Back running. A bit.

Back to running. Apprehensive, to say the least, but I set off on the usual route down to Discovery and back via Magdelene yard etc.

On strict advice from physic Kirsten, I’m only running in my cushioned shoes, but with as much of a mid foot plant as I would in the Road-X 233s.

I only ran for 35 mins, and only did 6 and a bit Km, and it wasn’t particularly pretty. It was cold, and I was peched by half way around, but my knees were not as half as sore as they were last time I ran, last week. I think there’s a long way to go to get back to the 42 min 10K in York earlier in the year, but I only have to struggle through 4 K in the Monikie Duathlon next month, so I should manage that, I think.

More glutes and stretches tomorrow, and back to running on Friday.

Too tired to train…

I’ve had a lovely day with the boys – swimming in the afternoon, chilling out in the morning. The plan was to do a session on the turbo this evening, but to be honest I’m completely knackered. It’s not even 8pm, and I am flaking out. I think discretion is the better part of valour, so an early night for me. 12 hours sleep would do me just fine.

Before Emma left for Liverpool I did manage to do an erg for the first time in ages. I figure it’s good leg strengthening exercise, with no torsion, and low impact. I think I should try to do 5K a day for a while, to replace the running…..

Tomorrow is my physio appointment to check out my knees. They are a worry – I don’t think it’s ligamentous, or joint linked, but more muscular. I also suspect that me learning to run properly has unearthed functional weakness in my knees, and perhaps my glutes too – the right glute gets sore when I run now too…

E2

Another day, another go on the turbo.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112435798

Both my knees are sore now, so this has my thinking there’s a problem with the cleats on my shoes. So, I’ve put the red cleats back on, to allow a bit more float. With more float, it was obvious that my natural foot position is more “heel out” than was fixed with the grey cleats. So, I should move those cleats a smudge for tomorrow.

I’m just ahead of the target milage for the month, and I have the Tour of GB ride on Sunday. I should get in two more rides on the turbo before then too.

Ankle is much better today – I should be able to think about running soon. Maybe next week? Maybe Amsterdam…

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.

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.

After a day off, post race, time to get back in the saddle. Just 20K of fast spinning on the Turbo. Ankle was fine whilst on the machine, and sore once I walked about afterwards. Lots of ice, and yet more stretching….

Garmin Data