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Day 103–Room For Optimism?

As soon as my day was done working on the Malaysian Grand Prix, I changed out of my work clothes and into my summer running gear for a make or break long run. With the temperature in the high teens and the weak sun trying to shine, I was determined to test the body to see if it is even worth persisting with the dream of making it to Rotterdam two weeks from now.

The opening miles were not promising. For better or worse I decided to abandon the prescribed two minutes walking, two minutes jogging, two minutes running for fear of going delusional if I were to keep that up for the best part of two hours. Whilst the actual pace was not that bad the effort to try and ignore the nagging, consistent pain in the thigh was starting to get the better of me.

At four miles I was actually ready to call it a day and head home. I stopped and, in desperation, did a deep hip flexor stretch for thirty seconds on the left leg. I resumed running and, to my surprise, found that much of the pain in the thigh had disappeared. Were tight hip flexors to blame for all the discomfort?

I decided to revert to plan A and go for it. The long run was back on. I headed to the canal and ran the four and a half miles out to Woolsthorpe. Every ten minutes or so I would stop and repeat the 30 second hip flexor stretch. The pain continued to stay at bay and the legs were running freely, shown in the pace which, before long, was coming down reasonably close to marathon pace. I was beginning to enjoy running again, relishing the pleasantly warm conditions and scenic surroundings on a tranquil Mother’s Day.

At Woolsthorpe, I returned and even though there was the merest headwind the pace, if anything, picked up Any discomfort was coming in the side of the hips and was of the sort that was easily bearable. Only in the final couple of miles did things begin to ache, but I think I was rapidly tiring, being short on sleep and low on energy reserves.

The run over the legs soon stiffened over the course of the evening, but I was at least happy to see that it was possible to run. A lot can happen in two weeks, but I was a lot more optimistic than I was a few days ago. There is now the prospect of taper hell to endure. In some ways being injured makes it easier as I don’t feel as guilty about reducing the mileage. The body is enjoying the rest, for once.

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Day 102 – Hanging On By A Thread

The run on Friday never materialised. Up at 1:30 am after around 2 1/2 hours sleep to cover the Malaysian GP, I managed another 90 minutes fitful sleep around lunchtime. I thought that if there was any chance that the injuries were caused by burning the candle at both ends during the Australian GP weekend (And there is a good chance that there was) then I wasn’t going to take any chances today – especially as things were still generally hurting.

The left leg felt even a little worse through the day on Saturday, thanks probably to a lengthy self massage session attacking numerous trigger points up and down the back and legs. I hesitated about running but decided I should at least try, even if it ended up being aborted after a minute or two. Indeed that is very nearly what happened as the first moments of the run were a pretty sore, limping kind of affair. Thankfully, a little like Thursday, the pain largely subsided.

I did what the Physiotherapist ordered once again: two minutes walking followed by two minutes jogging and two minutes running. The running was the least uncomfortable of the three activities, the jogging sometimes uncomfortable. Keeping close to home as there were a few moments when everything appeared to tighten up and I didn’t fancy a lengthy hobble home, I managed six miles before the sensible side of the brain called a halt to proceedings. Better to finish the run in one piece and be in with a slim hope of racing in two weeks rather than risk all for the sake of an extra mile or two.

The post race ice and exercises were positive – I was able to climb the stairs without pain in the thigh for the first time in nearly two weeks – whether that was because it was numb from the ice packs is debatable – but I’ll take it as a positive sign. I need to try and stay positive, ignore the pitiful weekly mileage and hope that things continue to (Very slowly) improve.

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Day 100 – The (S)Hip Went Down

I tried a run on the Monday, the day after the Coventry Half Marathon. It was just over a mile and was effectively abandoned after a couple of minutes of running, my left leg feeling for all the world like the running equivalent of trying to drive a car with a couple of tyres shaped like a 50 pence piece.

With less than three weeks until Rotterdam I called a physiotherapist right away and was able to get an appointment for the following day. I took a punt on them being top of Google when I put in appropriate search for being injured in Grantham.

The next day and I spent an hour on the physio’s bench, a lot longer than I was meant to. Purely assessment, it seems things were potentially complicated. To surmise, the left leg is broken because bits of the right leg were broken first: the lower back isn’t bending properly; the SI joint or something near it isn’t moving as it should; and the right glute isn’t firing properly or maybe not at all. These all putting too much stress on the left leg and causing a raft of problems.

Several pounds lighter in the pocket, another session was booked for the Wednesday. Running was verboten, for now. Just as well that the continued fighting off of sickness from everyone else in the family was continuing to leave me sufficiently sub-par to not particularly care about the loss of exercise.

Wednesday’s physiotherapy session was largely consisting of loads of exercises to try and get the glute firing again, increasing flexibility in the thorax and improving core stability. There is though the nagging problem that whenever I tried to put weight on the left leg when climbing onto or off a step, there was a fairly noticeable pain. Despite this and other woes, the physiotherapist did at least allow me to commence exercise before I saw her next in six days time. The instructions were: two minutes walking; two minutes jogging; two minutes running – and repeat. I headed home, no run for me that evening, but ready to test the leg the following day.

After working through the early morning and up past lunchtime on Malaysian Grand Prix preparations, I had lunch, a little rest and headed out for the fartlek session. My hopes were not high for a successful run, given that walking around the house was still fairly uncomfortable. However after two minutes of unrecorded walking, I commenced the run with four minutes of jogging, the left thigh was a little painful, particularly at first, but then less so. Then after two minutes of walking and another four minutes of jogging and another walk, I began the run proper, with a two minute jog then a two minute run. I tried not to notice the rather lamentable average pace figures, slow because a fair chunk of the mile was spent walking. Little things like this shouldn’t matter, but I couldn’t help but try and at least walk a little faster.

A bit like an F1 designer taking a rule book then interpreting the rules to push them to an inch of legality, the definition of two minutes running could be taken many ways. I, for better or worse, decided to take two minutes of running as pretty fast running. I did this for two reasons: 1. walking every two minutes in six is pretty frustrating and for my peace of mind running two hard minutes at least makes the session feel worthwhile. 2. As I’m convinced the IT Band is causing a fair chunk of the discomfort, as some piece of work floating around on the internet suggests, running fast is actually less uncomfortable than running slowly.

So I ran pretty quickly, and as the run progressed the leg was less painful. Still noticeably uncomfortable, but not enough to consider stopping and almost good enough to consider running a little further than planned. In the end I decided to stick to plan, partly because now the right hip was beginning to show signs of distress. I’m almost glad it is because in my my mind its showing where the root of the problem is and hopefully all the phantom pain in the left leg will disappear. Wishful thinking most likely, but at the moment I am very much clutching at straws.

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Days 93 & 94 – Trouble In The (S)hip

Thursday’s effort was one of the odder runs. I had a really painful massage in the morning. Loads of things wrong with the left leg, all emanating around the hip. Not totally sure that I came out of the torture room any better off than when I entered it. Hopefully everything is really inflamed and will settle in a couple of days; as it is my body feels battered.

I left at around six for my familiar pre-run before heading to the club. The left leg ached for a bit but wasn’t actually too bad. At times on the 3.5 miles there was no pain at all on the run. The weather was miserable though and near the end of the run I definitely had a couple of dizzy spells that left me a little disorientated.

There is a plethora of bugs and illnesses flying around the household at the moment. I am currently the only one who hasn’t gone down full blown sick (Although I am still not 100% from the cold I picked up a couple of weeks ago) and I think the body is just doing all it can to fight the infections. I pfaffed around a bit at home until it was just about too late to make it to the club in time. I left and ran a few yards, but a bit of pain in the left hip stopped me and I returned home to call it a day.

The next morning and after packing the kids up ready to be taken to school, I changed and got myself out to kind of complete the run I didn’t quite manage the day before. The sunshine brought a better mental attitude and although there was plenty of discomfort in the left leg – the thigh in particular, I was determined to not let it stop me. Health wise, I am feeling around 70%; there is definitely something in the system but not enough to yet stop me.

The leg grumbled to around five miles when I prodded the bit around the Piraformis a bit and a lot of the discomfort disappeared. If I could just have a permanent elbow in the backside I’m sure I’d be running just fine. I brought the run to an end at eight miles, not wanting to overdo it before Sunday’s half marathon, but at the same time not totally sure whether I will race on Sunday – the left leg is that bothersome. Tomorrow will hopefully be better…

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Day 92 – Trying Things Out

The Tuesday run, for a variety of reasons, never materialised. Family illness played a big part, the bigger part though was the left hip and thigh which was painful through much of the day and begged to be rested for an evening which had hill reps planned. They are always a test on the body at the best of times, for once I thought of the bigger picture and kept myself indoors.

The leg felt a little better on Wednesday, but still far from perfect. I headed out for a run which I had no firm idea over its duration or intensity – the theme being very much play it by ear. The opening mile wasn’t too bad, the left thigh took around half a mile before it began aching, similar to intensity to how it was on Sunday – not enough to slow me but enough to make running a not entirely pleasurable affair.

Running the usual park route, at around three miles I decided I was going to run further, originally thinking I could manage ten miles then, when the thigh began to ache a bit more, maybe eight then, a bit further along perhaps just back to six. Back in the town centre I thought I could maybe run seven so I headed back to the park. What was I doing? I couldn’t decide.

Then in the park the body decided to launch itself into a full on mile rep type effort. Not entirely sure why – perhaps frustration, perhaps a desire to see if the heavy mileage had killed my pace or not – but it did, and, somewhat surprisingly, there was no pain at all in the hip nor thigh. I slowed briefly at the crossing then, into Queen Elizabeth Park, I ran the entirety at pace, enjoying running pain free and fairly quickly.

Once out of the park I slowed the pace again and the pain in the thigh returned. This makes me think a part of the problem is coming from the IT Band (I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that the pain can be less when running at pace). Pleasingly too the final stages were run at around 6:20 pace and it felt like I was jogging. If I can shake this problem the things are looking encouraging indeed.