do enjoy it, especially after being starved of exercise over the past few weeks. How much of that exercise will be relevant to running remains to be seen. I know there is a certain amount of cross over, but the specific fitness to run at a high level can only be gained by running.

I almost certainly ran too fast on Wednesday. I was too pre-occupied monitoring my hip to pay much attention to anything else, and by the time I realised I was breathing rather hard I was almost back home. There is a silver lining in that as well - a 7:47 miles might not have been a good idea in my present state but the mere fact that I was able to run a 7:47 miles is actually a sign that thing are improving - last week I barely managed 9-minute pace! However, the one number that jumped out at me was not the pace but the cadence - a whopping 193, at least 10 steps per minute faster than normal. It's because I cannot (or at least I subconsciously feel that I cannot) stride out properly and stride length is well down, so the cadence is up in compensation. Friday was a little bit calmer, with a cadence of 190 - this time I made sure to take it a bit easier.

I keep doing my exercises, though I am wondering if they are a waste of time, especially the isometric ones, because they feel so easy. I will see Derek again on Tuesday; let's see what he says.

My weight keeps shooting up. I'm not sitting on the sofa all night pigging out, but I've already gained more than 5 pounds since the start of the month!

Shit, it's only 9 weeks to the Spartathlon. Things are not looking good.

22 Jul

3 miles, 24:22, 8:07 pace

24 Jul

3 miles, 25:03, 8:21 pace, HR 148

Insane In The Brain

I would do just about anything to keep me sane at the moment. I was already wondering if I had suddenly developed a severe case of mid-life crisis but I think it's more likely that the absence of running and even exercise in general is driving me nuts. That's probably a good thing because a mid-life crisis would suck big time: I can't afford a sports car and if I ever had an affair and Niamh found out I would not want to be in the vicinity!

Thanks for a couple of suggestions.

The possibility for heat training is severely hampered by the lack of heat in this part of the country. Less than half a continent away they might be suffering from a severe heat wave but here in Kerry we're still delighted when on the odd occasion we managed to spot a gap between the clouds. It's too early for heat adaptation for the Spartathlon anyway. In a month that will become more important but not yet.

Pool running is problematic due to the absence of a pool in my vicinity - I'd have to drive half an hour each way to get to the nearest one and that's just not going to happen. I stopped attempting triathlons mainly for that very reason and I can't see myself sacrificing an hour for something as abhorrent as pool running.

I begged Derek to let me at least go for a cycle and he partially relented but set the upper limit at a shockingly low 20 minutes. I did two easy 5 mile cycles on the weekend which took maybe 17 or 18 minutes. That felt comfortable and the hip did not bother me at all (a genuine 0/10), so I think he's erring at the side of caution but that's almost certainly a good thing of course.

As soon as I woke on Saturday I immediately noticed a big improvement in the hip but that may have been due to taking some anti-inflammatory tablets on Friday evening rather then a genuine improvement in the condition. Up to now I have avoided taking anti-inflammatory drugs because inflammation is part of the body's natural healing process and taking tablets to suppress that will increase recovery time rather than help, but Derek advised a short course so I took some over the weekend. I have now stopped that and the hip still feels better so I do live in hope.

Because I felt so much better I went for a very short run this morning, only 2 miles. That's hardly worth getting changed for but it's all I'm allowed after 4 or 5 miles turned out to be too much last week. I can feel a big improvement but the hip is still bothering me as soon as the road starts climbing even by a minuscule gradient, so I need to be careful.

I managed all of 12 miles last week and it turned out to be too much, I sure hope this is going to improve further sooner rather  than later. I need to run. Not for the Spartathlon - for my sanity. And Niamh's.

20 Jul

2 miles, 17:43, 8:51 pace, HR 143

No-Progress Report

There are no less than 3 races on this weekend that I do have an interest in.

The Ras na Riochta might be an Adventure race, which clearly isn't my main focus, but I can see some of the race course right from my house and it forms part of some of my regular and favourite running routes, most notably the Kerry Way section toward Windy Gap.

The Killarney Marathon is one of my local races. I even signed up for this race; I got the number in the post on Tuesday. Opening that envelope was a sad moment. I seem destined never to run this race - I've signed up twice now and this is my second DNS! And since the date coincides with the third race this weekend, it will always be only a backup option.

That third race is of course the 24 hours race in Belfast. This has become the most important race of all to me, after my epic run last year that qualified me for the Worlds. This year it is going to be epic. I can't wait what some of my friends are going to do in their debut on that race format, most notably Grellan, Andrew Greaney and Thomas Klimas. All should have the ability to mark a really serious distance, certainly top of the national level, but 24 hour races have their own rules and you won't know for sure until you try it - we'll find out very soon, of course.

As for me - well, I know I titled this post no progress, but that's not the entire story. During the day, I feel better, getting up from a chair no longer causes pain, it doesn't really hurt (more stiff than painful) and at times I feel almost no issue at all. However, my run on Thursday morning did not go well at all, it was worse than Monday and Tuesday and the hip never loosened up at all, so I cut it short, went home, and am now wondering when I can run again at all.

A week or two ago I said I am not worried about the Spartathlon. This has changed as I gradually realised just how long recovery is taking. The race is 70 days from now and I should be doing some serious training right now. I am missing the Killarney marathon tomorrow and I cannot see how I could possibly make it to Tralee in 2 weeks, so that's 2 of my most important training runs gone without replacement. Even if I manage to get healthy again in a reasonable time, the training I have lost is a serious problem.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here getting fat, unfit and crippled. Just what you need before a 153 mile run!

16 Jul

3 miles, 28:33, 9:31 pace, HR 133

First Steps

The first steps are wobbly and uncertain. Thankfully I have yet to fall over and my stability is slowly increasing, though the operative word here is slowly. There is no pain but it all feels very awkward and all I can do is take tiny baby steps, high cadence, low distance. Striding out is completely out of the question.

At the outset I'm hunched over but I gradually manage to right myself up and get closer to proper running form. It takes about two miles for the hip to loosen up entirely and I can start taking on a form that vaguely resembles running. I don't know what it looks like and quite possibly an untrained eye would not spot the difference in my stride, but I can certainly feel it.

I ran 4 miles on Monday and 5 on Tuesday, as directed by my physio (or so I thought - he wasn't sure about Tuesday). The good news is, and this is actually proper good news, there is no pain. Not during the run, not immediately afterwards and not hours later either, so I'm not doing any damage. Looking at the strava file for both runs is revealing - on both days every mile is faster than the previous one, coming down from almost 10-minute miles to about 8:30 pace at the end. The perceived effort did not really change, this is all down to the muscles warming up and loosening up - and I guess endorphins are playing a role as well.

So, after a long hiatus, at least I'm back running again, though there is still a very long way yet to go. Not only does my hip have to improve, after not running for 10 days my fitness has taken a hit as well, though that will be rectified in just a couple of days, assuming there are no further setbacks. The Killarney marathon on Saturday is obviously not an option. I jokingly mentioned it to Derek just to see his reaction but I guess he knew I wasn't serious.

We'll just have to see how this goes. The improvement since last week has been encouraging but there is still a very long way to go before I'm back to full fitness.

13 Jul

4 miles, 36:15, 9:04 pace, HR 139

14 Jul

5 miles, 45:25, 9:05 pace, HR 141

Next Injury Update

Things are getting better, but they're not good enough just yet.

I have been doing my prescribed exercises religiously 3 times a day, and I have been doing a 3-mile walk every morning (I'm not counting those towards my mileage). There is no pain during the exercises but there is some discomfort when walking, though that has been improving every day.

The most significant improvement is noticeable when I get up from a chair. On Tuesday I was grimacing every time and it took a minute of walking around every time for things to loosen up. Today I can get up and feel some tightness in the hip but no real pain, and after half a dozen steps it feels more or less okay. I can walk down the office without attracting some comments, which is a bonus.

There is still no running, not today and not over the weekend. A short run might happen on Monday, provided things keep improving at a steady rate. I'm not worried about losing fitness, there is still plenty of time until the end of September. I do miss running a lot, though. I saw a couple of runners during my morning walk and really, really, really wished I could join them. At least I'm not in danger of overtraining at the moment and it's certainly better to get injured 3 months before the race rather than a week.

This is by far the longest rest I've had to take from running for many years, for any reason other than recovery from a target race. I have been lucky over the years and on more than one occasion got away with things that are generally frowned upon. I guess inevitably I pushed my luck once too often. Ah well - sh*t happens.

Injury Update

4 days of no running. Counting by the hour, actually - 59 at the time of writing.

I went to see a physio in Tralee today. Derek is a very good runner himself (one of the top dogs in the local scene), which did give me a lot of confidence in him and he was recommended by a friend.

He isolated the hip flexor as the root of the problem, not the adductor. He thinks the hill drills were the main reason for my injury; the parkrun might just have been the last straw that broke the camel's back.

After not running for more than 4 day the pain has actually gotten a lot worse. Rest is overrated, I'm telling you. I was hoping he would tell me to run at least 10 miles a day to use the magic powers of running to heal my injury but that hope, always rather small, was dashed. There is to be no running for at least another few days. He gave me a few exercises to try out and I am to do a brisk walk of 3-4 miles to see how that feels.

I really hope I can get back to running sooner rather than later. Not because I would be worried about the Spartathlon; that's still 3 months away. It's because I'm quickly becoming impossible to live and work with when I can't go running.

On The Scrapheap

I remembered that one thing I usually do whenever I get a niggle is to throw out my old pair of runners. This time, this was a memorable occasion. A few years ago I heard that the manufacturing of my favourite running shoes, Brooks Green Silence, had been discontinued and I proceed to buy a big stash of them, not particularly caring about the hideous colour scheme of the last 2 pairs (though I still wonder who thought such an ugly shoe would sell well). Anyway, yesterday I kissed my very last pair of that stash goodbye; as ever, the rewards for over 1000 miles of faithful service was a 1-way ticket into the bin. And before you get smart and say that of course I'll get injured if I wear shoes for more than 1000 miles, I have been doing that for years and my injury rate is still exceptionally good compared to every other runner I know.

As for the adductor/groin/hip problem, on Wednesday I was about to concede defeat, admit that I was genuinely injured and take a few rest days. I was in real pain on 1 or 2 occasions, enough for my colleague to notice as I gingerly made my way down the office corridor. However, it was definitely better on Thursday, so I decided to keep training regardless. I'm not sure if it was pure bone-headedness that kept me going or if running is such a strong addiction that it's better to work through the discomfort. The affected area feels really tight rather than painful, which makes it hard to gauge if there is progress being made or not.

Despite some reservations I did another set of hill drills on Friday morning. The HR graph of that session is quite telling and describes the entire workout in one neat graph:

Obviously pace means nothing on a workout like that. I work my way up the hill and recovery is a walk.very slow jog down. The one thing bothering me the most are the flies. It's very humid at the moment and I'm completely drenched in sweat when working hard and when walking back down the hill the flies are just swarming around me.

Anyway, on Saturday morning I did not feel great and finally decided to take a few rest days. I'm actually not sure if that is the right action to take because it always feels the worst right after getting up from sitting. After walking around for a minute I feel mostly fine. Same with getting up in the morning, as soon as I get moving I start to feel better. Running itself does not cause any extra discomfort.

However, this was certainly caused by running, so it is a running injury. I'm sure it happened when I ran an unaccustomed pace in the parkrun last Saturday, though it did take several hours for the first sign of discomfort to appear. I did not run yesterday but did some work in the garden, which felt fine. I'll probably go to a physio early next week, for the first time since 2008!

2 Jul

am: 8 miles, 1:04:34, 8:05 pace, HR 141

pm: 5 miles, 38:01, 7:36 pace, HR 146

3 jul

9 miles, 1:29:36, 9:56 pace, HR 136

   5x30 sec sprints; high knees; thigh drive; hill sprints

Weekly Mileage: 59

Rehabilitation

I was rather nervous on Friday morning when I took my first step. I could feel the hamstring, but it didn't really hurt. Nevertheless, I was conscious that every step could be my last one for quite some time if something went wrong.

I've been there before. My left Achilles started acting up about 2 years ago and I followed the same recovery procedure, namely 5 easy miles every day. I was terrified I might rupture the tendon completely with each step but gradually grew in confidence and could tell early on that thing were improving - in fact, I am absolutely convinced that 40 minutes of running daily was a major part of the healing process, which is why I am following the same procedure once more.

Friday's run went as well as I could hope for. I could feel the hamstring with every tentative step, but it never actually hurt and I made it back home without bother. I was a bit more confident on Saturday but followed the exact same routine. I could feel improvements already but was not entirely sure if that wasn't merely wishful thinking. I was tempted to run longer but managed to contain myself.

Sunday morning, same 5 miles run once more. By now I can definitely tell that things are improving fairly rapidly. The hamstring feels a bit stiff, but that's all. I am highly tempted to run faster and longer but just about manage not to do that. I am not worried about losing fitness - it's the running itself that I am missing, 5 miles are just about enough to keep me from going loopy, but it's not satisfying.

Apart from those runs, I have done a few more things. I have read that worn out shoes can be a factor in hamstring injuries and have therefore thrown out my 2 oldest pairs of shoes, both of whom had about 1000 miles on them. The lightweight shoes I'm favouring never provide much cushioning in the first place, so there isn't much to lose as they get worn down and I tend to keep them for a long time. Nevertheless, off into the bin they both went.

I am icing the area a few times a day. I am not sure if it helps, but plenty of people swear by it and at the very least it doesn't do any harm, so I might as well do it.

I have been wearing compression gear when I was running. At the very least, it feels comfortable. It may or may not help, but I think it may provide a little bit of help.

What I'm not doing:

- no pain killers. First of all, if anything hurts I prefer to know about it. Secondly, inflammation is part of the natural healing process and anyone taking tablets in order to suppress inflammation is achieving the opposite effect of the desired one.

- no stretching. I never stretch anyway. When I did stretch my leg on the road on Thursday it was a pure act of desperation because I could not think of anything else to do. It didn't help, which was to be expected.

There's one more thing that may or may not have contributed to the problem. After feeling the hamstring a couple of times in recent week, last week I started to use The Stick on the area. I don't use it very often, but on the few occasions I have used it, the results have generally been good. It seems to work pretty well on the calf muscles. However, this time round I did not notice anything on the hamstring while I was using the stick, but I now can't help but wonder if it's a coincidence that my hamstring popped just a couple of days after I has started to work on it. Maybe if I had left it alone ...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I am recovering very quickly. If I want to classify this as an injury of not depends very much on the definition of injury, not that it actually matters.

There was one side effect of the whole drama, namely that it solved my dilemma if I should run in the cross country race in Killarney today. The last couple of times I ran cross country a) it sucked and b) I sucked big time, so truth to be told I am not exactly devastated about missing out this time round.

I'm confident that my pacing gig in Dublin can go ahead as planned. I'm also looking forward to running with The Legend himself on Tuesday, something I have been keen on for ages.

3 Oct

5+ miles, 41:16, 8:10 pace, HR 134

4 Oct

5 miles, 40:22, 8:04 pace, HR 138

5 Oct

5 miles, 40:12, 8:02 pace, HR 139

Injury! (or just a niggle?)

It's been so long since I last had to miss a day's training due to injury that I cannot even remember what it felt like. I've had niggles since, of course, and when that happens I reduce my mileage to nothing but short recover runs, but never anything that would have me miss a day; until now.

Monday felt pretty good, at least once I got past the 5-mile mark and the stiffness from the previous day had dissipated. I ran longer on Tuesday; the plan had been a 14 mile run around Rosbeigh mountain but one wrong turn (it was still dark and I don't know the road very well) meant I added a bit of bonus distance. Luckily I had gotten up a few minutes early, so at least it didn't cause any subsequent havoc with the real-life morning schedule. There was one very long climb in there (which forms part of the Glenbeigh 10k race) that had me working fairly hard, all the other miles were easy. I felt pretty good until about mile 11 but then got tired. I was happy to get home - the run had not turned ugly yet but was not far away from doing so.

Another easy 10 mile run followed on Wednesday with me taking it very easy to recover from that run.

All systems were go on Thursday morning. I got up bright and early (in contrast to the outside where it was still pitch dark), got ready and went off. I noticed it was freezing cold and it got even colder when I got towards Cromane, but that did not bother me the slightest. I felt really good and since I just happened to be in the vicinity of a certain strava segment decided I might as well bag that one, so I did (it's still a soft one - feel free to take it).

My pattern for the last few days has been to alternate easy 10 miles with longer runs and the longer runs usually contained at least one decent climb, which I usually ran at a decent effort. The idea was that running strongly uphill would not cause undue stress on the system because the pounding forces are much lower on the uphill.

I noticed at some of those runs that I always felt good until about mile 10 but sometimes started to feel the effort shortly afterwards. Today all still felt good and I was particularly pleased because at mile 11.5 I had managed to work out a solution to a work problem that had been bugging me all day yesterday.

Then, shortly after mile 12, my left hamstring started hurting. It's the same hamstring that had started hurting at mile 10 of the Dingle Ultra and I had felt it at times since, but it had always been very, very mild, never more than a 1 out of 10. Also, it felt differently; in Dingle I had gotten a sharp initial pain which improved quickly as I slowed the pace slightly and then dulled considerably for the rest of the race. This one, in contrast, just felt tight at first but within 5 minutes I was in agony. Slowing down did not provide any relief at all, and eventually I stopped and tried stretching it - a move of pure desperation, something I had never done before. Anyway, it did not really hurt when standing or stretching and stretching did not seem to have any effect, neither good nor bad, but as soon as I started moving again the pain immediately returned. Even walking was painful.

My immediate problem was that I was still 3 miles from home in the middle of pretty much nowhere and getting cold very quickly, so the only option was to clench my teeth and hobble home. Jogging at about 9-minute pace was just about bearable, running even the slightest downhill gradient was pure agony and never have I been more relieved to arrive back home than today.

So, now for the assessment. I can move about without much discomfort, so it's not severe, but I can definitely feel it. It would be obvious to conclude that I had injured the hamstring in Dingle and never properly healed, but since it feels very differently that may or may not be the case. I did ice it as soon as I got home, but I generally feel that icing does not make much of a difference.

I call any discomfort a niggle as long as I can still run through it without too much discomfort and there might still be a chance that this could be the case. I will assess it again this evening and once again tomorrow morning if I can still run. Compression gear might work, I will try and experiment, but the last thing I want to do is worsening it and putting myself out of the running business for a longer time. While I'm sure the general consensus is to rest completely, my personal experience is that things heal quicker if I keep running, but at a slow pace and always ready to go home if it gets worse. Cycling as cross training might be an option, but definitely not a preferred one.

I had been planning on doing an evaluation on Saturday to see if my body can handle the workload but it looks like reality has caught up a little bit quicker.

When was the last time I had to deal with a running-related injury? Several years ago, not sure exactly. I guess I can still count myself lucky. I probably have pushed things just that little bit too hard, but with my next goal race still 6 months away, this would not be the worst time to get injured, though it might jeopardise my pacing gig in Dublin at the end of the month,

29 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:55, 7:48 pace, HR 138

30 Sep

14.75 miles, 1:55:48, 7:51 pace, HR 143

1 Oct

10 miles, 1:19:41, 7:58 pace, HR 138

2 Oct

15.1 miles, 1:58:46, 7:52 pace, HR 138

You can safely ignore this

This just does not get old. I know you might disagree, but I don’t.

Eventually I’ll have to remove the match from our Sky box as it’s full and Niamh refuses to delete her Desperate Housewives episodes (and Maia is the same with her Peppa Pig ones). Until then I’ll watch it another few times. Sad, maybe, but what do I care!

The main reason I'm rambling about this is because there is no running to write about. I want to have a full day of no discomfort before I start running again. I thought I was there already on Monday, but as I got off the chair on Monday evening, I could feel the knee again (and that’s how the whole episode started). On Tuesday I could feel a twinge first thing in the morning, same again today. I’m starting to wonder if I'm imagining things, but for the time being I'm still prepared to wait.

Niamh keeps asking when I'm back running. I have not noticed any change in my personality but she might have. I think by the weekend she’ll kick me out of the house and onto the road. Allegedly I'm easier to live with when I'm running every day. I suppose dealing with four hyperactive children is hard enough and she doesn’t need a husband in the same condition.

I’ve started doing some much neglected core stability work, more out of boredom than anything else, and to be honest I have my doubts if I will keep this up once I'm back running. I still cycle to work and back every day, so at least I'm getting a bit of cardiovascular exercise, but not much.

In 19 days I'm supposed to pace the Cork marathon, but I’ll try and ignore that as much as I can. I’m clinging onto the hope that the fitness from Vienna (and the 7 years of training before that) will carry me through. It worked in Dublin last year.

What A Beautiful Day

It's been a spectacular few weeks. First this:



And now this:



35 years of waiting finally over. I can die a happy man.

Oh, and even though Google claim that they fixed all problems on blogger after some idiot had pressed the wrong button, I lost most of the comments for the last post. One of them was particularly insightful:

Stop running, you idiot!

though I'd respect you a lot more had you not hidden anonymously. Incidentally, I saw my doctor yesterday for an unrelated matter and mentioned the knee. After plenty of prodding and poking he decided I have some inflammation in my knee, gave me a prescription for pain killers and told me to stop running for a week or two. Now compare that to my prediction of a doctor's visit and tell me I was right down to the last tee.

Actually, since I felt yet another little twinge in my knee on Thursday, I had already stopped running at that point, believe it or not. Now I'll wait until the pain is gone and then get ready to pace the Cork marathon, which is in 3 weeks' time. I came into last year's Dublin marathon in exactly the same position, worrying about an injury, and came through without problems so I'm hoping for a repeat.

Oh, and one other comment asked which running book I would recommend. If I had to recommend just one book, it would be this one, as long as you're interested in running marathons. It's how I got below 3:30, and I know a good few guys who got a lot faster with the schedules in there.

And now, if you excuse me, I'm off celebrating. Even without my knee I don't think I'd be in condition to run tomorrow morning. Good days.

12 May

6 miles, 45:45, 7:36 pace, HR 147

13 May

0

14 May

0

Injury Update

I had planned to do both the office party on Friday night and the race on Saturday morning, but both only half-hearted. I ended up doing neither. My knee was too sore to move and I stayed glued to the sofa. It was very strange, I felt reasonably comfortable either sitting or lying down, but every time I got up my knee would be so sore for about half a minute that I thought I would pass out from the pain. Then the pain would subside and I was again reasonably comfortable walking around. It was the shifting of position that was brutal.

I tried to rest as much as possible on Saturday, but you can only rest so much if you share the house with a bossy wife 4 young children. I had to look after the younger two when Niamh brought the twins to their CTY courses, which required a lot more walking around the house than I would have liked. However, after a lot of icing and trying to rest as much as I could I eventually noticed at bed time that the swelling must have reduced; after looking grotesquely deformed all day I could make out the shape of my knee underneath the skin again, so I knew things were improving.

I took it easy again on Sunday, at least as much as I could under the same constraints as on Saturday, but the difference to Saturday was quite spectacular. The swelling had gone down substantially overnight and I could move around again without pain. A major plus, I can assure you. I had planned on going to the doctor on Monday but now I don’t think I’ll bother. This is clearly improving all by itself and I don’t see the need of spending upwards of €50 for consulting the expert.

I carefully and slightly reluctantly prodded the affected area and located a sore spot right at the outside of the knee. While the whole area is clearly swollen, the rest of it is not actually sore, just one hot spot, possibly where the lateral collateral ligament ("fibular") connects to the fibula, but my entire knowledge of the knee is based on wikipedia, so I may well be wrong.

I have no idea what exactly caused the problem. I certainly did not fall on the ice, I did not twist the knee at any stage nor was there anything else that would have caused a trauma. I woke on Friday with a barely noticeable twinge that I did not think much about, went running, cycled to work and one hour later I was in agony. I was seriously despondent on Saturday, thinking I would be out for several weeks, losing all the fitness just as I was feeling on top of the world. I really do not think it was an overuse injury. I have run both further and harder in the past than during the last few weeks; in fact, training had never felt so easy, so much so that I felt like I was not really training at all, things were happening so easily. To lose all that was a massive blow, but on Sunday my world became a much happier place again.

I still did not run. Monday’s cycle into work was a bit of a test that went well enough. I had no problem getting into work, the knee held up well and there is no real pain. But there is still some swelling, it still feels warm to the touch and while it does not hurt it feels a bit stiff. The last thing I want is another setback, but at the same time I’m aching to get out on the road again. The cold spell is supposed to be over by around Thursday, and while I'm no expert I do suspect that the low temperatures and/or running on ice have something to do with my problem. As much as I loved running in the fresh mornings, what I have just been through was not worth it.