As I feared there was to be no miraculous recovery. Having rested my calf for over a week I decided to go out for a quick run today and see if it would hold up.
Before I had started I could still feel a slight twinge but hoped that it would not flare up. No such luck. I managed to run about half a mile during which I thought that it was ok. Then, a quick incline later, and my calf began complaining. I stopped immediately before the inevitable happened and slowly walked back to the house.
So, no marathon, no sub 3:30 finish. Not this year at least. What's the plan?
First step, no running until I can feel zero pain in the calf. Especially after waking up when the muscles are still stiff, that is when I can feel the pain more than at any other time.
When there is no pain then I start to follow the return to running schedule (30 seconds running 4 minutes 30 seconds walking, repeat x 4 and then on subsequent runs increase the running and decrease the walking by 30 seconds).
Once I've completed the schedule then I start to slowly increase the distance and speed week by week up to about ten miles.
Hopefully by following this I will be ready to start spring marathon training at the end of December. This won't be the London marathon though as I received my rejection letter this week (just to pile on the misery!). Second year I've been rejected, I'll try again next year as it is where I live so would be nice to be involved. Currently I'm looking at alternatives with Llanelli and Hull being the front runners (pun not intended). Llanelli because it's near my home town of Swansea and Hull because I went to university there and it is flat as a pancake.
First though, I need to get back to fitness. I'll post again once I'm back running. Hopefully in about a month rather than another four month lay-off!
Showing posts with label Calf Pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calf Pain. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Marathon Training - Week 14
Here are the final words from my last post - "Finger's crossed that I don't pick up any injuries over the next 21 days". To say I may have jinxed things would be an understatement! Oh, the delicious irony!
On Wednesday I ran an innocuous easy paced six miler. I felt no problems during the run and really enjoyed it. Compared to the 22 mile run I had done on the weekend it felt like a little jog around the park. During the day I felt a twinge in my calf. My right calf. The calf that had put me out of action for four months earlier in the year. No worries, I thought, it's just a bit of muscle fatigue. Nothing that a bit of rest won't clear up.
The next day I was due to run 10 miles at marathon pace. I got up at 5:30 and headed out the door. About two hundred yards down the road I could still feel the twinge in my calf. No problem, I decided, I'll abandon today's run and rest it up further. After all I had run all my long training runs and any runs I was now doing was just ticking the old legs over a bit until race day.
On the Friday morning I got up and went for an easy five mile run. I chose to do one of my favourite routes that I hadn't run for quite some time. Halfway through the run I could feel the twinge in my calf again. Bugger, I thought. I was running on a path around a playing field at the time so decided to run on the grass instead to help ease up the pain. This worked until the grass ran out and I had to go back on to the concrete path. The pain shot up my leg and forced me to stop completely. I abandoned the run and walked disconsolately back to my house.
Since then I haven't run at all and have had to seriously consider the fact that I am about 80% certain that I will not be running the Chester marathon in two weeks' time. My leg is currently strapped in a compression tube and I am trying to stay off it as much as possible.
So, what is my plan of attack?
From experience I know that the chances of my leg healing in time for the marathon is very slim indeed. I will rest the leg for a week. If I feel no pain at all at the end of this week and am able to do 20 single calf raises without pain then I will go out for a four or five mile run to see if it holds up. If it does then I will follow the training plan for the final week and do the marathon as planned although I don't think I will be able to go for the 3:30 finish time that I was training for. I would be pleased at this stage just to finish in one piece!
If I still have pain in my leg at the end of the week or there is any recurrence of pain during the build up to the marathon then I will pull out of the marathon. I can't take any risks, especially after being out for four months earlier this year. I will rest the leg for three to four weeks and then follow the return to training plan that I had used previously. Hopefully this will mean that I will be back to full fitness in time to start training for a spring marathon.
Obviously I have a weakness in my right calf so I think that I'm going to have to perform strengthening exercises from now on, no matter how good I think my leg feels.
If you are wondering, I am not that annoyed. This was always a possibility considering that it was previously injured. I'm a bit angry at myself for not strengthening it and I am a bit confused as to the timing. You would have thought that if it was going to go then it would have happened immediately after my longest run, not three runs later!
At the end of the day I run for the enjoyment and use races to help me focus my training. They are not the be all and end all. If I can't run this marathon and it happens again when I'm training for my next marathon then maybe I will have to consider the fact that I can't run marathons any more. But, as I say, as long as I get to a point where I can run again then I will be happy.
Here's my unfinished run from Friday. I will update next week, either after I've completed a four mile run or after I've decided to pull out of the marathon. Stay tuned!
On Wednesday I ran an innocuous easy paced six miler. I felt no problems during the run and really enjoyed it. Compared to the 22 mile run I had done on the weekend it felt like a little jog around the park. During the day I felt a twinge in my calf. My right calf. The calf that had put me out of action for four months earlier in the year. No worries, I thought, it's just a bit of muscle fatigue. Nothing that a bit of rest won't clear up.
The next day I was due to run 10 miles at marathon pace. I got up at 5:30 and headed out the door. About two hundred yards down the road I could still feel the twinge in my calf. No problem, I decided, I'll abandon today's run and rest it up further. After all I had run all my long training runs and any runs I was now doing was just ticking the old legs over a bit until race day.
On the Friday morning I got up and went for an easy five mile run. I chose to do one of my favourite routes that I hadn't run for quite some time. Halfway through the run I could feel the twinge in my calf again. Bugger, I thought. I was running on a path around a playing field at the time so decided to run on the grass instead to help ease up the pain. This worked until the grass ran out and I had to go back on to the concrete path. The pain shot up my leg and forced me to stop completely. I abandoned the run and walked disconsolately back to my house.
Since then I haven't run at all and have had to seriously consider the fact that I am about 80% certain that I will not be running the Chester marathon in two weeks' time. My leg is currently strapped in a compression tube and I am trying to stay off it as much as possible.
So, what is my plan of attack?
From experience I know that the chances of my leg healing in time for the marathon is very slim indeed. I will rest the leg for a week. If I feel no pain at all at the end of this week and am able to do 20 single calf raises without pain then I will go out for a four or five mile run to see if it holds up. If it does then I will follow the training plan for the final week and do the marathon as planned although I don't think I will be able to go for the 3:30 finish time that I was training for. I would be pleased at this stage just to finish in one piece!
If I still have pain in my leg at the end of the week or there is any recurrence of pain during the build up to the marathon then I will pull out of the marathon. I can't take any risks, especially after being out for four months earlier this year. I will rest the leg for three to four weeks and then follow the return to training plan that I had used previously. Hopefully this will mean that I will be back to full fitness in time to start training for a spring marathon.
Obviously I have a weakness in my right calf so I think that I'm going to have to perform strengthening exercises from now on, no matter how good I think my leg feels.
If you are wondering, I am not that annoyed. This was always a possibility considering that it was previously injured. I'm a bit angry at myself for not strengthening it and I am a bit confused as to the timing. You would have thought that if it was going to go then it would have happened immediately after my longest run, not three runs later!
At the end of the day I run for the enjoyment and use races to help me focus my training. They are not the be all and end all. If I can't run this marathon and it happens again when I'm training for my next marathon then maybe I will have to consider the fact that I can't run marathons any more. But, as I say, as long as I get to a point where I can run again then I will be happy.
Here's my unfinished run from Friday. I will update next week, either after I've completed a four mile run or after I've decided to pull out of the marathon. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
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:
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.
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| 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.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Putting the Vibrams away, for now
What a difference a week makes. I have decided to shelve my plan to run using the Vibram Five Fingers since it is putting far too much pressure on my calf. It would only be a matter of time before I caused myself a major injury and do not fancy resting for another four months while I lose more and more fitness, saying goodbye to any marathon I want to run this year. This decision came after I had to abandon my run on Friday morning because the strain on my right calf became too much.
My new plan is to carry on running in my normal running shoes (at the moment these are Brooks GTS10 and Asics GT 2150) and to continue following the run/walk plan until I’m back to full fitness.
This morning my run was 65 minutes at 3 mins run/2 mins walk. This covered just over 10k and although I could feel my calf fatiguing towards the end of the run it managed to survive. I’ll stretch it out and use my massage stick to keep it from stiffening up.
I’m writing this on the day after the Brighton marathon. A whole year has gone by since I ran last year’s race and it will be another six months until I run my next marathon in October. I’m hoping to beat my time of 3:44:46 (to be honest I’m hoping to beat 3:30) but that all depends on my calf.
I’ve also been thinking about other challenges. This came about after watching the James Cracknell trilogy on the Discovery channel. He ran the 150 mile Marathon Des Sables and finished twelfth which is the highest placing ever for a Brit. He then followed this up by attempting to run and cycle the entire way across America. Unfortunately he was knocked off his bike five days in to the attempt. He narrowly avoided death and was laid up in a hospital for a month while his brain and body recovered. After this, and still with some frontal lobe brain damage he entered and completed the 430 mile Yukon Arctic Ultra cycle race which is run in insanely cold weather. If you want to understand the limits of what the human body can do I seriously suggest watching this series of programmes.
Anyway, with this in mind I’ve been thinking about what challenges I would like to do. Not necessarily in the next year or two but as a bucket list of challenges I would like to do before I get too old to do any of them. Off the top of my head I came up with this list:
- London Marathon
- Boston Marathon (via qualification, not charity or a sports tour package)
- Cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats via the most southerly, easterly, westerly and northerly mainland points of Britain.
- Compete in an ultra (maybe Comrades in South Africa or even the MDS!)
- Compete in an ironman (not really looking for a finishing time, just to be able to finish)
- New York Marathon
- Marathon du Medoc (where the water stations have wine! What’s not to like)
Runner’s World has an article on its website called “20 Races to do before you die”. There’s a number in there that I wouldn’t mind doing such as the Ethiopian 10k.
Here’s the link, I think it’s accessible to non-subscribers:
Anyway, here’s my run from this morning.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Calf pain, the good kind!
One week on and my calf is still holding out! Although I think I have found the tipping point that causes my calves to burn. After two sessions last week where I was running two minutes and walking three minutes my calves were in absolute agony the day after both sessions and for a few days after that too! This is the good type of pain where you know that the muscle that has been underused in everyday shoes and trainers is suddenly asked to do a lot more work. Technically it's known as delayed onset muscle soreness (or DOMS for short). It's just like the sort of pain you get when you decide to lift weights after years of never having lifted so much as a bag of sugar. The muscle is adapting and getting stronger so this initial pain should "hopefully" be the worst of it.
My Stick massage roller has certainly come in handy over the last few days.
This week my sessions increase to two and a half minutes running and two and a half minutes walking. It's feeling easier than before and I don't think I'll get the same level of soreness. I did feel a twinge in my calf muscle this morning but nothing too serious and I was able to continue. To be on the safe side I think I'll run in my normal running shoes on Wednesday just to give it a break. I don't want to tempt fate just yet.
Today was also the first day this year that I was able to wear a short-sleeved running top. It really feels like spring is here when that happens. I always wear shorts, never leggings, even during winter but am not hardy enough to wear the short-sleeved top all year round.
My run was also improved by being able to listen to the podcast of the return of Adam and Joe on 6 Music. They've been away for 15 long months and help make long runs feel much shorter. I only ever listen to podcasts rather than music when I run. I find that the beat of music can interfere with my pace and I end up going faster than I should which completely messes up the training session. By listening to podcasts you get none of this sort of thing but also I find that they can take your mind off the run (in a good way, not a daydreaming-not-paying-attention kind of way). I've also found that I would look forward to the run just because I knew what podcast I would be listening to. So if the training session is going to be the dreaded speed work it would be alleviated by the fact that I knew I would be able to listen to Frank Skinner (for example). Here's a list of my favourite podcasts to listen to whilst running:
My Stick massage roller has certainly come in handy over the last few days.
This week my sessions increase to two and a half minutes running and two and a half minutes walking. It's feeling easier than before and I don't think I'll get the same level of soreness. I did feel a twinge in my calf muscle this morning but nothing too serious and I was able to continue. To be on the safe side I think I'll run in my normal running shoes on Wednesday just to give it a break. I don't want to tempt fate just yet.
Today was also the first day this year that I was able to wear a short-sleeved running top. It really feels like spring is here when that happens. I always wear shorts, never leggings, even during winter but am not hardy enough to wear the short-sleeved top all year round.
My run was also improved by being able to listen to the podcast of the return of Adam and Joe on 6 Music. They've been away for 15 long months and help make long runs feel much shorter. I only ever listen to podcasts rather than music when I run. I find that the beat of music can interfere with my pace and I end up going faster than I should which completely messes up the training session. By listening to podcasts you get none of this sort of thing but also I find that they can take your mind off the run (in a good way, not a daydreaming-not-paying-attention kind of way). I've also found that I would look forward to the run just because I knew what podcast I would be listening to. So if the training session is going to be the dreaded speed work it would be alleviated by the fact that I knew I would be able to listen to Frank Skinner (for example). Here's a list of my favourite podcasts to listen to whilst running:
- Adam and Joe
- Answer Me This
- Collings and Herrin
- The Danny Baker Show (get well soon Danny)
- Dave Gorman
- Fighting Talk
- Frank Skinner
- Friday Night Comedy on Radio 4
- Iain Lee
- 7 Day Sunday
- Marathon Talk - this is a great podcast for marathon runners (natch) that has interviews with famous runners from around the world such as Paula Radcliffe, highly recommended
- Phedippidations - this is a long running (excuse the pun) podcast by a guy in Boston who talks about everything that occurs to him as he runs. Not that informative but it's worth a listen to hear a normal middle-aged runner being so enthusiastic about running.
- Run Yank Run - I've only just started to listen to this one. It's about an American guy living in London and his thoughts about life and running.
- Running From The Reaper - this one has stopped due to his work commitments but you get the odd sporadic podcast from a guy called Nigel living in Staffordshire running along canals. If you are running a marathon there are a series that he did in the build up to the London marathon a year or two ago that are interesting to listen to as he tries to fit in the training sessions around his work and family life.
- 4 Feet Running - this has also stopped but you get the odd podcast or even vidcast from a married couple in the states. The wife is a marathon runner and her husband is very much a back-of-the-pack non-marathon runner. The dynamic is nice and they seem like a friendly couple.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Setback!
Went out for a run on Monday morning, increasing my running section to 1 minute 30 seconds. All was going well for the first few repeats until about a mile into the run. I felt a twinge in my right upper calf. As I continued my run I could feel the twinge more and more. Thoughts quickly came to me of the pulled calf that I've been trying to recover from for the past four months. Doom and gloom!
The pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't continue my run but I am concerned that if I continue running as I am then it will make the pain worse and I'll be back at square one. The good news is that although the pain is in my right leg it is not in the same place as before so I think it's just a slight strain caused by overworking it too soon. Ever the optimist!
I spent the evening icing my calf with a bag of frozen peas that I always keep just in case of injuries and using my Omni massage roller ball that is excellent at causing the maximum amount of pain with the tiniest bit of effort!!
It's supposed to help break down scar tissue and I don't know if it does but it bloody hurts like hell!
I'll probably miss my next scheduled run or two until the pain subsides and start back again using my normal running shoes until my calf feels strong enough again to use my Vibrams.
To help strengthen my calves and once the pain has gone I will need to do regular stretches (which I've never done enough of!) as well as use my wobble board that should help improve my calf muscles and core strength. I bought it a couple of months ago and became rather good at it. To start with I felt like Bambi on ice but once I got to grips with it then I could stand on it for about 30 seconds at a time and even managed to do it on one foot only. Here's a fuzzy photo of my board:
I've noticed that the blossom is coming out nicely in the trees now and took a photo on one of my regular routes:
Anyway, enough rambling I need to get back to icing and painful massage. Here's my run from Monday, I hope to update another post as soon as my calf pain eases up.
The pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't continue my run but I am concerned that if I continue running as I am then it will make the pain worse and I'll be back at square one. The good news is that although the pain is in my right leg it is not in the same place as before so I think it's just a slight strain caused by overworking it too soon. Ever the optimist!
I spent the evening icing my calf with a bag of frozen peas that I always keep just in case of injuries and using my Omni massage roller ball that is excellent at causing the maximum amount of pain with the tiniest bit of effort!!
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| Instrument of torture |
It's supposed to help break down scar tissue and I don't know if it does but it bloody hurts like hell!
I'll probably miss my next scheduled run or two until the pain subsides and start back again using my normal running shoes until my calf feels strong enough again to use my Vibrams.
To help strengthen my calves and once the pain has gone I will need to do regular stretches (which I've never done enough of!) as well as use my wobble board that should help improve my calf muscles and core strength. I bought it a couple of months ago and became rather good at it. To start with I felt like Bambi on ice but once I got to grips with it then I could stand on it for about 30 seconds at a time and even managed to do it on one foot only. Here's a fuzzy photo of my board:
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| Wobble board |
I've noticed that the blossom is coming out nicely in the trees now and took a photo on one of my regular routes:
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| Blossom! |
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