Going out for a run.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Monte Pajariel trails.
4ºC Cold wind.
34 minutes 48 seconds.

Ran too fast and once I hit the road it felt as if my calf muscles were going to explode. “Johnny Jogger and the Screaming Calves.” Good name for a band.

Walked the last 2 km home, booting a couple of garden gnomes on the way.

[glaconman]

Be careful with those calf muscles BB. Lengthen and strengthen is the name of the game.

I say that and despite mine having torn twice recently I still can't be ar*ed to stretch them properly.

[Sweder]

I've done ZERO stretching this year. At all. Nada. Nothing. My rationale is if I'm not doing it properly (and I never do) why bother? Just waiting for the loud 'thwap' before my feet coil up to smack me in the ears ...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Gee, you've gone from having a Ray Stevens moment and happily running for an hour to kicking garden gnomes on the long walk home in a very short space of time. Maybe a bit of stretching wouldn't be a bad idea given the intense cold and all..?

[Bierzo Baggie]

Pajariel trails.
0ºC.
Frosty but hardly enough water to form an icy puddle.
Dry dry dry.
Calves OK.
Ran all the way, slow but steady.
46 minutes 11 seconds.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Round the river
0ºC
Hard stony paths and rutted turf.
38 minutes 26 seconds.

Stopped to chat to Domingo the mountain goat who was walking his dog. His knees are crocked from running and his hips are crocked from kayaking but he still walks faster than most.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

"Hard stony paths and rutted turf." That could be your calf issue right there, perhaps?

[Bierzo Baggie]

"Hard stony paths and rutted turf." That could be your calf issue right there, perhaps?

No problem with irregular surfaces where your footfall constantly changes. Only have a problem if I run too fast. And stretching has nothing to do with it. I normally touch my toes a couple of times before I go for a run but this is more of a nervous tic than anything that resembles stretching.

I might run too fast because; a) I haven’t run for ages and I shoot off as if I’m still 20 years old. b) I’m running with somebody else and I run too fast to keep up. c) I hit the road after running over irregular/ hilly/ mountainous terrain and 5 minutes later ...pop.

This type of injury only ever seems to happen when I’m running on the road. Generally recognize the symptoms and walk before it’s too late.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Just a thought - but as it happens I was wondering about this last Saturday when I ran with my son. He ran a couple of laps of a sports ground barefoot before putting his shoes back on to hit the roads again, and I noticed he was still running on his toes as if barefoot. And that (I noticed) puts quite a bit of strain on the calfs.

Do you change your stride when you hit the tarmac? Maybe you're still running in hilly/rutted track mode and needlessly straining the calf muscles. Try running from your core more (stick your navel out) and with more of a mid-foot, rather than a fore-foot strike?

Like I say, just a thought. I'm no expert!

[Bierzo Baggie]

Do you change your stride when you hit the tarmac? Maybe you're still running in hilly/rutted track mode and needlessly straining the calf muscles. Try running from your core more (stick your navel out) and with more of a mid-foot, rather than a fore-foot strike?

Like I say, just a thought. I'm no expert!

There might be something in that. I've always tended to run on my toes, I remember Riazor Blue commenting on that once upon a time. Can't see myself changing the way I run though...but I bet you're right

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Do you change your stride when you hit the tarmac? Maybe you're still running in hilly/rutted track mode and needlessly straining the calf muscles. Try running from your core more (stick your navel out) and with more of a mid-foot, rather than a fore-foot strike?

Like I say, just a thought. I'm no expert!

There might be something in that. I've always tended to run on my toes, I remember Riazor Blue commenting on that once upon a time. Can't see myself changing the way I run though...but I bet you're right

I meant to say that Chris (my son) also has sore calfs, which is why I was watching his gait the other day. Toe-strike definitely tenses the calf muscles!

[Sweder]

Toe-strike, whilst nowhere near as destructive as heel strike, is more a sprinter's gait, best over short, sharp bursts/ short distance. Mid-foot seems to be the desired landing point for most middle/ long distance runners.

Sounds like Chris doesn't 'need' the barefoot sessions if he's up on his toes (but I bet he really enjoys them as they usually feel fast). I find that missing out the barefoot stuff (I've done none so far this year) I revert back towards the old heel strike, especially when tired. My compromise is to run in off-road shoes even on the hard-top. They do come with a certain amount of cushion but it's wafer-thin compared to the great foam platforms fitted in road shoes.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Here's a very revealing extract from an article in the current Marathon & Beyond magazine:

Run on soft surfaces
Another way you can reduce the pounding on your hip, knee, and ankle joints is by running on soft surfaces. Grass fields and sawdust or dirt trails greatly reduce our impact with the ground. This impact, known as ground reactive force (GRF), is one of the most pernicious side effects of our sport.

The high GRF from running on roads causes far more muscle soreness and
inflammation than trail running. A survey (Beckstead et al. 2005) given to trail runners on their training habits and surfaces was most revealing. A typical comment from ultra trail runners in the survey was that their legs are not nearly as sore after a 50-mile trail race compared with running a marathon on the road.

The ultrarunners also reported that their body recovered slower after a marathon. Electron microscope photos of muscle biopsies taken from the legs of marathon road runners look horrendous. Postmarathon muscle tissue is a war zone: widespread disruption to the muscle sarcomere, breached cell membranes that allow the contents and intracellular proteins to spill out into interstitial spaces and the bloodstream, swollen muscle fibers, and damage.

[Sweder]

I concur with all of that. Just discussing the flip side with Dan on his thread - should offroaders do more road work before city marathons to harden legs/ joints to road running before the day? It seems balance is best (usually is). Build mileage on softer surfaces, occasional sessions on hard-top for conditioning. That's my aim this time. The latter stages of a city mara are purgetory for my knees and hips. I'm keen to avoid that in Brighton without chain-chugging ibuprofen.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Pajariel trails
4ªC Sunny. Frosty in the shade of Monte Pajariel.
45 minutes 23 seconds.

I first ran this route 18 winters ago and I’ve run it hundreds of times since.

Listened to some Roy Harper at the weekend and I was feeling somewhat more sensitive than usual. Poetry breeds poetry whatever its form and although there might not be much poetry in my words there was plenty of poetry out there today, in the landscape and in the people that populate it.

Same old landscape, same old people.

18 years and only the bridge and the course of the river have changed.

The basket weaver sat on a kerb carefully laying out his reeds to dry in the morning sunshine.

The mad old woman marched past huffing and puffing through the allotments with sacks of something or other piled high in her wheelbarrow. She shouted at me and I shouted back.

Heard a distant cooing in Toral de Merayo. At first I thought it was a bird but then I realized it was the knife sharpener’s flute calling for custom.

And there’s this generation that refuses to disappear.

Until one day it disappears.

I’ve never ever run listening to music and never will. That doesn’t mean that a soundtrack won’t pop up now and again.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I have to ask, BB - what do you do that enables you to live in such a rustic part of the world? Are you some eccentric billionaire that shuns the world and lives in relative obscurity?

Poetry, indeed. Your running diary makes my suburban plods look more like a piece of obtuse corporate legalese by comparison, and I can honestly say I've never seen a basket weaver nor heard a knife sharpener's call for custom on any of my runs. And more's the pity, I think.

Nice work.

[Bierzo Baggie]

I have to ask, BB - what do you do that enables you to live in such a rustic part of the world? Are you some eccentric billionaire that shuns the world and lives in relative obscurity?

Poetry, indeed. Your running diary makes my suburban plods look more like a piece of obtuse corporate legalese by comparison, and I can honestly say I've never seen a basket weaver nor heard a knife sharpener's call for custom on any of my runs. And more's the pity, I think.

Nice work.

This is traditonally a mining region MLCM. There’s quite a bit of industry too (steelworks, cement factory, coal-fired power station). The rustic fringes coincide with my running routes because it’s what I look for. Don’t think that there are basket weavers and knife sharpeners all over the place.

I think running gives us access to scenes we wouldn’t normally see or recognize, wherever we are. I remember you writing about your walk to work once, noting all the little details...

Basket weaving is usually a gypsy craft but the fellow in question is a retired coal miner with time on his hands.

The knife sharpener pushes a wooden contraption similar to the one below. I've also seen them attached to bicycles. There are families in Toral who still sacrifice a pig or two so knives need sharpening at this time of year.

All these scenes will inevitably disappear over the next few years.

And I’m not an eccentric billionnaire. Came this way 18 years ago, liked it, got married, had a child and that was that. Run a little language school and haven’t made much money out of it. If I ever made a few million, if anywhere, I’d probably emigrate to Oz!

[Sweder]

You'd need a few million to do that. Ain't nothin' cheap about them there parts these days ...

[marathondan]

I think running gives us access to scenes we wouldn’t normally see or recognize, wherever we are.

I completely agree. And you cover twice as much distance as going for a walk. And there's no time to stop and gawk if you do encounter anything interesting - just smile to yourself and move on.

The travelogues of Sweder and Nigel testify that running is the best way to see a new location.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Round the river.
Cold, deliciously crisp, sunny morning.
38 minutes 18 seconds.