Not depressed just Mental

I caught up with Dr Pain this morning. I told him about my visit to the sports Dr and he'd received a letter from her and read it to me. In the last line she suggested keeping an eye on my mental state. He looked me in the eye and said "You are not depressed just mental" and laughed. Who needs enemies with such a good friend.

Anyway, he is very pleased with how my back, etc, was today and said I could start some sensible reconditioning. He said I have to return slowly as I'll still have good/bads day but thought the All Women's Triathlon would be a good race to aim for, as it's at the start of February and would allow me 5 months to get my body back to normal.

Gees it's nice to be able to plan and have a direction.

TA

(Meanwhile I have to have another blood test to measure my 'soluble transferrin receptor' . Who knows what that is but my Iron levels are not improving despite taking supplements and eating lots of meat.)

Well and truely thumped.

My 2 weeks of low level activity is almost over. In that time I've mostly (see below) restricted myself to walking and one set of very easy wts per week. I have also dropped the anti-inflammatory medication as I felt it wasn't helping and I seemed to be getting side effects that made me hurt more !! I saw the sports physician last week and she suggested that soon I start to re-conditon myself and ease back into running (if the back stays stable). She, also, admitted she can't put a name to what has been wrong with me but assured me I wasn't psychosymatic.

I'm sure this wasn't her idea of easing back into it but I attended a Thump instructor course last Sunday. It was really informative and involved almost 4 hours of practical work. Learnt lots and got very sore in the process. Oh well, you can't be good all the time ;-).

TA

Baby steps (again)

Step 1 of the plan is going OK. Since it started, I've;

• Walked 4.5k in 47 min (Tuesday)
  
• Walked 4.75k in 45 min (Thursday) including 6 x 50m jogs
  
• Walk/run 6.3k in 45 min (Sat) 200m on /200m off
• Walk/Run 7.0k in 45 min (Monday) 500m on / 200m off (5k running all up)

So far, no problems, apart from noticing that I am way out of condition! :-0 Still, it'll all come back soon enough. With a bit of luck, Wednesday morning will mark my graduation from Step 1 when I run (easy!) my old 5.5k loop with no shin/ankle problems. Then it's into Step 2.

One small thing. On my last entry, I wasn't as clear as I could/should have been (thanks Plu for picking it up). I said "Of course, to start with, the long runs will be about 5k :-)". What I meant was that to start with, all the sessions will be very light and simple. They'll really only become intervals or speed or tempo when my body is back up to the required level. For the moment, the real goal is just to be able to run again.

Gnome

Baby steps

TA & I went for a walk this morning! 4.5k at the princely pace of 10.5min/km (actually, it was probably closer to 9.5, but we had the dog with us, and he will insist on sniffing/marking everything he comes across...). Good news is that apart from feeling a slight tightness in my shin after about 1k, no real problems and no after effects. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless :-)

Thank you all for your constructive comments. They helped me to crystalise the things that I was thinking. I appreciate your thoughts. The plan from here has two parts,
Step 1) - slowly get back to running, and
Step 2) - have a modified training plan from there on.

Step 1 has commenced already. Walk every second day. When I can walk without problem (ie today! :-)), then graduate to walk/run - starting with 200m/50m. When I can do that for 30-45 minutes with no ill effects, then increase the run/decrease the walk. When there's no more walking, Step 1) is complete.

Step 2) My old training plan was
Mon - rest,
Tue - short stuff, intervals, hills, etc,
Wed - mid week long run
Thu - cycle morning (25k), track session (speed, hills, etc) night.
Fri - rest
Sat - Tempo or Race
Sun - long run

I'm going to transfer one session to the pool, add in two strength sessions (legs/core) and drop every third week by 40-50% on every session. The pool session will be on Tuesday (giving the legs two days rest from Sunday's pounding - also it's the shortest session of the week, and so most suited to mind-numbing water running :-)). One of the strength sessions will also be Tuesday and one Friday, so Monday is still a complete rest day. Hence, the calendar will now be;
Mon - rest,
Tue - water running intervals. Strength (legs/core)
Wed - mid week long run
Thu - cycle morning (25k), track session (speed, hills, etc) night.
Fri - Strength (legs/core)
Sat - Tempo or Race
Sun - long run.

Of course, to start with, the long runs will be about 5k :-) and we'll build the distance up gradually as usual. I have no distinct goals between now and March, so I've got plenty of time and I can afford to be opportunistic about any runs that come up in the mean time. Central Coast 1/2. Fitzroy Falls. SMC. Lots of places to have lots of fun. Sounds good to me.

Does that all make sense?

Gnome

Advice requested

I was playing around with SportTracks the other day, and I came up with this rather telling graph. It shows my weekly distance from the beginning of December up til now.
The dates aren't readable (sorry!), but what you have is a nice steady build up followed by a few months of consistent running (with 'easy' weeks every once in a while). Then, about the middle ofthe graph, there's a sudden crash when injury kicks in. The two lone peaks in the middle of the graph are me coming back too early, and the marathon itself.

After the marathon, we have a nice steady build up followed by a few months of consistent running (where have we heard this before?) etc, etc, and sadly, etc. So here I find myself after a month of no running, with my goal races as good as gone, my Striders 10k handicap series out the window (I was coming 6th, with an outside chance of a podium finish by the end of the year) and no real idea of how to stop history repeating itself.

I guess that I have two main questions;

1. How do I avoid the 4 month crash? If I'm going to do 6ft, then I need to start training specifically for it in December which by history should have me unable to walk by March :-(
2. Right now, should I emulate Tesso and try to train through the pain, or follow in the footsteps of the Silverfox and take time off until everything is right again?

(By way of background, I ran about 5k on Thursday night. The pain started within 500m, and whilst it quickly reached a certain level and didn't get any worse, I found walking difficult on Friday. In other words, at the moment, I have not improved one iota in the last month).

So, waddayareckon? I have some ideas, and of course I continue to discuss this with the wonderful tiger angel, but I'd be very interested in your views and ideas. I don't mean this to be a pity party - there are many who are far worse off than me (TA for instance) - but I am keen to have a positive plan rather than just continue the way things have been going. Thanks.

Gnome

Another race scratched.

Over the last 8 months my training has decreased incredibly but after a pretty rough last week, it was suggested I reduce it further. I'm still doing light wts, walking and pool work but have stopped trying to do 5k runs once or twice a week and am now doing walk 1k/run 1k instead.

I hate to admit it but I'm doing a bit better and when I saw Dr Pain today he marvelled that he didn't have to readjust my hips or lower back like usual and has asked me to continue like this for another 2 weeks until I see him again. (Still had to re-align 3 ribs though).

So there goes my plans for either a CR5k come back or a Bridge Run. Who was it who said ' Life wasn't meant to be easy!'

TA

'Twas not to be

Under strict instructions from Dr Pain to not run the C2S, I went out for a short jog this morning, "just to see...". I only made it to 500m before giving in. Ah well.

Good luck to all of you running. I hope you have a great day :-)

Gnome

Greys on Trays.

We had a great time at the snow and despite the tear inducing pain I was in at times - I want to go back!! Maybe Gnome and I can sneak away without the kids next time. BTW, did you know that snowboarders of our age are known as 'Greys on trays' :-0.

Last week saw me doing some weights, walks, water running, swimming and a Runclub session. Runclub was one of my favourites - mini 6 foot. I sneaked to the back of the pack and Tim resignedly said "See how you go for one lap" so I headed off very easy. He made me take a short rest after 1.5 laps but then allowed me to continue. The new girl I was running with, actually asked me if I was the club encourager as I spoke to most people I went past! Afterwards we all went out for tea together which was fun.

Saturday I did a PT session alternating bike intervals with good old fashioned 3x10 wt sets. Very solid and I felt very tired at the Swans that night. Sunday I was a bit sore but Gnome and I went for a run anyhow. In hindsight, a water walking session may have been a better choice. Oh well, took a rest yesterday and did a 45 minute walk with the dog today before seeing Dr Pain for the regular 'grease and oil change'. He can be very scary sometimes. For example, today he said 'you held the leash in your right hand didn't you' . 'Yes' say me ' but how do you know?'. ' Oh you've popped out a rib on that side when North has jerked to a stop. Right, lets put it back.' Ouchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. He, also, suggested water walking would have been a better choice.

TA

Waiting, waiting...

We've been having internet problems at home, so this necessarily brief update is coming from work. Dr Pain says that my ankle issue is inflammation of the tendon that lifts the front of the foot (kinda like an anti-archilles :-)). His scary comment was "you have a predisposition to soft tissue injuries in the lower legs". I think another translation of that could be "see you next week, and next month, and next year..." (ouch!). In fact, this is the first time that I've seen him since April, so I mustn't have been trying hard enough :-)

Anyhow, he said to massage it a lot (his actual words were "really hack into it"), ice it lots, don't run more than 10km & see you on Friday. I ran 5k with tiger angel yesterday (love it!) and again by myself this morning, and it didn't feel any worse at the end of the run than it did at the beginning. Unfortunately, it didn't feel any better either.

I think that I'll rest it tomorrow morning, see how it goes with a 10k on Wednesday, but leave it until Friday's discussion with Dr Pain before deciding on C2S (I've realised that I really, really want to do it, though I'm not exactly sure why! :-)

Gnome