Training Updates

Snowdonia Marathon: Not long now

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Only Friday to go before I will be standing at the start line for the Snowdonia Marathon 2014.

I had another physio appointment yesterday from a lady (who is also a triathlete) and had the whole of my lower body given a sports massage, which as well as being quite painful, highlighted the numerous areas of tightness/weakness which is all highly likely to have culminated in the calf strain. It is now obvious that the 4 years of on/off training and very little in the way of stretching and conditioning has taken its toll.

I will learn from my mistakes and will be undertaking a program of work supplied by my physio to build back the strength in my calf and address the weak areas such as my glutes, however first task is to get around the marathon on Saturday.

Hopefully on Saturday night I will be writing a race report saying that I got to the finish with no significant issues, even if I am the last person across the line I will take finishing as win.

Fingers crossed……..

Training Updates

Injury Update: Getting it looked at properly

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Yesterday, with no real improvement on my calf, I went to my local Osteopath.

A bit sceptical about what could be achieved with one consultation and nervous about what I maybe told I found myself in the waiting room.

Being called in I quickly gave a summary of my injury and history (I only had 30 minutes so I had to be to the point). The Osteopath, Paul, then had me drop my trousers, take my socks off and walk towards and away from him. He made a note of my collapsing right ankle when I walked as well as commenting on my calf muscles looking somewhat inflamed (I thought the way they looked was normal!)

After this I laid down onto the treatment table and Paul performed some mobility tests and identified that the Achilles was probably the cause of the issue in my calf, apparently repeated trauma and poor maintenance on my part (something which I hold my hands up to) has resulted in me probably having tendinopathy.

Paul then began a deep tissue massage which turned out to be one of the most painful experiences of my life, followed by something called Shockwave Therapy which uses millions of vibrations a second to break up the scar tissue in the tendon and muscle. It was painless while he carried this out which surprised me, apparently if he had held the ‘wand’ still it would have burned me.

Sitting here today (£65 lighter) I have to say that the treatment seems to have had a positive impact, while I still feel an ache in my calf the pressure seems to have been released and it is a good ache (if that is such a thing).  I have been given instructions on exercises to complete and will be carrying these out religiously.

The marathon may still be possible.

Training Updates

Less than 3 weeks to go to Snowdonia Marathon

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And I have managed to strain my right calf!

Training seemed to be going so well with my mileage, pace and general fitness improving week by week but it seems that my objective of besting my time for the marathon is unlikely.

The actual injury happened about two weeks ago, I had run in the morning and cycled to and from work and feeling good I thought i would go for a short evening run. My calf had been a little tight in the morning but I just put it down to needing a bit of a stretch, not anticipating that what was about to happen.

0.4 miles into my evening run I had what felt like a stabbing pain in the inside of the right calf, causing me to stop immediately. Thinking it might be cramp or something I tried to stretch and carry on but all I could manage was a hobble. It was clear that all I could do was turn around and limp home.

I had a about 5 rest, with my limp disappearing and did some cycling and on Saturday 4th October I my calf felt ok so decided to do a short run. First mile felt fine albeit but around half a mile into the second my calf felt like it was swelling and the pain returned. I took this as a sign to stop and walked home very disheartened.

I am now into day 3  of complete rest, no cycling and only some core work, stretching and foam rolling. I am looking to book a physio appointment this week to see what the issue is and how severe, good thing is that following Saturday I haven’t been limping and while I can still feel that something is wrong, there isn’t any pain.

So, no running for 3 weeks and the vain hope that my body will repair itself for Snowdonia.

Training Updates

My posting has been rubbish…….

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My last post was ages ago, I think May following the NDW50/Richmond Park Marathon effort.

Suffice to say I need to start posting more and actually write some of the gear reviews that I had planned as well as race reviews. The good news is my training has really picked up over the last few weeks as well as me loosing about 2 kilos of weight, meaning that running and cycling is getting easier meaning I can run and cycle more!

The last two weeks is where it has really slotted into place, with 35 mile week of running and 62 miles of cycling followed by a 43 mile week of running and 51 miles of cycling.

The next events planned is the Snowdonia Marathon followed by the Winter Fandance (Clean Fatigue) so I will focus on writing about my build-up to these as well as the longer term plan for the (in hushed tone) North Downs Way 100 in 2015

Training Updates

Post Ultra Blues

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Its been a couple of weeks since my weekend of ‘running’ and I still don’t feel fully recovered from it. I ran to work on the 28th May after taking the whole of the previous week off and still felt sluggish and just seemed to tire really quickly. I managed to cycle to and from work the following day and cycled again yesterday but my legs are just not in it.

With the Trail Half Marathon Wales fast approaching I need to get a few runs in just to make sure I don’t fall in a heap on race day, I am not going to be flying around the course but it would be nice not to be last.

Plans are forming in my head about what I would like to do in 2015, I have a score to settle with a certain 100 mile race and some other ultra distance events I would like to do as well.

For now I am going to enjoy the THMW in a couple of weeks and start formulating a proper training plan.

Oh, and I have a new theme for my website which I hope you like (Mobile devices might just show the standard mobile theme)

 

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