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26-06-2014, 06:53 AM,
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RE:
Black.
Duh.
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02-07-2014, 11:46 AM,
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RE:
Hands up all those who enjoy stretching?!
Not a sausage.
Rather like the response to that last cawfee joke.
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06-07-2014, 01:18 PM,
(This post was last modified: 06-07-2014, 01:21 PM by El Gordo.)
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El Gordo
Administrator
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Posts: 4,591
Threads: 302
Joined: Feb 2003
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RE:
The reference to "cawfee" immediately brought to mind SP's anecdote about the US golf trip. No, I can't repeat it as I wasn't there, but the way he told it had us in stitches one drunken evening in Almeria (is there any other sort?). Sweder was on the golf trip, but it won't sound so funny in print.
As for Dan's troubles and podiatrists etc, I remember talking to a runner after the Chicago Marathon who mentioned she'd been to 5 different podiatrists in a month to try to solve a tendon issue. "Why so many", I naively asked. "The first 4 told me to give up running," she said, without the slightest hint that this might have been a well-rehearsed one-liner.
But she'd got round the marathon in a decent time, so I guess her instincts (and those of the 5th podiatrist) were correct.
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28-07-2014, 09:48 AM,
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marathondan
Back on the road
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Posts: 2,335
Threads: 89
Joined: Oct 2005
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RE:
Back to Dee the Podiatrist this morning, for a very informal chat. We spent quite a lot of time on the Asics website looking at shoes. (Like me, she's an Asics user.) The basic options are to stick with the current GTs and the orthotic she has prescribed, or move up to a Kayano without the orthotic. What difference would the Kayano make? About 40 quid a pair. So we're going with plan A for now.
She has also referred me back to Rob the Physio, for some proper deep tissue massage on the tendon. He is going to take this really small part of my leg, which hurts quite badly when I squeeze or poke it, and repeatedly squeeze and poke it, and perhaps worse. I think I spotted a sadistic gleam in Dee's eye when she bade me farewell with the cliche "no pain, no gain."
But we also had a good little chat about the tendon itself. Like me she was encouraged that I'm running short distances on it pain-free, and like me she thought it was time to start slowly ramping up. This seems to indicate that there's minimal damage to the tendon, but that the fibres are a bit out of shape and rubbing on the surrounding sheath, which is also out of shape due to scar tissue.
Meanwhile, in the last couple of weeks I've got into a good exercise routine, which is hopefully becoming a long-term habit. Early morning isn't my favourite time to run, but I've realised that it's the best time to bag some uninterrupted me-time (no.1 son's bedtime is now 9ish and getting later). So six days a week the drill is up at 5.30, drive to work, then alternately run three miles or stop off at the park for a half hour workout - dips on a park bench, chinups on a handy tree, etc. On Saturday I skip the driving to work bit and make use of the garden, kids' swing frame replacing the chinup tree. As has been well-documented in the past, once I've overcome the urge to stay in bed, motivation isn't an issue - at that time of the morning I'm a mile into the run before I've worked out what's going on. Even now, this morning's effort in light rain and distant thunder is just a memory. And the light endorphin high carries me through the day.
Stay tuned, slow-moving drama fans! Next week: man increases weekly mileage by 1 mile, probably nothing else happens.
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03-08-2014, 10:08 AM,
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RE: 2014
(01-08-2014, 10:19 PM)marathondan Wrote: Dangerous article.
"The correct cadence for runners is 184bpm. "
Scientific fact, folks. You'd better all change now.
Not this runner, baby! A cadence of 184 would see me disappearing up my own arse faster than the imploding Argentinian peso!
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05-08-2014, 06:43 AM,
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El Gordo
Administrator
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Posts: 4,591
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Joined: Feb 2003
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RE: 2014
Good to hear your back into a routine of sorts though. And that's the key word of course -- routine. I took your ages-ago advice about getting back into things by first walking, and for the last few weeks have been managing about an hour every evening -- usually up the very steep local hills. No kids to worry about though, so easier to establish a routine. As for early morning, it's been a while but, to repeat the advice that you already know I'm sure, I find a huge help is to have everything laid out on a chair like I would do the night before a race. The very worst impediment, apart from the sound of icy rain sluicing against the darkened bedroom winter in winter, is having to wander round, still half asleep, looking for that pair of socks or HRM strap or whatever. Up and out before you can stop to think. Up and out and gone. It's the only way.
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05-08-2014, 11:41 AM,
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marathondan
Back on the road
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Posts: 2,335
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RE:
Totally agree about the night-before prep. As a long-term, early-start, early-finish commuter, I'm well versed with the minimalist morning routine - fall out of bed, brush teeth, fall into clothes, fall into car. You do get to hear some odd stuff on the radio though. This morning, Micheala Strachan said "arse" on Radio 4 at 5.59 am.
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06-08-2014, 07:45 PM,
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marathondan
Back on the road
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Posts: 2,335
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Joined: Oct 2005
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Let's push things forward
Firstly, a truly disastrous start to the month. Imagine the worst running-related thing that could happen to me. Yep, that's right. Last week my laptop hard drive ground to a halt and had to be replaced. Of course, all my personal files were backed up to Google Drive. Except I found that a certain file hadn't synced since sometime in June. Which file, you ask? But you already know - my running spreadsheet. 6 weeks' data gone.
Fortunately I'd posted my June total on here, and my July running has been delightfully consistent, so I was able to reconstruct a reasonable approximation of the runs. Phew! As I've mentioned, these early morning runs are quite ephemeral - by mid-morning I'm wondering whether I really was out there in a dewy field at 6am, or if it was just a dream. Some hard numbers in a spreadsheet (or on a blog) give me something to feel good about. So don't mock me too much. Never mind that those "hard numbers" are really just a series of tiny magnetic charges on my laptop, or even more strangely in a server farm goodness knows where.
So, my two months of gentle, exploratory running are over. Time to push things forward. The July total was 24 miles (or maybe a bit more - damn you, google drive!). There was a wobble at the start of the month, but I've now had three weeks of a super-solid routine - three runs and three workouts, all before breakfast. Inexplicably, I'm actually enjoying these sessions, and they don't feel like a chore. Finding an upper body exercise routine that I can stick to has been something of a holy grail for me. I'm hoping that this could become a life-changing habit that sticks, in much the same way that taking up running was, 13 years ago.
Monday morning I ran my lap of the field and then continued up to Mr Clutch (he does so much) to pick up the car, a little over 4 miles in total, and for the first time in 8 months or so I pushed the pace a little. Then this morning I dusted off the Garmin and tried a proper tempo run. The pace was more akin to what I called an easy run a year ago (when I was right in a sweet spot, banging out a 5K PB and doing long-term damage to my tendons in the process). But it felt great - well, until the last mile anyway.
So, as a special treat to myself, I indulged in my favourite activity, and made a plan. I reckon, tendon permitting, I could work up to the Henley half in October. It may not work of course, I might hit a limit where the tendon starts to complain, in which case I'll back right off. But there's no point hanging around forever. Tentatively, once more into the breech, tally ho, and all that.
On the treatment front, you may recall that I'm going back to the physio for some deep tissue torture. Remarkably, I was able to get an appointment tomorrow, near work. Listen out for the screams.
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28-08-2014, 02:57 PM,
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marathondan
Back on the road
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Posts: 2,335
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RE:
I've moved on from the podiatrist to an NHS physio near work, another excellent public servant, this time in the person of Traci. She's put me back on the eccentric loading (time to dust off my spotted waistcoat and bow tie) and showed me how to massage the tendons - basically just giving them a good wiggle. That and the basic stretches of calf, hamstring and quad, which I should be doing anyway.
I went back after a week and we could both detect a reduction in the soreness and the size of the scar tissue. As a reward she gave my right calf a pain-threshold, sweat-beading, deep massage which may or may not have done any good, but at least felt like some good old fashioned physio.
So things are looking good. I've just returned from a week in Rome, where almost all self-treatment fell by the wayside (three lots of loadings + massage adds up to about 45 mins per day) but I managed my three early morning runs. The long one is up to 7 miles now and the tempo pace seems to be improving. Traci is a little concerned that I'm ramping up the mileage and issued strict instructions to stop if there's any pain. Which I will do of course. But I'm still tentatively on course for a return to the Henley HM in October, although it might turn out that a new year effort would be more sensible. And then who knows, maybe a late spring marathon after all.
Looks like I'll just top 50 miles for August, which is very nice. As I say every year, it would be great to maintain that all year round.
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28-08-2014, 07:00 PM,
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RE:
Sounds pretty positive, Dan. I must admit I had never considered a week in Rome for treatment of injuries, but I'll be sure to give it a try next time I feel a twinge.
Maybe two weeks, just to be safe. And maybe not Rome. Perhaps Monaco.
Around Grand Prix time.
Yeah.
I can sense a whole new field of therapy developing along these lines.
One learns so much on the RC forum pages.
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