Friday, March 21, 2008

A minor setback

A trip to Brad the physio yesterday sees me now sporting a very attractive piece of strapping on my right shin, which is somewhat reminiscent of Roman gladiator gaitors. My poor old tibialis posteriors are doing far too much work and now unfortunately the sheath around the tib is a bit inflamed. The strapping is an experiment to see if it takes the load off the tib post.

As instructed I did a 5km run this morning to see how it felt. I think it helps as the leg doesn't feel too bad now whereas the left unstrapped one feels a bit tight. It appears that the long lay off means I lost the conditioning in my lower legs and now I have to go through the hassle of toughening them up again.

The treatment includes:
  1. Only running 3 times a week and no back to back runs
  2. Taking anti-inflammatories for 5 days
  3. Strapping if it helps
  4. Lots of calf stretches, but not off the step. Brad doesn't like that particular stretch as he says that hanging off the step makes the calf contract and then you're trying to stretch it so it doesn't really work, so it's leaning into the wall stretches only
  5. 3x15 eccentric calf exercises twice a day on both legs to strengthen the other muscles so the tib post doesn't have to do as much work. I feel like I have to condition my body one body part at a time at the moment.
  6. Doing some water running/spin classes to maintain the limited fitness

So, a minor setback and I'm not really surprised as I do appear to be extremely prone to inflammation. Brad informs me that researchers have isolated a gene which predisposes people to tendinopathy and inflammation and he believes I probably have it. Not a big issue, except you have to manage things before they get out of hand and he suggested that just keeping running until your leg snaps is probably not the best way to go! I have to say I agree with him there and will obey orders! We'll have to see how it is in the next couple of weeks before I decide if the 5km at Canberra is feasible or advisable. Fingers crossed!

Three bits of good news though:

  1. My hips and pelvis are looking great apparently - very symmetrical so I'm obviously doing all the right things there
  2. I get to go water running with Ellie
  3. Nothing else is hurting :)

posted by Lulu @ 10:35 AM 4 comments

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Interesting intervals

I thought today I would try and revive the interval training I had been doing before my feet started playing up. I ran up that same old hill to New South Head Rd again and into Christenson Park.

I started with a few drills and then decided to try and do 1 min intervals. However, after two I was already struggling so I downgraded to 30 sec with a minute's rest. It was still a stuggle today and one of my quads started to feel like it was strained so I pulled the pin after 5 and ran back home, for a total of about 5km. It was a struggle from the start today and yesterday I felt dreadful for most of the day, so I think I'm back in one of my fatigued states which I'm hoping won't last too long.

I'll have to review the intervals as it definitely seems to increase the risk of niggles, so perhaps it's safer to stick to fartlek and long runs for now.

posted by Lulu @ 9:27 AM 3 comments

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Getting back into the groove

Another pretty good week this week with four runs, one gym session, one Crazy Ab lady class and about 3 ab sessions on my own. The feet are feeling better and as long as I do my ab exercises the hip doesn't hurt.

Runs this week were:
Tues; 5km around Queen's Park
Fri: 5km in the dark around the streets
Sat: 4km fartlek around Centennial
Sun: 8.75 around the hills of Vaucluse and Watson's Bay.

I was accompanied on my run this morning by Running Angel, and Ellie walking Max, my friends' dog who Mr lulu and I are currently looking after. Poor Ellie was dragged around a bit by Max until she wore him out a bit! I was dragged around by Running Angel who definitely wore me out. We ran out of Vaucluse up the hill to New South Head Rd and to Christenson Park where we re-met Ellie and Max. Then it was off down the coast path to Watson's Bay. Lots of hills involved as we were going back and forth to tell Ellie where we were heading and this involved doing several hill repeats as we ran down and then ran back up again. From Watson's Bay we headed back towards the house, and as we still had 8 mins to go Running Angel said ' let's do another hill'. Personally, I think she's mad but nevertheless followed obediently back up the hill to New SH Rd and back again for a total of 60 mins, my longest run since about June last year. I felt pretty good most of the way considering I have done very few hills recently and I'm definitely beginning to feel that my fitness is gradually coming back. A pretty slow pace but at least I did the full hour and lots of hills.

If I can just get a good solid period of injury free running then I'll be happy!

We ended the morning's activities with a quick cooldown dip at Neilson's Park where we awaited Mr lulu after his last 3 hour run, and then brekkie at the kiosk. A very nice way to spend a Sunday.. those people who don't run don't know what they are missing out on :)

posted by Lulu @ 12:34 PM 4 comments

Sunday, March 09, 2008

A little help from my friends!

We arrived in Bathurst on Sat afternoon and enjoyed the hospitality of Mr lulu's sister and her husband, who stuffed us with wine and pasta ready for the morning.

We arrived in Orange in plenty of time, so I headed out for my run before the race started so I could do cheer squad duties. I did a lap of part of the course, which confused some of the volunteers who looked at me a bit strangely! It felt hard work but I managed to keep going for 52 mins, my longest run for months. I wasn't wearing Garth as he got left behind in Bathurst but I think it was about 8km and the only niggle was the foot.

I waited near the start for Mr lulu to appear, gave him a cheer and then headed back to the start area for a coffee and waited for him to return. A creditable 87.25 mins later he finished. This is not a half PB but more importantly is a 4 min improvement on his time last year, which bodes well for his Canberra attempt. Fingers crossed anyway.

The rest of the week has been a good week of training, (at last) and it's down to arranging to meet up with people at unearthly times of the morning to go training... and it works, because I am far too polite to let people down!

Gym on Monday with the trainer, a rest day on Tues and then a short run on Weds pm. I struggled as I hadn't eaten much during the day and only managed 3.5km and then had to lie down for 30 mins when I got home to recover!

Thurs it was up at the lovely hour of 5am to meet Jen and Ellie for a lap of the park. It was great to be running with the girls again, even though they did take great pleasure in dropping me on the last hill :) Next time, I won't wait for them at the bottom of it! Ellie's garmin had us at about 5.85km. No niggles :)

Friday I met up with Running Angel, (still happy with her 10km PB from Orange at the weekend), for a Spin class. Another good workout and we're going to make it a regular Friday event.

Yesterday I headed out for a quick trot on my old 2 beaches route, down to Clovelly and then up to Bronte and up through the gully. Last time I tried this route I had to walk up most of the hills, this time I only had one little walk on one of the long hills so I was pretty pleased. The average time was also good at 6.14 pace and 4km. It was then off to be tortured by the crazy ab lady and she really gave the old body a good work out. As usual, my hip felt perfect again afterwards so it's worth the pain!

I set out today with the intention of doing an hour, but my legs didn't obey orders and went out a bit faster than I intended and so I was quite glad when I bumped into Amanda and Fats showing off the brand new baby Beatrix, who is quite gorgeous! Amanda told me to get going again so I set off up the hill where I met up with Mr lulu who was struggling a bit with a sore quad so I advised him to head home where I would do my best to fix it if I ever made it back! The long hill up the side of the Cook Road took it's toll and there was a short burst of walking before heading down York Road and starting up the hill home. Here I came across Mr lulu walking home and as I was really starting to struggle and my form was going I stopped and walked home with him. A nice 8kms and 53.45 mins with an average pace of 6.35. Next week I'll have to contain myself on the early stages and see if I can make the hour.

Most importantly, the mechanics have done a good job on the lulu this week and not even my foot was playing up today.

Alcolhol Free March also commenced last Sunday; in fact I'm going to keep it up until after my little 5km trot on marathon weekend and Running Angel is keeping me company on my quest. I even managed to survive a two day offsite with all the sales managers without resorting to drink!

posted by Lulu @ 6:09 PM 8 comments

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Deja Vu

Well here we are at the start of another month and it's been the same old sorry state of affairs. Weight the same - check, inconsistent training - check, and work taking up far too much time - check!

Even my best efforts at applying coaching techniques failed to keep me on course on Feb. Without them I would have probably ended up an overweight, alcoholic, couch potato so let's look on the bright side. Monthly kms were even less than Jan, which is funny really!

So, what are we going to do about it... well what else can we do but keep on keeping on doing the best I can. I've been in my new job for 4 months now and things have been going really well and I've established some good relationships with the key people who can see where I can assist them. Of course that means that they are now asking me to help them which I try to do whilst doing my day job setting up the total sales effectiveness strategy and trying to implement it. Consequently, my days are getting longer and my opportunity for running is getting less. I'll try for acohol free March and I hope I won't be doing too much travelling this month so will be able to eat a little more healthily. I've also arranged to meet Ellie for a run on Thursday am so come rain or shine I shall have to go and meet her. I won't mind being in the park in the dark either with some company.

This week was a classic. The week started well and I was up nice and early on Tuesday to do a short interval session. I've lengthened my intervals up from 30 secs to a minute so that I'm not pushing quite as hard and so putting slightly less pressure on the temperamental foot and calf. A total of 4.5 kms and not a bad session.

Weds I had a massage and ET tortured the foot finally into submission I think. I intended to test it out on Weds evening, but after getting held up at work it was nearly 7pm by the time I made it to Centennial Park. Big black clouds hung overhead and I was just wondering if the predicted storm had arrived and whether I'd get struck by lightening or not, when I heard the crack of a lightening fork and a big clap of thunder overhead. Hmmm.. shall I carry on and run under the trees for safety or shall I go home and cook dinner. Cooking dinner won out.

Thursday I at least managed to get out of bed at 5.15 so I could go for a run before catching a plane to Brissie but my foot was a bit tender from ETs ministrations so I got back into bed again.

That brings us to Friday. A hard session at the gym with the Glute Torturer in the morning and I had every intention of going out for a run when I got home. After picking up some running shoes for Mr lulu, doing the shopping for dinner and handling a Queensland work crisis on the the way home, it was about 7.30pm before I could think about it and Mr lulu was looking expectantly at the dinner table.... there goes another one!

Finally, this morning the alarm went off at 6 and I dragged myself out of bed and down to the park. I felt tired and knew I wasn't firing on all cylinders, as any time I tried to do an faster surge there wasn't much difference in pace. In the end I stopped at 4kms and walked back home. Still at least it was 4kms at 6.15 pace. The foot and hip niggles are all a lot better though so that's a positive.

Then I headed off to the North Shore to see the Crazy Ab Lady for some more torture.

My theory about her exercises being the ones that really stop my hip/groin niggling has been proved correct and she confirmed that a lot of what we do does put the femur in the hip socket in the right place. This is really what it feels like to me and my groin pain goes away instantly, presumably because the femur is no longer jammed against the damaged cartiledge. At least I know what I need to keep doing.

We're off to Orange in an hour so that Mr lulu can run in the half marathon out there as part of his prep for Canberra marathon. The course looks a bit flatter, and it's forecast to be cool this year so we hope he'll do a good time. I was thinking about doing the 5km as I did last year but I don't need further confirmation of my lack of fitness so I'm going to just do a training run while he's out racing.

posted by Lulu @ 10:45 AM 6 comments