A rethink

I have come to the conclusion that I need to alter my running goals for this year. Every time I go for a run my right calf flares up and although I can finish my run the pain the following day means I sometimes have to miss my next run. If I continue doing this then there’s only one way this can end and that is in injury.

I am warming up correctly, massaging and stretching but nothing seems to prevent the calf from reacting at some point during my runs, usually half way through.

So, action must be taken! I’m going to a) rest the calf until there’s no pain, b) massage and stretch it to death and c) return to running using a different plan.

The plan I’m going to follow is the Return to Running plan by PhysioAdvisor.com:

http://www.physioadvisor.com.au/7676250/return-to-running-physioadvisor.htm

This suggests running and walking up until a maximum time of twenty minutes. The running sections will increase but if any pain is felt then I drop back to the previous session and continue until no pain is felt.

My marathon training plan was due to start at the end of June but at the moment I’m not sure I will be fit enough and have enough miles under my belt to follow it. I may have to reduce my expectations from getting a sub 3:30 marathon to 4 hours or even just finishing would be an achievement at the moment!

I’ve also bought my third instrument of torture, a foam roller. This will work in a similar way as the Stick. I used one when I was at the physio earlier this year and found it helped enormously. Just like the other instruments of torture it causes large amounts of pain.

More pain

I’ve mentioned it before but four months of not running has meant I’ve put on about 5kg. I topped the scales at 86kg and am now being much more cautious with what I eat as I hope to get down to 80kg within the next couple of months. At the moment I am 84.5kg so it’s going in the right direction! Two things have helped. The first is my weighing scales. They are fancy scales that calculate your BMI and body fat content among other things. It uploads this onto a private website that only I can look at. Here’s a screenshot:

Secondly, I am calorie counting like nobody’s business. I’ve tried this before but found it tedious to work out how many calories each meal consists of. Then I discovered myfitnesspal.com which is brilliant. There’s a website and an iphone app that is ridiculously easy to use. It has a massive database that appears to have pretty much all the food in the major supermarkets and knows their calories, serving sizes and loads of other nutrition information. The upshot of this is that I’ve now become something of a calorie nazi. But if I can keep on top of what I’m eating then all the better.

Here’s my run from Monday, this will be my longest run for quite some time since my new running plan insists on much shorter distances.