I was saving my blog update for today because I wanted to write about what the doctor said… Only he didn’t say anything, at least to me. I missed my appointment like a feckless idiot. New appointment made for next Monday, so hopefully I will be unleashed on to the streets again soon.
Friday night squash was another thrashing. I’m getting better though and managed to score 4 points in one game. We played for an hour and it was pretty knackering. I have also started to develop a new injury which seems to manifest itself when playing squash. The top of my foot hurts like a bruise, and is really painful by the time we finished. I was going to mention this to the doctor but as I already said, I missed the appointment.
Swimming on Saturday was pretty half arsed as well. It was my birthday over the weekend so I wasn’t really in the mood for doing anything other than chilling out. I tried to master this Total Immersion Swimming technique but it’s harder than the book implies and I ended up doing some rather lame lengths. Next weekend I will give it a more thorough go.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Monday, 16 November 2009
Another weekly report. I have slumped into a lack of training hole here at the moment. No direction, bad weather, dark nights and Modern Warfare 2 has seen my physical activity reduced to just two efforts a week.
Friday night was squash night, 40 minutes played pretty much. This didn’t hurt half as much as it did the first time last week and I don’t ache at all today. I also scored some points this week my best game I was only thrashed 3 – 9. I am thinking of sneakily hiring a squash court to spend the time practicing serving to myself as I give the advantage back too often despite some heroic play.
Swimming Saturday. 1.1 miles covered (54 lengths) in 50 minutes. But I think for the short term this will be the last session of just doing lengths for swimming’s sake. I have taken internet advice and have started investigating the Total Immersion swimming technique. I am only at chapter 2 of the book but it seems that I can swim faster and further with a different technique, so I think next week I will be focusing whatever drills the book suggests.
Friday night was squash night, 40 minutes played pretty much. This didn’t hurt half as much as it did the first time last week and I don’t ache at all today. I also scored some points this week my best game I was only thrashed 3 – 9. I am thinking of sneakily hiring a squash court to spend the time practicing serving to myself as I give the advantage back too often despite some heroic play.
Swimming Saturday. 1.1 miles covered (54 lengths) in 50 minutes. But I think for the short term this will be the last session of just doing lengths for swimming’s sake. I have taken internet advice and have started investigating the Total Immersion swimming technique. I am only at chapter 2 of the book but it seems that I can swim faster and further with a different technique, so I think next week I will be focusing whatever drills the book suggests.
Monday, 9 November 2009
My training has really become a weekend affair with the nights closing in and it getting colder and more unpleasant out. Also with my leg x-ray coming up I don’t want to start putting in long runs in on the off chance that I make something appear worse than it is. But that’s not to say that I am not doing anything and I have an ache today, the likes of which I haven’t experienced for a while.
Wednesday morning I woke early, and rather than lounge in bed watching breakfast news, I went for a run. My running is being kept to a minimum and I was only out for about half an hour.
Friday night will now see a new element being added to the cross training, Squash. This brutal game is the reason why every muscle in my body aches like agony today. My dad used to play a lot of squash a few years ago, and I played when I was at school too, so I thought it would be easy to have a semi-competitive game once a week.
Turns out our skill levels are separated by some margin and I spent most of the time thrashing thin air or hitting the ball outside the game area while my dad patiently talked me through some of the finer points on how to play.
No matter. I improved toward the end and was able to get some control of the shots, with a little practice I will be brilliant at this game.
Squash is not like distance running which is a sort of continuous load on the muscles and cardio systems. Squash is 50% standing around 50% explosive energy and I was knackered. I had worked up a massive sweat after ten minutes, and was close to fainting at one point. We played for about an hour and it really took it’s toll. My left hand (the hand with the racket) aches, and my left deltoid feels a little tighter from my enthusiastic swinging at the ball. But every other muscle in my body has been tight and yesterday I struggled to move at all.
Saturday saw the continuation of the weekend swim. I’m loving this at the moment. 52 lengths swum this Saturday (I intend to increase the number of laps each week) with more distance with the front crawl. I’m finding that I am running out of energy while doing front crawl after about a length, I sort of feel out of breath and my arms start to flail about a bit. I don’t know if it because my breathing technique is bad or that I don’t have enough stamina in my arms. Either way I am going to have to keep on putting the lengths in.
Wednesday morning I woke early, and rather than lounge in bed watching breakfast news, I went for a run. My running is being kept to a minimum and I was only out for about half an hour.
Friday night will now see a new element being added to the cross training, Squash. This brutal game is the reason why every muscle in my body aches like agony today. My dad used to play a lot of squash a few years ago, and I played when I was at school too, so I thought it would be easy to have a semi-competitive game once a week.
Turns out our skill levels are separated by some margin and I spent most of the time thrashing thin air or hitting the ball outside the game area while my dad patiently talked me through some of the finer points on how to play.
No matter. I improved toward the end and was able to get some control of the shots, with a little practice I will be brilliant at this game.
Squash is not like distance running which is a sort of continuous load on the muscles and cardio systems. Squash is 50% standing around 50% explosive energy and I was knackered. I had worked up a massive sweat after ten minutes, and was close to fainting at one point. We played for about an hour and it really took it’s toll. My left hand (the hand with the racket) aches, and my left deltoid feels a little tighter from my enthusiastic swinging at the ball. But every other muscle in my body has been tight and yesterday I struggled to move at all.
Saturday saw the continuation of the weekend swim. I’m loving this at the moment. 52 lengths swum this Saturday (I intend to increase the number of laps each week) with more distance with the front crawl. I’m finding that I am running out of energy while doing front crawl after about a length, I sort of feel out of breath and my arms start to flail about a bit. I don’t know if it because my breathing technique is bad or that I don’t have enough stamina in my arms. Either way I am going to have to keep on putting the lengths in.
Monday, 2 November 2009
I seem to be getting down to a weekly update rather than a daily at the moment which is a reflection on the slightly scaled back training I was doing. It is now going back up a gear because I have something to aim for.
Last week midweek (I think Wednesday… Quickly checks twitter updates… Yes. Wednesday) I was up early and went for a quick run. I convinced the wife to come with me as she is a little slower than me and would keep my pace to a slower which would be less damaging to my legs. It was only half an hour but it was nice, no strains or pains.
Saturday we went swimming again. I think this is going to become a regular thing as we are both getting a lot out of it at the moment. I wanted to swim a minimum of a mile while we were there so I set off counting lengths. I needed to swim 50 of them and had managed that after about 50 minutes. I don’t quite know why I was slower than for the Great North Swim, maybe I stopped more often than I thought to talk to the wife. I don’t know but I’m not going to worry about it too much, I have plenty of time to work up to the speed I want to achieve for next years great north swim.
The weather on Sunday was looking pretty atrocious so I shoehorned a kayak trip into the Saturday afternoon. An hour on the water was good, after the swim it was hard work on the arms and I really felt the aches in my back and chest muscles on Sunday.
I am now putting together a week long fitness plan for me and the wife that will be set in stone, with the condition that we will do everything set out on the plan each and every day and we had better have a phenomenally good reason for not doing each days plan. I had a plan with the Whitehouse gym that Fitness Stu put together for me ages ago, and I suppose I could go back to that, but that would involve actually going to the gym which was a pain in the arse after work mid-week.
The new race I have to train for. Someone I follow on twitter suggested a Kilomarathon. 26 kilometres (instead of miles as you would get in a normal marathon) which works out to be about 16 odd miles. I have just signed up for it so now I am pretty much committed to training. Minor worry about what the doctor said about anterior compartment syndrome but I’m sure I’ll be able to find a way to run around the problem by March 14th.
Last week midweek (I think Wednesday… Quickly checks twitter updates… Yes. Wednesday) I was up early and went for a quick run. I convinced the wife to come with me as she is a little slower than me and would keep my pace to a slower which would be less damaging to my legs. It was only half an hour but it was nice, no strains or pains.
Saturday we went swimming again. I think this is going to become a regular thing as we are both getting a lot out of it at the moment. I wanted to swim a minimum of a mile while we were there so I set off counting lengths. I needed to swim 50 of them and had managed that after about 50 minutes. I don’t quite know why I was slower than for the Great North Swim, maybe I stopped more often than I thought to talk to the wife. I don’t know but I’m not going to worry about it too much, I have plenty of time to work up to the speed I want to achieve for next years great north swim.
The weather on Sunday was looking pretty atrocious so I shoehorned a kayak trip into the Saturday afternoon. An hour on the water was good, after the swim it was hard work on the arms and I really felt the aches in my back and chest muscles on Sunday.
I am now putting together a week long fitness plan for me and the wife that will be set in stone, with the condition that we will do everything set out on the plan each and every day and we had better have a phenomenally good reason for not doing each days plan. I had a plan with the Whitehouse gym that Fitness Stu put together for me ages ago, and I suppose I could go back to that, but that would involve actually going to the gym which was a pain in the arse after work mid-week.
The new race I have to train for. Someone I follow on twitter suggested a Kilomarathon. 26 kilometres (instead of miles as you would get in a normal marathon) which works out to be about 16 odd miles. I have just signed up for it so now I am pretty much committed to training. Minor worry about what the doctor said about anterior compartment syndrome but I’m sure I’ll be able to find a way to run around the problem by March 14th.
Monday, 26 October 2009
It has been so long since I have done anything energetic I was starting to wonder if I had permanently slipped back to a sedentary lifestyle. What with the doctor telling me I can’t run at the moment, the weather having a turn for the colder and no tangible goal to train for I have completely lacked motivation to get out of the house to do something.
After some persuasion though I was talked into going swimming at the local baths on Saturday morning. Nice and early at 8am we were there and it was filled with people who actually wanted to swim.
I did all of my swimming training for the Great North Swim in the pool at the Whitehouse, which although very nice was quite short at 15 metres iirc, and I seemed to be forever turning round and not able to swim at full power for very long. Shrewsbury pool on the other hand is 33 metres long, and with the diving boards it is very deep too. 45 minutes swimming and we packed it in. as far as pushing the boundaries of physical exertions go, this wasn’t a big effort but it was an important start again and I think this will become a regular Saturday morning thing.
Sunday saw me get the boat back out again. I can’t remember the last time I got the kayak out. It has got to be a good few months though and it told when I forgot my spraydeck. It wasn’t until I got into the boat on the launch and my hands tried to lock the deck into place with muscle memory, that I finally realised that I had forgotten something. I didn’t much matter though I wasn’t doing anything more exciting than taking in the sights of the Shrewsbury loop, and it was only when I paddled backwards that I took on some water slopping over my stern.
While out in the boat I had some serious thinking about my options for the Devizes to Westminster race next year. After all this is what I am ultimately planning for and this is one of the reasons why I update this blog every week… I still have over six months to get boat fit with a crewmate so it could be possible to be ready for the race but it would be hard work, and I always intended to do the initial boat work with a crew in the summer because the inevitable capsizes would be more bearable when the water is warm. The winter was then supposed to be about improving skill and honing race craft. But here I am looking at the winter season without having spent any time in a boat with another person. I blame myself for concentrating on other events and didn’t focus on this canoe race but it doesn’t change the fact that it will take an enormous effort to be ready now for 2010. My dad did mention on the weekend that Easter 2011 is as late as it can be and obviously a race later in the year will have more potential for being warmer.
So what’s this? Am I deferring the preparations for the Kayak race for a year?.. I don’t know. I think as far as the two man race is concerned though I probably have come to that decision even if I am finding it hard to admit it to myself.
But there are ways I can get into the DW race in stages. I could take part in the one man race which is staged over the Easter weekend with a stop every night. Or I could just do the build up races which take place through February and March to get an idea of sections of the course without going for the full blown race. The trouble with doing one man races, is finding a suitable boat (a fast and stable one man kayak). My current quest is to find somewhere that I can get a boat like my personal favourite Piranha Speeder either cheep enough that I can justify buying it, or maybe even find somewhere that hires them.
Whatever I plan on doing, I need to have a definite plan in place soon. Without a fixed goal to train for I am drifting in that fitness limbo where I don’t know what I should do and don’t have a motivation to do it.
After some persuasion though I was talked into going swimming at the local baths on Saturday morning. Nice and early at 8am we were there and it was filled with people who actually wanted to swim.
I did all of my swimming training for the Great North Swim in the pool at the Whitehouse, which although very nice was quite short at 15 metres iirc, and I seemed to be forever turning round and not able to swim at full power for very long. Shrewsbury pool on the other hand is 33 metres long, and with the diving boards it is very deep too. 45 minutes swimming and we packed it in. as far as pushing the boundaries of physical exertions go, this wasn’t a big effort but it was an important start again and I think this will become a regular Saturday morning thing.
Sunday saw me get the boat back out again. I can’t remember the last time I got the kayak out. It has got to be a good few months though and it told when I forgot my spraydeck. It wasn’t until I got into the boat on the launch and my hands tried to lock the deck into place with muscle memory, that I finally realised that I had forgotten something. I didn’t much matter though I wasn’t doing anything more exciting than taking in the sights of the Shrewsbury loop, and it was only when I paddled backwards that I took on some water slopping over my stern.
While out in the boat I had some serious thinking about my options for the Devizes to Westminster race next year. After all this is what I am ultimately planning for and this is one of the reasons why I update this blog every week… I still have over six months to get boat fit with a crewmate so it could be possible to be ready for the race but it would be hard work, and I always intended to do the initial boat work with a crew in the summer because the inevitable capsizes would be more bearable when the water is warm. The winter was then supposed to be about improving skill and honing race craft. But here I am looking at the winter season without having spent any time in a boat with another person. I blame myself for concentrating on other events and didn’t focus on this canoe race but it doesn’t change the fact that it will take an enormous effort to be ready now for 2010. My dad did mention on the weekend that Easter 2011 is as late as it can be and obviously a race later in the year will have more potential for being warmer.
So what’s this? Am I deferring the preparations for the Kayak race for a year?.. I don’t know. I think as far as the two man race is concerned though I probably have come to that decision even if I am finding it hard to admit it to myself.
But there are ways I can get into the DW race in stages. I could take part in the one man race which is staged over the Easter weekend with a stop every night. Or I could just do the build up races which take place through February and March to get an idea of sections of the course without going for the full blown race. The trouble with doing one man races, is finding a suitable boat (a fast and stable one man kayak). My current quest is to find somewhere that I can get a boat like my personal favourite Piranha Speeder either cheep enough that I can justify buying it, or maybe even find somewhere that hires them.
Whatever I plan on doing, I need to have a definite plan in place soon. Without a fixed goal to train for I am drifting in that fitness limbo where I don’t know what I should do and don’t have a motivation to do it.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Natural born sprinter
It’s been quiet here for the last few days. I have had a lot of things I have needed to do in the evenings, and following last Sunday’s big run, I have had my leg pain back. Nothing serious but the ongoing pain in my legs and the fact that I think my left shin bone is swelling noticeably more than the right shin finally convinced me to go to see my GP.
The last time I went to my doctor I got the distinct impression he thought I was having a bit of a time waste so I have been quite reluctant to go back, this time though I was pleasantly surprised to find him sympathetic to my running troubles (I suspect he is a runner himself).
We had a long talk through the bio-mechanics going on with legs and running and it seems that with my toe running I am a born sprinter, not a long distance runner. This is a shame as I quite enjoy long distance running finding it quite cathartic after a long day at work, and I don’t have the discipline to be a successful sprinter. But anyway, toe running is protecting my joints from the pounding heel runners can inflict on themselves as the foot, ankle, Achilles, etc. acts as a great shock absorber for each foot strike. Where I am saving myself from one set of injuries, it seems I am causing others.
There is a part of the leg on the outside of the shin called the anterior muscle compartment, this is an area where muscle is wedged in between the tibia and a strip of tough gristle. When this muscle is worked hard it can’t expand and becomes painful and this muscle is worked hard by toe runners. This is a likely reason for my shin splints pain as opposed to all of the other things I have considered with self diagnosis on the internet. Pushing through the pain barrier with compartment syndrome can lead to gangrene however, so I can’t just ignore this one.
He isn’t wholly convinced that I have any additional bone growth on my left leg despite having a good prod about on my shin. If there is any change in bone density it might mean that I have caused a stress fracture and if that is the case running isn’t for me, I’m not a big guy and shouldn’t be stressing my bones to that extent. I am off to have a few X-Rays just in case.
As predicted my doctor has put a ban on running until I next see him (after the X-Rays have been done) and as long as nothing is thrown up with these X-Rays he is going to talk me through warming up and down exercises that can help, and he even mentioned the physio word. I am allowed, nay encouraged, to get out on the bike though so Sunday Big Run will now be replaced by Sunday Big Ride until I am given the all clear by the Doc.
The last time I went to my doctor I got the distinct impression he thought I was having a bit of a time waste so I have been quite reluctant to go back, this time though I was pleasantly surprised to find him sympathetic to my running troubles (I suspect he is a runner himself).
We had a long talk through the bio-mechanics going on with legs and running and it seems that with my toe running I am a born sprinter, not a long distance runner. This is a shame as I quite enjoy long distance running finding it quite cathartic after a long day at work, and I don’t have the discipline to be a successful sprinter. But anyway, toe running is protecting my joints from the pounding heel runners can inflict on themselves as the foot, ankle, Achilles, etc. acts as a great shock absorber for each foot strike. Where I am saving myself from one set of injuries, it seems I am causing others.
There is a part of the leg on the outside of the shin called the anterior muscle compartment, this is an area where muscle is wedged in between the tibia and a strip of tough gristle. When this muscle is worked hard it can’t expand and becomes painful and this muscle is worked hard by toe runners. This is a likely reason for my shin splints pain as opposed to all of the other things I have considered with self diagnosis on the internet. Pushing through the pain barrier with compartment syndrome can lead to gangrene however, so I can’t just ignore this one.
He isn’t wholly convinced that I have any additional bone growth on my left leg despite having a good prod about on my shin. If there is any change in bone density it might mean that I have caused a stress fracture and if that is the case running isn’t for me, I’m not a big guy and shouldn’t be stressing my bones to that extent. I am off to have a few X-Rays just in case.
As predicted my doctor has put a ban on running until I next see him (after the X-Rays have been done) and as long as nothing is thrown up with these X-Rays he is going to talk me through warming up and down exercises that can help, and he even mentioned the physio word. I am allowed, nay encouraged, to get out on the bike though so Sunday Big Run will now be replaced by Sunday Big Ride until I am given the all clear by the Doc.
Monday, 5 October 2009
I am now trying to instigate the Sunday Big Run. I plan on running the big distances every Sunday, being driven to locations at increasingly longer distances from home, and then I run back. (I say plan but I already have other plans for this coming Sunday.)
This weekend saw me start the Sunday Big Run ball rolling with a 10 miler. I got there at about 8:30 in the morning, partly because the F1 was on early and partly because a large bulk of the route was along a pathless B road, so I didn’t what to have to dodge a lot of traffic.
All told I got home in 1 hour and 38 minutes which was about what I expected to complete based on the half marathon time. I have a couple of massive blisters in the arch of my foot have appeared again. I wonder why that part of my foot has suddenly started rubbing? And my shins are a bit achy again.
One concern on the shin front is the bone in my left shin. My left leg is the more troublesome, with more sever shin splint pain and more sever muscle aches. I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that the middle of the shin bone is getting denser than its opposite number on the right. I’m contemplating going off to see the doc but I fear he will 1/ call me a big girls blouse and 2/ will tell me to stop running on it.
This weekend saw me start the Sunday Big Run ball rolling with a 10 miler. I got there at about 8:30 in the morning, partly because the F1 was on early and partly because a large bulk of the route was along a pathless B road, so I didn’t what to have to dodge a lot of traffic.
All told I got home in 1 hour and 38 minutes which was about what I expected to complete based on the half marathon time. I have a couple of massive blisters in the arch of my foot have appeared again. I wonder why that part of my foot has suddenly started rubbing? And my shins are a bit achy again.
One concern on the shin front is the bone in my left shin. My left leg is the more troublesome, with more sever shin splint pain and more sever muscle aches. I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that the middle of the shin bone is getting denser than its opposite number on the right. I’m contemplating going off to see the doc but I fear he will 1/ call me a big girls blouse and 2/ will tell me to stop running on it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
