Core-Blimey

Both knees a bit sore today – I think it’s more muscular than joint pain, though. So that’s OK. Ankle is seemingly fine now – I’m running up stairs, and everything now, and back in my Merrell Trail Gloves all the time.

I’ve moved the red cleats around by about 5 %, which should give me a bit more room, and keep my knees more straight. But didn’t fancy a ride tonight, so back to some weights.

Having done loads of chest and back exercises, I think I should do more core stability exercises, and work in some legs soon.

Core exercises:
Side plank snatch lifts
Side plank lateral rises
Roll outs
Hip rises
Side lunges
Woodchops

The hip rises are tough – I can barely do them without the weight, never mind *with*.

I did some calf raises, then a load of stretching out. No ankle pain just now, hopefully OK tomorrow!

F4

Another session from the ‘wipe clean’ book. F4 this time. Lots of short, sharp, fast intervals. These are probably the best thing for me to do, to push up my AT to nearer my VO2Max.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111804439

I unstrapped my ankle today as I think the strapping is now doing more harm than good, making me walk a little awkwardly, leading to my knee being a wee bit sore. It’s not tender, no ligament or tendon injury evident, but just a bit achy. Need to keep an eye on it.

I did the full range of ankle stabilising exercises today, including the wobble board, the VMO strengthening exercises, and the glute strengthening exercises too. The ankle feels better, but the knee is a worry – the VMO exercise is particularly sore. Hmmm.

E4

More turbo training from the ‘wipe clean’ book. Mostly it’s intervals, and mostly it breaks up the boredom. Actually, I enjoy nipping off to the garage and cycling away in there. I’d rather be out and about, but a quick hour in there, constantly turning the pedals, is probably worth 90 minutes out on the road, in terms of conditioning, etc.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/110882666

Still keeping off the ankle, still stretching cautiously, still keeping it strapped up.

Weight off my mind.

Lazy Sunday, but still managed to fit in a short weights session. Still focusing on upper body, to save my ankle from excess stress.

Bent over upright rowing 10 x 3
Bench press 10 x 3
Shrugs 10 x 3
Dumb bell press ups 10 x 3
Bent over flyes 10 x 3
Punches 10 x 3
Curls 10 x 3 on the wobble board

Ankle is getting better, with strapping, resting, some stretching.

Rehabilitation

Ankle still quite sore at work today. So tonight a concerted stretching and strengthening session.

Gastrocnemius stretches are fine.
Soleus stretches still sore on the right, fine on the left.
Calf rises, with and without weights, two legs and one leg.
Heel drops, two legs and one leg.
Gluteus Medius strengthening – some sort of “clam” exercise. Tough.
VMO exercises – the right side is sore, I can’t isolate where it’s sore in the knee when I do these, but it’s definitely a bit uncomfortable. I think it’s from compensating for the ankle unjustly, so hopefully it’ll sort out as the ankle sorts out. The inversion injury I suffered months ago has led to a lot of grief.

So, to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, I’m going to spend the Winter doing ankle proprioception exercises – the wobble board, standing on one leg, leg squats on the board, eyes closed on one leg on the wobble board…..

On paper it seems like not a lot of work, but in reality my ankle strength is a bit rubbish, so doing 45 minutes of stretching, strengthening, and proprioception exercises was tough. I iced the ankle once I got back in, and just now it feels OK. It’s the mornings when it’s most sore, so I’ll see how it is tomorrow morning….

Swimming with the boys tomorrow. I need to get back in the pool and do proper swim training this Winter, so I can speed up my swims a bit. It’ll help the flexibility in my ankles too.

Turbo ME 1

Back onto the Turbo for more high cadence practice!

This time ME 1, which is some sort of endurance training thing. Some of it is one leg practice – very difficult to keep it smooth, but a great exercise to try to make the most of each pedal stroke.

The main exercise part was 6 minute repeats at Tempo, HR zone 4. Hard work, but great for pushing up AT.

Ankle still fine on the bike, and sore whenever I try to run at all. To be fair, I think it’s getting slowly better, but I’m an impatient sod, and I want it to be better yesterday. I am determined to leave it 6 weeks without running on it, which means I might actually reach 4 weeks.

Wobble to Peebles, via Arbroath

A fun morning with Father-in-law, fixing up Emma’s old Ridgeback road bike. JEdgcombe has my old Ridgeback, and has done far more miles on it that I ever did, but Emma’s has been sitting on the garage wall getting dusty. It dawned on me that F-i-L could do with a new bike, and the Ridgeback would fit him perfectly. It’s pretty old school geometry, and has a 54/42 chainset! But it’s pretty flat around his gaff. So I set to fixing it up, but pretty quickly came up against a problem with the right shifter – RSX Flight Deck from 1998, and completely stuffed. Beyond my capabilities, certainly, so it was off to Cycle World for Gavin to take a look at it. 30 mins of fettling, degreasing, then greasing and it was ready to roll. Two new inner tubes, some TF2 and off.

The ankle is still sore when I run – fine when I walk, and OK stationary, but when I do any soles stretches, it’s still very sore.

The wobble board arrived – my proprioception is terrible. I can barely balance on the board for 20 seconds, never mind 1 legged squats! But I’ll be taking it to Peebles to do more proprioceptive training.

Stretching three times a day, and icing…..

Stretch it out

The heel is sore. Very sore. It’s tight at the insertion of the tendon into the calcaneus – like the Sever’s disease from years ago, but, more so. I’ve downloaded some exercises to do, so I’m doing them every day, two or three times a day; but it’s sore. My gastrocnemius stretch is fine, but the soleus stretch is very very tight. It’s all very odd – never had any achilles problems until that run with the SRC last week, and since then, just one achilles. It’s so tight. I’m hoping all this stretching will sort it out for Sunday and the Duathlon. Last race of the season, so I’ll be doing it whatever, and see how it goes. No running training until then, obviously, so I’ll probably bomb in the running. I had hoped to aim for 21/40/21, but perhaps that’s going to be too ambitious.

I’ve ordered a wobble board, too.

Weights E

Another day, another weights session. Ankle still a wee bit delicate, so the lunges are still a bit gentle, otherwise all good.

Romanian deadlift to row – 3 x 10
Diamond press-up – I can NOT do these. Very difficult with orang-utan arms like mine
Upright row – 3 x 10
Lunge – 3 x 10, very carefully
Push press – 3 x 10, again a bit careful with the ankle
Hammer curl – 4 x 10
Two arm kickback – 3 x 10. Odd exercise, but it should help the triceps build up for those ridiculous Diamond Press ups.

Good work.

Weights D

Trying to keep off the ankle, although it certainly feels better this week than last week.

Weights D tonight.

Lunge to press – a bit of a strain on the ankle, so only 1 x 8 for each leg.
Dumb bell bench press – 3 x 10
Reverse-grip bent-over row – 3 x 10
Sumo squat – 3 x 10
Shoulder press – 3 x 10
Biceps curl – 3 x 10
Overhead triceps extension – 2 x 10 each side
Dumb bell crunch – 3 x 10

Ankle too sore for the lunges, but the upper body stuff puts no stress on it, so all good.