Posted on

Day 114 – Nothing More To Do

Tuesday’s run was prescribed as eight miles mostly easy with a couple of quick bits thrown in. Ultimately that’s more or less what happened. A club run with a mix of runners who’d just run a marathon, those who were competing at the weekend and so were tapering and a few who were just there for the ride.

Most of the run was very casual, the left thigh nagged and ached but it wasn’t unbearable. We spent some time in the middle of the run deciding exactly what route to take. In the end we decided to just turn and retrace our steps back along the canal path. This suited me fine as I’m finding downhill sections the hardest to handle at the moment.

Easy paced all the way back along the canal path I allowed myself around 1km  of fast paced running once back on the main path. It felt easy and pretty quick, albeit with continued nagging ache in the thigh. Once home I stretched extensively and again the following morning, putting in some minute long stretches. These seemed to be doing something to the left thigh, at times I thought my phone was vibrating in my pocket; instead it was my  leg in a weird spasm.

I’d debated whether to run on the Wednesday; at the last moment I headed out and did just over four miles. The outward leg was mostly uphill to Gonerby, then coming down, once past the steep downhill, I ran around a mile and a third at marathon HR, which was coming in at near dead on six minutes per mile.

So aerobically I am ready to race on Sunday. The leg – well I am relying on three days rest, a productive massage this morning, and more stretching and massage building up to Sunday. I don’t really like this position of not knowing if I’m going to even make it on Sunday. I think I will; I think it will be painful; whether it will be quick – that I just don’t know.

Posted on

Day 59–At Times I Wonder Why I Do This

I had a timely sports massage booked for the afternoon so I opted to put in a banker run in the morning in case I came out off the massage table in no fit state to run.

With no ill effects from yesterday’s run I set off to do the regular 6.15 mile run out to Dysart Park and back. Pleasingly it was an unspectacular run with very little in the way of discomfort – a few aches on the right quad early on and some tingling on the inner thigh near – otherwise nothing. I was putting in very little effort which made it quite pleasing I averaged 6:56 per mile, the second half significantly quicker thanks to a tasty tail wind – albeit no where near as strong as the gales that battered us and the rest of the country through the afternoon yesterday and into the night.

The run over, it was just a couple of hours and I was with David, my massage therapist. After five minutes of detailing my physical breakdown over the past couple of weeks, he set about putting things to rights. It was, at times, hellishly painful: when you have a thumb stuck deep into an already tender groin, you do wonder why on earth I do what I do to leave myself in a position where this treatment is necessary.

After 50 minutes or so the session was over. We’d found evidence of previous pulls (Presumably when I slipped on the club Christmas Eve run) halfway down the inner thigh, in the groin and tightening of the Psoas. David warned me I would be quite tender for a day or so and suggested ice when I got home. We also went through some stretches I can do  to help the Psoas.

As he predicted the area was soon sore so any thoughts of running again in the evening was put to one side: be thankful that I was at least able to run in the morning and that he thought I should be okay to race on Sunday – although he advised against racing too hard and to think of the bigger picture.

He is, of course right. It is too tempting to ignore the fact I have been and am injured and to resume full training as if nothing happened. What I need to do is to build the mileage and intensity up slowly, assured in the knowledge that the past months of solid training should hold me in good stead come April.

Posted on

Day 58–Systems Check: Room For Optimism?

On Monday after picking my daughter up from school we went firstly to the library and then on to Sports Direct when I was delighted to see they had a hockey ball on sale for £2.49. My Trigger Therapy ball has long ago become misshapen and a little too soft to be of any real use. My hip, groin, and piraformis was crying out for something a little harder and a hockey ball is certainly that.

I played with it a little during my another day off from exercise yesterday, but used it in real anger this morning, working for a long time on the hip and the piraformis, then finding I could release a lot of tightness in the hamstring by rolling on it whilst sitting on a chair, and could do likewise with the groin. After an hour or so of work I could stretch the hamstring without tightness and I decided to test the leg with a short run – no more than twenty minutes.

Considering it was painful to even walk on Sunday by the end of the run, I wasn’t expecting much, but happily there was little in the way of discomfort, running freely and without restriction. There was though in the final half mile a familiar feeling in the lower inner thigh, no pain but touching the area at the end of the run suggested something is still pulling on a tendon or muscle. Still considering where I was at on Sunday there is a sign of hope.

I had planned on doing another three miles or so in the evening but the mother of all storms is hitting the country and, frankly, I’d rather not risk killing myself for some miles that I may well be better off not doing.

Posted on

Day 38–Running Was The Easy Bit

The late morning massage was, as expected, very satisfying, but intensely painful. The sore spots included, but was not limited to: the right groin, hip, thigh and upper hamstring (Was expected); left lower hamstring – well spotted by Mr McKee as that only began to hurt yesterday; the left soleus and plantar on the foot – an excellent call there as I’ve had the odd twinge but forgot about it; and the left shoulder which was “really very tight”. The walking of kids to school using a buggy board and a ruddy big hill is to blame for that.

An hour and ten minutes of body pummelling agony later and I was free to go, feeling conversely somewhat freer and less stiff than I was before I left. Good massage that.

The evening run was to be a similar affair to previous Thursday evenings. Before joining the club run it is around 4.5 miles alone. The legs felt less tired than yesterday but the right groin was still a little troubling – this though was to be expected after some heavy massage on this and the hip.

The club run began as a very sedate affair as we headed on the A607 towards Denton. Out in the country the viciously cold headwind began to bite and for a mile or two it wasn’t much fun. I began to feel hungry, something that has been a bit of an issue in recent days. I think I may be needing to get a couple more hundred calories in me, especially in the form of some late afternoon snack.

Once off the main road there was the only real climb of the night, which felt easier in the dark than it would have been were it light (Still cannot work that one out). Once we made it onto the road to Sproxton I decided to stretch the legs a little and ease away from the group. At around 06:50 miling it was hardly sprinting but it was enough to get the legs working.

This continued on the main road into town, with Gerry easing up onto my shoulder and so ramping up the pace to an extent that before we knew it we were hurtling down the hill at something like five minute miling. We soon put that nonsense to bed as we jogged towards base – I said my farewells and ran onto home – tired but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. With around 16:25 miles covered in just over two hours it was another useful run.