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+--- Thread: Lazarus (/showthread.php?tid=2614)
Lazarus - Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man - 30-09-2019
Six months and a day since plantar fasciosis drew a thick, heavy line under my running log with the very real promise that I may never run again, I am in fact now finally jogging once more. Mostly free of pain, I have a new podiatrist, new shoes, new orthotics, a new training plan and a fresh outlook on life.
It's baby steps for a while yet, but I'm back.
RE: Lazarus - Antonio247 - 30-09-2019
That's a wonderful piece of news, MLCMM. It's really disappointing when you want to train but you can't because of a tough injury. Looking forward to reading your interesting reports again. It'd be perfect if EG could go for a run again.
Saludos desde Almería.
RE: Lazarus - Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man - 03-10-2019
Well, just four short (15 minutes) runs into the new me-being-a-runner again, and thus far all is well. There's still another week of this until my next visit to the podiatrist who will then hopefully give me the green light to start (slowly) ramping up the mileage again into something that can a little more properly be called running.
Slow and steady it necessarily may be, but at least I'm running once more, and already it's feeling really truly wonderful!
RE: Lazarus - Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man - 12-10-2019
I'm getting set to watch Eliud Kipchoge's latest attempt at a sub-2 hour marathon.
Here's an interesting insight to Kipchoge by Ed Caesar:
https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/inside-the-race-to-break-the-two-hour-marathon-eliud-kipchoge?utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=tny
RE: Lazarus - Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man - 13-10-2019
Sub-Two, and all that!
Yesterday I had the privilege of watching (online) Eliud Kipchoge become the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, which he did with seeming ease. Of course the apparent margin of comfort he had belies the years of training that led up to the record breaking effort.
Four and a half years ago I saw Kipchoge in the flesh at the London marathon. Back then he was running in only his fifth full marathon, but already he was an up and coming champion of stratospheric status, having won three of his four previous races to that point. They were significant races, too: Hamburg, Berlin, Rotterdam and Chicago, and Wilson Kipsang, then, and still to date the only person to beat Kipchoge in a marathon had to run a world record to do so.
The photo below that I took that day in 2015 to me is astonishing, even more so now than it was at the time. It's at about the 30km point of the London race and shows four Kenyans: Wilson Kipsang (the previous world record holder), Dennis Kimetto (then the current world record holder), Kipchoge and another marathon great with a best time of 2h03m51s, Stanley Biwott. These four were battling for the win, with Kipchoge eventually just pipping Kipsang at the end, with Kimetto third and Biwott fourth. Just tucked in behind them is the Ethiopian Regassa who finished fifth.
The winning time that day was 2h04m42s, which seems almost turgid compared to the times we're seeing now, just four years later. Kipchoge's best marathon time to that point was 2h04m05s, which ironically was his second place behind Kipsang at the 2012 Berlin marathon. A year later at London again, he lowered that to 2h03m05s, a course record, and then audaciously began training for his first proper crack at breaking two hours, the Nike-sponsored 'Breaking 2' event at Monza in 2017, although there was the small matter of an Olympic gold medal prior to that at the Rio Olympics.
After coming close at Monza (2h00m25s), and then lowering the race world record to 2h01m39s at the 2018 Berlin marathon, it seemed just a question of time before he would indeed break the two-hour mark.
Watching all that unfold yesterday instantly reminded my of watching Armstrong stepping onto the moon a little over 50 years ago, it was that sort of momentous occasion. Of course it has also been likened to Bannister breaking the four-minute mile way back in 1954, and like that occasion, the hope is that now the barrier has been broken, many more will realise the possibility of it and continue to lower the mark. Of course, the first real step is to lower the race record to two hours. That will still require a great many things to go right on the day for the athlete who achieves it, but after watching Kenenisa Bekele two weeks ago clock 2h01m41s at the Berlin marathon, I feel it won't be that far away.
These are exciting times that I never thought I'd get to see, and such a welcome distraction from the relentless horrors of the everyday news bulletins of late.
My own running is so far at the other end of the scale I'll leave discussion of it until the next post, but it is all good news thus far.
Wow, how exciting is this?
[attachment=3327]
RE: Lazarus - Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man - 21-10-2019
Double wow! With Brigid Kosgei smashing Paula Radcliffe's long-standing world record for the women's marathon at Chicago with a time of 2h14m04s, things are really beginning to heat up in the world of distance running. Fitting, too, that Kosgei set the new mark seven years to the day since Paula set her record in the same event. These are exciting times, and a very welcome distraction from nearly every other aspect of world news, which is depressing and distressing in the extreme.
A brief update on my own efforts to return to the world of running: it's a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole a positive story to tell. I received today my updated, super-charged orthotics which have greater correction and substantially more cushioning than previous models. However, my podiatrist warns me that the residual inflammation that is the plantar fasciosis residing in both my feet, but predominantly the right one, will still take a further six months to fully disappear. And while the pain is only evident when massaging the affected area, and is otherwise fine for normal everyday walking and light running, there it does remain, and stubbornly so.
And so my running has to remain very, very easy for some time yet. Over the last three weeks since I once again laced up running shoes and wondered at the tightness of my previously comfortable running shorts, I have completed fourteen short easy jogs of just 15 to 20 minutes each. To build these into anything resembling a proper training run is going to take time, but the journey has begun, and whilst it's frustrating to be doing nothing more than a very short, very easy lightweight jog barely resembling any form of actual running, I am grateful at least for the health benefits I am slowly beginning to see, and to be wearing running kit again, even if it is a little tight for the moment.
Even if I could run for around two hours (and I can't, yet) unlike Kipchoge and Kosgei who would be in and around the marathon mark, I would barely cover maybe 16km.
Still, I'm 58 now, and returning from injury at this stage of my life was never going to be easy. But I'll get there.
I will.
RE: Lazarus - Antonio247 - 24-10-2019
I'm very glad you're feeling better so that you can go for a run again, MLCMM. I'm sure that in a few months' time you'll be able to run faster and more comfortably.
Saludos desde Almería.
RE: Lazarus - glaconman - 28-10-2019
Glad you're managing to enter into the routine again MLCMM. PF is debilitating in that respect.
I think just being part of the process again (minus the usual pace and distance) will give benefits physically and mentally.
I'm even starting to do some running again myself after 18 months with precious little.
Some optimism again.