Injury! Injury! They've all got an injury!

What is it? 

What have I done?

I am desperate to run, far, fast and well.

Then an injury strikes me down.

This is the recurring trapped nerve at the top of my left leg and it crippled me 3 nights ago.

I have managed just 24 miles this week, 11 of them today as I ran, gently, from Earlsfield to Richmond and back again.

Strangely enough when I am running the pain is at its most bearable but I know it's not doing me any good, but I just cannot listen to my body and in exercise this is the number one rule.

As I sit at home, not running anywhere the fear grips me and I wonder just how bad i am going to do in just 4 months time.

But rest I must and I am glad i have burned off around 1600 calories today so i can watch Federer march to his 15th slam with some comfort of mind.

Lactate threshold - nasty

Today was a mixed bag run wise.

It was a first for me as I ran after coming home from work. I had been looking forward to it all day.

Then actually strapping on my heart rate monitor I stepped out the door and twisted my knee somehow. Decided to run it off though.

 Risky but it paid off.

There was a van and its undercarriage was on fire but it refused to stop and trundled on in front of me for about quarter of a mile spewing smoke in my face.

This lactate threshold run consists of a warm up of two miles, then two miles running just below my full on top speed. Then another two mile warm down.

My wonderful watch tells me when I am going below my ideal heart rate for such a run and I was getting so pissed off with it I wanted to throw it under a car.

No matter how hard I thought I was running, the sodding watch wanted to tell me otherwise. Maybe my heart rate is just too cool for school because it wasn't even up to speed when I was pelting it up the big hill.

Bastard.

Must try harder.

Good run though, finished off with a jog warm down round a beautifully sunny Wimbledon Park. 

Rest day tomorrow then I will try another first - an eight mile run BEFORE work on Friday.

No change

• Not much to report today. 
  
• Legs still ache, if anything they are worse than yesterday.
  
• Managed to walk about 3-4 miles though. Got to keep my end in.
  
• Had a play around with the watch - looks promising.
  
• Over and out.
  

All talk eh?

The weekend draws to a close and I am no nearer a level of fitness to get my weekly mileage up to 40 miles.

I decided to take it easy on Saturday and only did 4 miles on the cross trainer which is fine in place of a recovery run. I find the cross trainer better for recovery runs as i cannot run at the recommended slower pace of 2 minutes per mile more than best pace.

At the back of my mind, however, i still wanted to do more exercise.

The Bible that is Advanced Marathoning recommends that I do 2 sessions of resistance training per week, i.e. weights and the like.

So I cracked on with some push ups and tricep dips and dumbbell presses, etc, etc. All good core strengthening routines. But, as with most good weights routines they always throw in the lunges and the squats.

When you do these for the first time in a long time you know you will be out of the game for a couple of days afterwards. I knew this deep down, but at the time there is no outward sign that this will happen and you always think you have gotten away with it.

No, no, no,no, no.

Sunday morning and the waddle from the bed to the bathroom lets you know that your legs are useless to you. No 12 mile run today.

The best I could muster was a 4 miles round trip to a garden centre and then the supermarket. Leisurely stroll, not too many stairs. Strangely enough, it's the going down stairs that hurt more than the going up after such workouts.

the best thing about it is that the body soon gets use to this feeling and the next time I do it, and as long as I keep doing it regularly, there will be no such side effects and I can stop doing my impression of a penguin.

So, best to get these things out of the way early in the countdown.

What the f&%k was that?

I have had a very tiring week. I haven't done anything especially strenuous. In fact due to my injury I have done less exercise than at any time in the past 3 months. Typical when I start writing a blog essentially about exercise.

So the last thing I needed this morning was to be woken up at 5 o'clock. Not by a noise, not by intruders, not by a ruddy great hurricane. No. By a pain sent by satan himself. 

Night cramp.

HOLY SHITSTICKS.

 

It's like someone grabbing your calf muscle and twisting it 360 degrees.

I have had them before and there was a time when I would be woken up by them about three times a week.

They hurt.

A lot.

Now I am wondering if this is the punishment I get for not training. It's starting to look mightily unfair. 

The real kicker is that yesterdays other calf strain had cleared up. Perhaps this calf acted up because it felt neglected, I don't know.

So had it not been for this morning's rude awakening I would have run home from work but these cramps take at least 24 hours to stop niggling.

Down, yes, but not out.

Tomorrow I start my training in earnest with a recovery run of 4 miles. Nothing strenuous. 

I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow. In the meantime I just. Want. To. Sleep.

Down and out already?

There is nothing more aggravating to a runner than an injury, especially when all you are doing is running. You know, keeping fit. Eating well and getting fit. What a kick in the knackers.

It's a bit like Bruce Lee dying because he was so buff. Apart from the fact that I'm alive. And not buff. And that pack of peanuts I have just snarfed is not going to help anyone.

I have strained my left calf muscle and I fear it's my fault. I didn't stretch properly before my run yesterday. And there it is. I won't be running home from work tomorrow night and I will struggle to get fit in time for my long run on Sunday.

Gives me time to read my book, though, and get my running plan ready to see me through the next 9 weeks until the proper countdown.

With this disappointment in mind I will leave you on a high. Here is the space age bit of kit which will turn me into Paula Radcliffe - but with slightly bigger tits. Check this out, I will fill you in a bit more when it arrives.

A bit of a hasty blog today but you can expect that on Thursdays as I go to uni after work in the evening and have no time to write let alone run. Thursday is rest day.