It. Is. On!

This post has been a long while in writing, but now I feel I am able to knit together the story in order to give a proper update about my running. For the last week to 10 days I have been telling porkies somewhat to my friends and family about running… Here’s something I wrote 10 days ago:

“It’s 17th January… A Thursday afternoon. Yesterday morning I went to see the NHS physiotherapist. It’s more than safe to say I wasn’t expecting much other than a one off 40 minute appointment with an outcome of ‘we can’t see a problem’, or ‘do these strengthening exercises and you’ll be fine’…

I should have had more faith in the physio who I was due to see; Amanda, from South Africa (who is by my reckoning, a star!)

As soon as I went in for my appointment Amanda was upbeat and confident about being able to treat my problem, she expected me to be back on the streets pounding away in the not too distant future.

I wasn’t optimistic.

She examined both legs comparing the strength and flexibility in my muscles and ligaments from left leg (‘we will call this your normal leg’) to right leg. It turns out the 4 main muscles of my right leg are weaker than those of my left, and are not as flexible.

She sent me packing to a lower limb service at my local hospital, but not before telling me that I should go for a run, until I feel pain. As soon as I feel pain, I am to stop, and walk home”

Back to present day… Well I went for that run, 5 minutes in, I was expecting pain, there wasn’t any.

10 minutes in, I was expecting pain, there wasn’t any.

15 minutes in, I was expecting pain, there wasn’t any. I decided at this point to stop; I didn’t want to overdo it.

The day after I had DOMS, and it felt good! Of course I had had to walk like John Wayne, of course I made sex noises every time I lowered myself onto a chair, but my knee was ok – not perfect, but ok.

Since the original physio appointment I have been for 5 runs; one of which was at the lower limb service at hospital where I was told to get on the treadmill and hammer it. They wanted to see my body’s reaction to putting my knee under stress. By the end of the 10 minutes I was breathing out the proverbial orifice, but again, my knee was fine.

My orders have since been: stretch, strengthen, run – but only if it doesn’t hurt. So I have duly obliged and I have been following orders strictly (I fully expect to be able to perform a one legged squat with an elephant on my back before February!). This morning I went for my longest run of the year: a meagre, but brilliant, 2.65 miles

Hot, sweaty, but feeling like a runner again :D

Fingers crossed I can now start looking onwards and upwards. There is still a long way to go, and I’m taking nothing for granted, but I will continue to work with, and without, the physio to get back to where I want to be.

Guest Post

I was given the opportunity to guest post on a fellow runners blog; if you would like to read it, the link is below :)

http://borntoplod.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/guest-post-what-runners-do-when-theyre-injured/

My year in numbers

If you combine a runner and someone who is paid to analyse numbers full time, what do you get? A running geek, that’s what!

This means that every run I complete – whether that be a race, club run, or plod round the block, I recorded it using my trusty Garmin 305…

…I then may have created a spread sheet to record these miles logged (despite Garmin having a program and website to provide this functionality)

In 2012 I ran 419 miles – this will miss off a few due to rare occasions of my Garmin batteries dying (sacrilege I know!) or (even worse) forgetting my Garmin altogether.

I completed these 419 miles in 2 days, 1 hour, 50 minutes and 47 seconds meaning my average pace was a not too shabby 7 minutes and 8 seconds.

I’m quite impressed with that given that total includes some feeble half and 1 mile runs whilst injured and recovering from injury. The total mileage completed isn’t great, but as my ‘proper’ active months where from March up to, and including, August (so 6 months) it stands to reason that had I been fit for the full 12 months I would have been close to 1,000 miles.

All this miles per minute chat is really making me miss running quite a lot, and, in a moment of weakness I entered a race.

It’s only 10km, but it’s on the 10^th February, a mere 4 weeks away. It’s the Mad dog 10km in Southport and I missed it last year through injury. It was silly of me to enter it really, but there is a very slim chance I will be fit for it, and whilst there is hope… I will keep on hoping!

Fingers crossed for my physio appointment next week  :)

“To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

2012... The year of injury

I'm sitting in my house, in the living room, on the floor, in front of the fire, with Up just about to come on tv. Over the Christmas period I have read two autobiographies; Jessica Ennis', and McFly's (yes I'm aware I'm opening myself up to some ribbing with my latter read, but it was a christmas present, and very enjoyable)

Both of which have got me thinking about this past year, which I have dubbed the year of injury - simply because I have spent over 6 months of it being injured and not being able to run. As a runner, there is nothing worse than not being able to run, much like not being able to do something you love because it causes you physical pain (go figure! )

Since my earlier ramblings about the injury I sustained at the end of August I have since had a MRI scan, which revealed (at 3 months since original injury) I have bruised the ligaments in my right knee. I dread to think what the problem was at the time of injury that after 3 months the ligaments are still bruised (maybe REALLY bruised ligaments! )

Anyway,  since then I have paid for acupuncture which has helped,  slightly. I will in two weeks time be having physio on the NHS, having waited 6 weeks. Unfortunately I'm not holding out much hope of it helping. Maybe I'm being cycnical, but this injury has been going on for so long and has been having such an impact on my day to day life I don't, at this moment in time, envisage a time when I will be free from pain, let alone running again.

It feels like right now my life is a bit of a waste as I'm very restricted to what I can do without spending an evening wanting to chop my leg off or waking every couple of hours in the night with similar thoughts.

The highlights of 2012 for me were joining my running club, racing a train (even though I lost), and setting a 10k PB (oh and being turned down for a job promotion - but i can't really talk about that). That's about it. Fairly unimpressive stuff.

2013 has started the same way 2012 ended;  in (horrible achy knee) pain.

So, as I can't run at the moment I am trying to keep an open mind as to any oppurtunities that arise or come my way...

In the mean time, hopefully I'll be back running soon(ish), maybe for my birthday at the end of February.

"Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it" J K Rowling,  c/o Albus Dumbledore

I have now seen my GP about my dodgy knee.

As suspected, I’ve been told to rest it for longer, and if it is still causing me problems in a couple of weeks I am to book another appointment and then I could possibly be referred for some physio, or to a knee specialist.

It turns out one of the GPs in my Practice is actually a knee specialist, so yesterday I phoned up and booked an appointment with him -the wait is 3 weeks and 1 day. Chances are if it hasn’t sorted itself by then it will probably require a more extensive examination than prodding at the different bits of it and asking ‘does that hurt’.

As an NHS employee I think the NHS is a brilliant thing, but not always the best for sports related injuries. I realise it’s much cheaper to ask a patient to just rest, whilst being seen by e.g. a physio straight away may help to solve the problem quicker, but costs money. However, if someone has a condition due to say, smoking, likelihood is it could be suspected cancer, and they would have a fast tracked referral to be treated.

Both, it could be argued, are self-induced – smoking is more than likely (and I use more than likely loosely here) to cause long term health problems, just like running is likely to cause some form of injury at one point or another, however minimal or not that is, yet only one is more than likely to receive quicker treatment.

It’s all about priorities and money really… No More, no less

Whilst thinking of the quite unlucky couple of years I have had through injuries I realised that in 2012 my injury record is as follows:

Months unable to run due to injury: 4 months

Months able to run being injury free: 5 months

I’m now entering my 5^th month (October) of being unable to run through injury, this equates to races:

Races unable to compete in due to injury: 4

Race able to compete in due to being injury free: 5

If I’m unable to race in survival of the fittest at the start of November, then that will be number 5.

Unfortunately I’m not nearly as positive minded as the shibby Taffster (http://hewhotrainstrains.blogspot.co.uk/) who has a much worse injury yet still remains amazingly focused and positive.

Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery and a return to pounding the streets, although I’m not holding out much hope…

Autoglass repairs called...

I quick update on 'it' (it in this instance being the knee - we're not on talking terms right now as I made a deal with it that I'd not run on it for a couple of weeks if it would stop hurting. It ain't playing ball!)

I do think the knee has got a bit better, and I'll have a good couple of days but then it'll start being ouchy again. However I have managed to swim a couple of times and that doesn't seem to cause any pain which is good news.

I'm seeing the physio on Friday, I'm hoping he can get me back on track. I don't know where I should be going through the pain barrier to get stiffness out of the knee, and when to rest it to stop further damage. A diagnosis as to what the problem is/which bit of the knee is injured would be ideal (in a wee perfect world !)

I've also finally put forms in to change my GP having moved house a year ago. As part of this I get a new registered patient health check. Sooo, if things don't go well at the physio/things don't improve I can at least mention this and maybe they'd refer me on.

Boring news really, and I've had to miss two races which is very frustrating, as well a a lot of training... Hoping I don't have to miss a 5k race I have a week on Sunday... In the long term though I guess I don't mind too much; I just want to get fit again.

I'm thinking that the rest of this year will be a write off, an i'll just use it to get fit and get miles in my legs ready for a big push next year when I'll be running my first competitive half marathon. Until next time...

"I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win."

I'm the Glassman

As expected I had some hardcore DOMs going on after Race the Train. Club run the Tuesday after was pretty tough; I had to will myself to stick with the group. The Thursday run was much better; my legs felt fresher and I enjoyed the run.

I cut my LSR short on Sunday as my legs were feeling a little niggly where I had shin splints.

Back to club on Tuesday (just gone) and
I was fine; we completed some hill repeats (hill being a bit generous here!). On the way back to base I started getting a pain beneath / towards the outside of my right knee. It was quite painful, and I just thought it was from the efforts I'd put in on the inclines.

Unfortunately each morning since Tuesday I've woken up and had quite a searing pain when descending stairs in the knee, and a pretty uncomfortable feeling in the same area when ascending. This eases during the day, but I'm still aware of it. My knee now also clicks whenever I bend it....

Due to this I've had to pull out of the 5km team race I'm meant to be taking part in tomorrow, which sucks. I feel like I've let the team down badly, but I don't want to aggravate anything.

I'm crossing my fingers it's nothing major and I'll be ok for the 8.5km trail race I've got two weeks tomorrow. However, right now I feel like I'm just an injury prone running wannabe made of glass, which isn't a nice feeling :(