Test Run

Test run today. I am attempting my longest run since injury rehab started.

Hoorah! Completed 4.6 miles with mile splits of:

8:04
6:35
7:01
6:01
Jog home

I miss my Garmin. . . it got stolen in Holland out of transition! Can you believe that?!! I have to use the measured mile markers on the 'mad mile' outside RAF Wyton.

And still in one piece looking reasonably happy. Time to stretch and work this lower leg some more. . . .

Gradual Progress

I have been making steay prgress with the injury rehab and have taken a day off doing anything at least twice lately! If I have a day when I do a lot of strength work on the leg, I take the following day off completely. Today, I did a mini duathlon using, the turbo so I could spin easy, as 2.5 mile run 18 min spin, 1 mile run. This was the most continuous running running that I have done since the Ironman. The leg held up and the calves were slightly less knotted!
Tomorrow I will commence commuting to work on the bike again on my single speed. It will all be easy riding again and running will be every 2 days, with stregth work inbetween.

Stay healthy out there!

Exploding Calfs!

The injury rehab is going ok and I am up to 4 miles as 2 mins run; 30 sec walk. The injury is holding up but my calfs are knotted up big time! It's as if my legs have forgotten what it's like to run!

The Look

The look says it all! Found a couple of pics on the event web site. Not the best shots but it does capture the sheer joy of competing - cough!! And that sky looks as bleak as my face!

Rehab is going well - in fact, amazingly well! I am up to 30 mins as 1 min jog; 30 sec walk. The way I was hobbling last week, I never thought I would be at this point for ages. Slowly does it for the next few weeks!

Almere IM Report

I had considered not blogging the race report from Almere IM race. However, I think I need to in order to remind me of what I went through and how not to prepare for an IM race. You simply cannot get away with being hap-hazard with the prep – especially the days prior to race day. Obviously being healthy helps too!

The race was exactly what I did not want – survival! I like to race and my IM was certainly not that! 4 weeks prior to the race I was in good – nay, great - form! Then this injury occurred. Previous blogs detail the injury so I won’t bore you all with that. The trip to Holland was doubling as a family holiday; get the race over with and then enjoy some time at Centre Parks.
Problem No 1: Domestic stress. Julie’s Mum was diagnosed with Cancer and we had problems with our pet dogs.
Problem No 2: Night ferry crossing on the Thursday night prior to racing was way too close to race day! Nobody slept much and we all arrived in Almere (after getting lost) very tired and grumpy on the day before race day. But I had to register and sort my bike out for racking - All this in terrible weather and before we had even checked into Center Parks. A bad combination and the family were very fatigued! Oh, and so was I! Despite being very tired, I didn’t sleep much that night.
Problem No 3: See problem No 3 above! I was up at 0400 and not feeling good. More problems to come.
I met up with Jase as we set up transition. The weather was not great and the swim looked quite choppy. It was a land start, with a run into the water. I say water because I am still not sure whether the water is an estuary, reclaimed land or simply a huge river/lake? It was not salt water but there were huge swells that made me think that this was the open sea! It was actually quite bad and I was being thrown all over the place. But it was the same for everyone so I just cracked on with it. I tried hard to up my stroke rate and use a short choppy stroke, rather than a longer smoother stroke that suits me. However, I was struggling – a lot! As I reached the swim exit, I clocked 1:12 something as my time. I was happy enough with that, considering the conditions. As I removed my wetsuit, I realised that I was seriously cold. . . .
Problem No 4: The cold was really getting to me. This would be a theme throughout the event
I set off on the bike shivering and desperately trying to get warm. The wind was noticeable and it was obvious that there would be no fast bike time from me today. Overall the bike didn’t go too badly. There were more sections on narrow bike paths than I remembered and the corners on these paths brought the average speed down. There were sections of the bike where the wind was behind and you could cruise above 25mph and there were sections that were into a block headwind. In general, the wind gradually increased as the bike leg progressed. Lap 1 out of 3 was completed around 1:47 by my watch. This was not too far away from my target of 1:45 but I was still very cold! My feeding was going well and I was not tired. There was a break in the weather on lap 2 and I began to warm up. Ahhhh, the sun felt so good! I was moving much quicker and began to feel good for the first time in the race. Then, disaster! I missed a turn! I was drifting away in the cruise zone and rode straight past a left turn! Quite how I missed it I do not know. I suppose I lost 2 mins max, so no real damage done. I made lap 2 around 1:44; so still on track. The sun was replaced by more cloud and wind for lap 3. There was some rain too and I began to get cold again. I eased up into the wind to conserve energy and I figured that I would be into T2 around 5:20, which was ok. The kilometre markers seemed to take an age to come during the last 20k and I was ready to get off the bike for sure. That said, for a 112 mile ride, it seemed to go quite quickly. The major problem was that my leg was hurting – before I even started to run. Doh! Not so happy as I knew there would not be a pain free run, despite being drugged up with pain killing brufen tabs.
Problem No 5: The injury was going to be a big issue during the run!
I set off on the run with about 6:43 on the race clock. If I could run to potential I could salvage a 10 hour something for a finish. Within the first mile I knew it was all wrong. The leg was hurting and I was starting to limp. This was having an effect on the running balance and after 5 miles, my legs were just hurting everywhere. Some of this pain was due to the lack of running during the previous 3 weeks prior to the race but my entire run form was all over the place. The run was a 3 lap course and I was very surprised to complete the first lap in 1:11. I entered the second lap and became aware that I was limping more. People were passing me like I was standing still and was very cold again. I was not working hard enough to generate any heat and I was shivering badly as the rain came down again. I had seen Jase starting his second lap and he looked ok. I hoped he could salvage a decent race as the weather was certainly not helping matters. During the second lap I saw some fence posts on my left. A thought came to me: was I actually running slower than walking pace? So I conducted an experiment byt timing myself between 10 fence posts; once doing my hobbling run and once walking. To my horror, both times were the same! It was more painful to run (hobble etc) than walk. So I decided to walk as fast as I could. I felt even colder doing this, so I walked for a while and hobbled for a while. I approached the start of the 3rd lap. Should I drop out? Maybe I should have but it just seems wrong! So I hobbled walked round the final lap in a terrible 2:11. I had completed the marathon in 4:54 and was in a bad place! Walking was just as painful as hobble running and I just about raised enough movement to look as though I was running as I crossed the line in 11:38:50.
So there we have it; a disaster, to put it mildly. The days that followed were basically just more pain and hobbling. I seriously thought that I had damaged my leg in a serious way and so wished that I had not started the race. It is only within the last few days that the leg has started to feel better. Indeed, i visited the physio today and now have a walk/run schedule to help me back into running. I also have a rehab strengthening exercise to nurse the leg back to strength.

Get this. This evening I did 20 mins of 30 sec jog, 2 min walk. The leg held up. Just 4 days ago, I could hardly walk. How weird is that?! So now I am hopeful of recovering. But I will place a huge emphasis on conditioning and injury prevention.

Will I attempt another IM? I really do not know. I thought that I could race this one and I was very mistaken. I would need to learn my lessons and be better prepared during the week prior to race day. Racing and family trips really don’t work that well! So I would need to plan a race in isolation and ensure that we all get a family holiday as a pure holiday!

Ironman Approaches

IM approaches. Race day is Sat 27 August. The leg is really no better and finishing will be the main aim. However, I really do not fancy a 26.2 mile walk and hope it does not come to that. I note that we cannot collect our bikes until 1730 so even if I have to ditch all hope of racing for a time, I may as well finish! The weather forecast is pants and this is not encouraging either! I don’t sound too positive do I! This is not how I intended my first (and possibly my last. . .) IM to be.

Swimming is going well and I am hoping to exit around 1:05 for the swim. The bike will all be about the conditions and nutrition by the looks of it. If the wind drops, it could be fast but it will be a long ride if the gales blow. The plan is to try and do each of the 3 60k laps in 1:45. In the 2008 World Long Course Champs I did 2 laps in 1:36 and 1:38. However, the conditions were good, if I remember correctly. If I can lap in 1:45 then that will bring a 5:15 split. All good in theory! Reality will, most likely, be very different!

On to the run and it really is an unknown. I have not ran for 3 weeks and I have no idea if the leg will just hurt and not get worse. Or if it will become dangerous and potential long term damage becomes the prime concern – I hope not!

I also note that there are 2 Dutch guys in my Age Group who did 9:43 and 9:44 last year. That is swift. They seemed to achieve these times off fast bike splits. At the back of my mind I am tempted to push the bike hard!!! Well if I am going to hobble regardless, why not!!

Injury Update

I have now seen 3 separate medical types about this injury. The good thing is that I know what is wrong. The bad thing is the injury is unlikely to clear up before the IM race in Holland. Basically, my Anterior Tibialis is damaged. It seems that this was caused by my poor ankle stability, which was agravated by the increase in my long training runs.

My ankle stability on my right leg is good. This is due to the 2 years of eccentric loading that I have completed to keep my Achilles Tendon injury at bay! My left side (current injury leg) ankle stability is woefully bad and inflexible. This was very visible when doing some body mechanic tests.

The message here is that what we could get away with when we were younger, we cannot now! As we get older (I am 47 in 2 weeks)we need to segregate training time for body mechanics maintenance - core stability, leg and foot strengthening. I had foot problems at the beginning of the year so I obviously have a weakness in that area.

I read this Blog Post, which is quite specific on the type of body mechanics sustainment training that should be completed as routine training (thanks to the Re: Massage Therapy Blog)

5 ways to prevent Tibialis Anterior pain…
Tendinitis, muscle soreness, compartment syndromes, shin splints and stress fractures are things that haunt most runners and can keep you on the sidelines for weeks and months at a time . But it does not have to be like that! Research shows exactly how the muscles in the ankle and lower part of the leg function during running, and provides clues about how to keep the areas between your knees and your feet injury free. This post is about your poor tibialis anterior muscles, the ones that work hardest during running. Strengthen them by carrying out the following five exercises:

Stand about a foot away from a wall with your back to it and your feet directly below your hips. Lean backward until your buttocks and back touch the wall and then, while keeping your heels on the ground, flex your ankles so that your toes rise as high as possible towards your shins. Let your feet sink back so that they almost touch the ground, and repeat this action 15-20 times (the reps increase over time). On the descent, do not let your feet actually rest on the ground, which would give your tibialis anterior muscles too much of a rest between flexion’s. Treat the ground as if it was an eggshell, too much pressure would crack it
After a moment’s rest, try a slightly different tibialis-anterior exercise. This time, from the same basic body position, flex your ankles so that your toes ascend as high as possible, but do not let them move more than an inch towards the floor on the downswing. Quickly move your feet up and down within this one-inch arc for 15-20 repetitions (adding more reps later), and then rest for a moment
Once you’ve become adept at the first two exercises over a period of several weeks, you can move on to an advanced exercise. For this, keep your back and buttocks against the wall again but stand on only one foot at a time while carrying out No. 1 above. Position the foot slightly to the inside of the hip
You can also work on the anterior tibialis muscles while jumping. Again, try for quickness rather than height as you jump, but this time “dorsiflex” your ankles each time your feet leave the ground (i.e. try to pull your toes up to your shins on each ascent). 20 jumps should be about right for your first effort, with the total increasing over time
A fifth exercise is to walk on your heels for 20 metres or so. This heel walking can follow the walking, skipping and jogging routine described above.
Overall, these five exercises have helped many athletes afflicted with shin splints. Another strategy, designed to simultaneously strengthen all five calf and shin muscles, is to run barefoot on a somewhat uneven but soft grassy surface, such as a well-maintained athletic field or a golf fairway. Start cautiously, though, with no more than a half-mile on your first barefoot effort, adding an extra quarter mile during every third subsequent run. The ultimate aim of these exercises is to fortify your feet, ankles, shins and calves so that injuries are unlikely. However, injury prevention won’t be the only outcome. As you progress, your ankles become as powerful as rocket boosters and your feet will act as mini-trampolines. (Or so they say!!)

Currently I cannot do these rehab exercises because I still have pain - doh. The physio I saw on Monday said as much also - no point in rehab as any routine will just break down the muscle etc to build back stronger. So any rehab stress will still be in the injury when I race.

So, basically, there are 2 options: withdraw from the race or dose up with pain killers and deal with the rehab over the winter. As I will miss the entire Tri season next year due to a military detachment, I will attempt the race and use how ever long it takes to rehab to return in 2013 fresh and faster. . . . . cough! Then, in 2014 it is into the 50 -54 age group! So that is the long term goal: rip up the 50 - 54 age group. How scary is that! Age 50!!!! Where is my zimmer. . . . . .