I am left to work on my cardio at the moment as I cannot run because of my shin splints. So last night was a trip out on the bike.
I covered 10.4 miles heading down into town around the one way system and back again. It took a little over 45 minutes.

It’s frustrating that I can’t run at the moment but I have a new plan. There are several reasons why I might be getting shin splints and I have tried to adjust all but having my running gait looked at. I wonder if I have excessive overpronation (or underpronation) that is hurting me. There is a specialist running shop in town who, I have discovered, have a gait analysis machine. I am going to head on over this weekend to see if they can fix me.

I think there might have been a false dawn regarding the shin splints.

Last night I went out for a quick run; a short 3 miler and I was out for not more than 35 minutes, but the pain in my shins is back with a vengeance.
To make matters worse, the change in gait that I have been experimenting with is putting pressure on other bits of me and I ended up with really bad back pain while I was running as well.

I’m at a bit of a loss really. Short term I am going to have to rest again which isn’t really good for the final build up for the Great North Run, long term I think I am going to have to get a professional to look at why this is persisting. Dr. Internet is not up to muster on this one.

Last week when I was out on my bike I found a great launch point for the kayak, and with the weather looking good I decided to go for a paddle.

It was a solo effort and I focused on improving my paddling technique and in theory my overall speed. I had done a bit of research online about how to improve my stroke and wanted to put some of the pointers in practice. All told, I think I was paddling better.

The trip was 10 miles of river which I covered in just a few minutes over two hours. I probably could have been quicker but at the Montford Island I went down the wrong channel and ended up grounding on a shallow stretch that kept me busy for about 20 minutes before I was able to re-float. I did forget my iPod so I was going a bit stir crazy towards the end. This was a two hour stint and I was getting a bit bored, I’ll need a fully charged iPod for the DW race methinks.

Sunday was time for me to try out the Kinesio tape and see if this remedy really solves muscular skeletal injuries or is just a gimmicky dupe. The tape itself seems to be some kind of strong medical type, and the adhesive has swirls in it to encourage lymph movement and to courier away sweat. Whenever a product (especially applied externally) claims to encourage things like lymph transit, I get a bit dubious but my shin pain has been debilitating of late and I was prepared to give it a go.

For this injury I found a video on the Runners World website which shows how to self apply the tape. The tape wraps under the sole of my foot from the inside edge to the outside edge, and then up my shin to the point of the pain. A strip of inflexible duct tape is applied over the kinesio tape underneath to support the arch of my foot, and that’s it, done.

I have also been investigating running technique and it seems my tip toe running is ideal for sprinters, but puts immense pressure on the shin when running long distance. So I have now started to use my whole foot when I land, still touching down with my toes but letting my heel fall and take some of the impact as well.

The run on Sunday was going to be a half hour 3 mile jog to test both running technique and Kinesio tape. Three miles is usually enough trigger off the shin pain. I was feeling good about the run at the turn around point though, so I kept going. In the end I completed 6.7 miles in 64 minutes.

I did have a couple of twinges of pain in my shins while running, but nothing compared to the crippling pain I usually get and in the end it was joggers nipple that was the most painful injury I sustained.

I have kept the tape on. That seems to be the difference between kinesio tape compared with other therapeutic sport strapping, you keep the tape in place for several days. It feels a bit strange with support under my foot but I think it is doing some good.

There is an argument that this seemingly miraculous cure for my shin splints is placebo, or maybe it is because I have changed my running style and I am just attributing the improvement to the tape. One day I might test the tapes abilities more scientifically but I am going to keep using it in the build up to the Great North Run and almost certainly during the half marathon itself.

Reading in all the information for the GNR it says that by now I should be able to run 8 miles with ease as part of my ongoing training program, and if I can’t do that I should consider deferring my place till next year.
If I was completely truthful about my ongoing training I would probably say that I should defer, I can’t recall a single training session which has covered 8 miles.
I don’t intend on deferring though. I know I can cover that distance without dying, hell I know I can cover the full half marathon distance in a satisfactory time, and I am a much more accomplished runner than I was way back in March when I completed the Ironbridge Half, my only problem is my shin pain the following morning after a big session and I am going to take steps to address this with Kinesio taping (when the tape arrives) and by adjusting my running gait (with some limited success so far).

With all that said though I do think I need to focus 100% on this half marathon now. Every email and press release I read that I should respect the challenge of the GNR, and so far I haven’t.

Last night after work I ran the Wrekin. This is the same route as I had taken on Friday night where I run around the back of the hill, up the steep side and then over the top following the main route back to the car park. The route is about 4 miles long and climbs up about 1,300ft. I wanted to nick a minute or two off Friday’s time of 43 minutes.

I set off at a solid pace and all was going fine until I hit the steep section. There were a couple of people climbing up that bit too and as I ran past them I knew I was doomed. This section reduced me to a walk last time, and I knew it would this time but now that there was an audience I ran for longer than maybe I should have. When I did finally have to stop running I was buggered. I felt a bit sick (I’ve never run myself so hard that I thought I would be sick before) and had a horrible stitch and as a result the people I jogged past nearly caught me up. More haste less speed and all that.

After I reached the top it was a quick jog back to the bottom and was relatively easy as gravity did most of the work. All in I did it in pretty much the same time as Friday. So much for going faster.

Great North Run Info

My race information for the Great North Run was in the post yesterday, apparently there are going to be fifty four thousand other runners. I don’t think I have ever seen that many people in the same place before!

So now I have a race number and a starting zone and this is where I think I have made a bit of a mistake. The starting zone is based on the time you estimate to be able to finish the half marathon in. When I signed up for this gig I hadn’t run at all and wasn’t very sure of my abilities and if I remember correctly I put down about two and a half hours.

After having now managed a two hour half marathon, I think I can knock forty minutes off that guestimate. However my conservative time has put me in a zone somewhere near the back. The zones are alphabetical (and have a colour associated with them) from A to K with yellow zone A for the fastest professional runners at the front and K for the slowest runners at the back… I am in green zone I. I’m not too hopeful on being surrounded by my running peers all the way back there and I think I will be held up by the press of other people running at a slower speed.

I think my chances of besting my 2:01:32 time for the Ironbridge half is going to be scuppered by my zone allocation, but maybe I can get my green race number up amongst the white race numbers by the end.

It now dawns on me how close the event is though. Four weeks!
Actually, thinking about it, the Great North Swim is before the Run. I wonder when the Swim info is going to turn up…

It’s been a little while since I did anything as far as the training is concerned, wedding anniversary and my ongoing struggle with painful shins has had me sitting on the sidelines a little bit. However I planned a weekend of effort to get me back on course.

Friday night I kicked off with a run around and up the Wrekin. From the gate, climbing slowly around the back of the Wrekin followed by the brutal uphill section that I attacked with gusto but soon reduced me to a walk, then to the top for 30 seconds to take the view in before a casual run to the bottom. All in, was 43 minutes and some seconds.

With my swim across Windermere looming large on the calendar I thought I should prepare for this a little bit for it. I’m a good swimmer, certainly I am a much better swimmer than runner. When I first signed up for the Great North Swim I could cover the total distance pretty easily in the pool and since my first initial swims I decided to focus on my weak event of running.
I did have a nagging concern that I haven’t yet swum outdoors, nor have I really swum in a wetsuit as I will be on the day.

So after some initial research into where I could swim outdoors I found Hanmer Mere. A beautiful lake about twenty miles away from home. The Outdoor Swimming Society said that the water was clean and free from boats and fishing. Sounded ideal.

We arrived at the sleepy village of Hanmer at about 7am, and after initially chickening out of the whole thing because I didn’t want to stroll around the village looking like a penguin sponsored by RipCurl, I did in the end step into the water.

Wading in there was some horrible weeds just under the water which tangled my legs to start with and that pretty much set me up for some paranoid swimming, I kept checking my legs hadn’t tangled some unknown object, and kept peering into the dark water to try and identify what unseen creatures were lurking below the water level.

The water was cold but the wetsuit took the chill out of it and I didn’t really notice the temperature while I was encased in neoprene (getting changed back into clothes on the bank was a shivery affair despite the sun though).

In the pool I have perfected quite an aggressive swimming technique plunging underwater and using every last muscle to whip my speed up. Outdoors, in a wetsuit, stalked by unknown aquatic predators, I lost some of my confidence and nothing above my chin went under water. Strange underwater currents sometimes took some of the power from my stroke (giving a feeling not unlike slipping off a kerb) and wind blown waves would slap me in the face, all of which made me a bit pensive.

By the time I was back on shore I was exhausted, the combination of physical exertion and adrenaline really wore me out. I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the great north swim, though I am hoping the proximity of the other swimmers will alleviate my worries. I don’t think I am cut out for outdoor swimming as a rule though.

But wait, that’s not all. There was still Sunday. Keen to keep building on the weekends efforts I unloaded the bike and set off for a good solid ride.

I headed off to see the sights of Shropshire. I didn’t really have any idea where I was going, I just went where I fancied. I took in some of the most beautiful bits of this county and at some point dropped onto a section of the National Cycle Network route 81. I had no idea until now that this existed but it was great. Really nice roads, mostly free from traffic, the signs were easy to follow, and looking at the website there are loads of these routes all over the place. I covered 19.4 miles in an hour and a half and had one of the best outings for a while.

And finally, I was watching the World Athletics championships last night and noticed that one of the athletes had quite heavy strapping on their legs and wondered if strapping could help my shin splints problem that takes me out of training every couple of weeks. So as always I turn to Dr. Internet to see what I can find, and I discovered Kinesio Taping and also a strapping technique for Shin Splints. This tape is designed to breath and move and act like skin while at the same time supporting the muscle structure. It is designed to stay on for days at a time to aid in recovery as well as supporting during exercise. This shin pain is really annoying me, and if Kinesio taping is good enough for world athletes, I’m game to give it a go.

I have had a couple of quiet days, my shin splints have come back a little bit and are making running a bit painful.

On the weekend though my car went into the garage and didn’t come back out again which then left me working out how to get into work on Monday morning. This time last year I would have gone for the soft option and got a lift, but instead I chose to cycle the twenty odd miles to work.

I gave myself two hours to get to work and timed it so I had a bit of time to get refreshed and changed before anyone else came in. In the end I covered the distance in an hour and a half and had plenty of time to get ready for a day at work.

My car then got better and was ready to be collected. My plan was simple. Blast back to collect it before they closed. The garage was four miles closer and closed at six, I finished work at five. So I had to cover sixteen miles in sixty minutes… My cycle computer claimed that I normally average about thirteen miles an hour, so for this to work I would have to go faster than my usual cruising speed.

The long version of this story has me battling with rush hour traffic, an incident with a red Audi and a white Transit van. There is also a bit where I blast past other cyclists as thought they were not moving and of me hitting thirty four miles an hour, but the short version of the story has me covering the distance in a couple of minutes under the hour and collecting my car with steam coming off my legs.

All in, I cycled 36.3 miles in the day. Now I appreciate that isn’t exactly Tour De France sort of distances, but they don’t ride with a rucksack of stuff for work, and then do a full days worth of work do they?...

Anyway, I slept like a log last night and I have those good aches when you know you have worked hard in my legs and my back and shoulders. I had to cycle to work out of necessity this time, but next time the weather is looking decent, I might well do it again.