2014

[marathondan]

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.