slowly

3 miles on the treadmill this morning. felt alright. can feel some residual pain in the shin if I do more than 30 or so shin raises. still taking it gently and being cautious.

nervously, i'm gonna say - 25 days until London

Did 30minutes on the exercise bike this lunchtime and then a 7:30minute mile on the treadmill. Stopped after one mile. No pain, no reaction. Felt fine. Lungs felt fine. Felt a bit heavy. Extremely aware of my shin... need to relax because all of my focus is around that one area and it's probably making me run al tense. glad to have that little run (just the one mile) just to be able to run and stop without any pain. will continue to ice like crazy tonight anyway. Might try a couple of miles this evening in addition to a bunch of cross training. If that goes well... might try a gentle four on the trails tomorrow. Being extra cautious about it.

The diet thing is tough. 1000 calories so far today. Only gives me 500 calories to play around with for dinner. The sooner I get down to 149lbs and can start eating normally again, the better.

look at dem bones

so... x-rays on monday. bone scan tuesday. bone scan involves getting injected with radioactive stuff that goes through your system and attaches itself to your bones. Then they take a scan looking for this radioactive stuff and you get an entire body scan of your skeleton, and also a couple of scans of the affected area. After the injection, you have to come back for the scan about 3 hours later so it does sort of take just over half of a day. Turns out my skeleton is fine and I have no stress fracture. Which means that whatever I have is either tendon or muscle related. If this is the case, then rest and ice and ibuprofen and cross training should fix it up in, like, a week... right? whereas a stress fracture would pretty much rule me out for 4 to 6 weeks at the least. So, as it's not bone I'm all thinking about london again. And icing again. And having to get back down to racing weight again (10 days not running and feeling a bit depressed will put 5lbs or so on you... cookies and muffins and pizza and the like).

Goal One - get to the startline in london without an injury (fix this injury completely, not do it again, not get another different or compensatory type injury)
Goal Two - get to the startline in London with the best fitness level I can be in (cross train, and get back running as quickly as possible - without triggering the previous injury)
Goal Three - get to... racing weight (really cut back on calories but not on nutrients... any empty calories are just gone for the next 3 and a half weeks)
Goal Four - run a pr in London.

This is, therefore, what I'm going to do... ice like a crazy ice loving maniac. 20minutes every hour. Ice bath after every run that starts or ends at home. Almost 100% trail running. Cross Training loads... as in weights, as in busting my lungs and heart on the bike.

Gym this morning - put in a solid 2 hours on the exercise bike to try and get as close to the same workout as a long run (body used to burning calories for that long). I'm going Ice like an idiot every evening. Bike again at lunch.

1,500 calories a day until I drop back down to 151. Then 2000 calories until I drop to 148. I'm going to write every single bit of fuel consumption down between now and London. Back to getting to bed early, and waking up at 5am.

I guess this is my knee jerk reaction to getting injured and feeling like everything was out of my control whether I wanted it to be or not. Now I want to control everything. If I can get to London and be able to run and run well, then this'll all be worth it. And it's not like I've not lost all the training... 2,500 miles in 5 months - all that work can't just be gone and lost. I've kept up the exercise bike work for the last 2 weeks. The couple of pounds I put on can be gotten rid of - probably by sunday - with a tiny bit of discipline.

good news

I had the bone scan. Short answer - I do not have a stress fracture or any bone/skeleton problem of any sort. I have a picture of my entire skeleton. kick ass to that. Chances of running london just got very good. more later.

doctors appointment today at 2pm

Doctors appointment at 2pm today. Hopefully I’ll be able to have whatever x-rays and bone scans and be able to spend the time and work out exactly whats wrong. If it’s a fracture then I’ll write up a schedule of swimming, exercise biking, and workout everything I need to do to get it fixed as soon as possible. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Need to confirm that it’s what I now think it is… a stress fracture of my tibia. I hope I get to keep a picture of the x-rays or bone scans.

I might sign up for the Now York Marathon tomorrow after the scans. Also sign up for a couple of big races over the summer... work out on what to focus on in the future so I've got goals and stuff to look forward to, and such rubbish. Maybe the philadelphia half in september, the riley rumble half... again, getting ahead of myself...

not good at all now...

jogged a very slow 4 miles to the massage on friday night. painful in the last mile. couldn't jog the last two miles home... had to walk the last mile. terrible pain when I was home - really acute and shooting up and down (what feels like) the bone. all emanating from an area near the very bottom of the tibia. Last night was the first time I realised London was not looking likely... which would be the second year running injury has ruled me out. Ended up having to have a couple of drinks with a couple of very close friends just to get out of my mind about it all. It's been over a week of reasonably running free training, and i usually heal quite fast from muscle and tendon damage. But this pain feels so much more acute and nauseating. I'm now thinking I've gone and run myself into a tibia stress fracture and will call the doctors on monday morning to book and appointment to see if they can give me a bone scan to confirm... I hope it's not true, but I have a pretty big hunch that's what it is. I guess that's what happens when you put all of your eggs in one basket and the basket handle breaks because you put too many eggs in it. Eggs. Everywhere. It's all a little depressing and devastating. Not being able to run which is all I've really been doing with my life. Not being able to fulfil a goal I've been aiming at and thinking about every single day for the last 6 months. I might be in for 6 weeks worth of running in a swimming pool and cycling on an exercise bike. Unless some sort of magic happens in my system and fixes my leg which would surprise me like you wouldn't believe. Oh balls.

ups and downs

downside - my right shin still hurts. It hurt while I was lying in bed last night and first thing this morning... it hurts lying in bed for crying out loud. Yes, I did go out for a 4 mile jog last night. 4 miles feels like a terribly short warm up (i.e. nothing of any significance), and I did jog really slowly and play around with my form so that there was little stress on my shins. I then sat in Rock Creek for 15 minutes in order to ice my legs... it was damn cold and dark and so i sat and sang to myself to keep myself entertained. Must've looked like a right plonker singing away if anybody saw me through the trees while cycling along the path nearby.

Didn't cross train this morning. just felt really down that i wasn't able to jog 4 miles without my shin reacting. Woke at 5am and sat on the couch drinking tea for 2 hours. London is getting closer by the hour. I'm hoping for magic from the massage fella. If the pain is still there by Tuesday morning then I'll go see the doctor again.

upside - turns out that the club I run for/with DCRRC gave me an award: Outstanding Male Runner of the Year. I feel a little guilty cause there are guys who are better than me but just haven't been fit or haven't been racing. But... I'm quite flattered by it and it couldn't have come at a better time in order to boost my confidence a bit... which is close to rock bottom right now.

In an hour I'll go and sit on an exercise bike for 60minutes and then stretch a bit. Running without injury seems like such a blissful yet far off goal right now.

If i do get un-injured, and have a two weeks when I can get back in shape, then my taper better be pretty damn magical so that I can do well in London. I hope I'll look back at this and be able to say that it was just another challenge I got over... rather than the injury that derailed all of this seasons training.

booked massage...

I've booked a massage with a guy called terrel hale for tomorrow night at 6:30pm... i'm hoping he's got magic hands or something and will, just like chris martin did to somebody who tired their best but didn't succeed, he'll fix me.

did another 60minutes on the exercise bike followed by stretching. will do something tonight followed by another 15-20minutes in the ice bath... my leg actually feels better. it only hurts a little when I walk. i might, just might, go out for a little 4 mile jog this evening on the trails at about 8minute mile pace (i.e. as good as walking) and then see how it feels... then ice and stretch it... maybe it'll be alright... right?

patience, right? nah. panic.

an hour of exercise bike craziness last night. an hour this morning. planning on another hour at lunchtime, and even more (maybe 90minutes tonight). I'm tempted to lose all discipline and just go out and drink, eat bad food, and toss it all in. It's frustrating not being able to run when it's just one little flaw thats stopping me from running.

I am also even more aware now of the passing of time. If I could stop time and sleep for about 5 days and then train hard for another 10 days, and then restart time... that would ease my concerns. The shin is better than it was 24hours ago. But then again, it was fine when I started running on Monday night after 36 hours rest... and mondays run was bad within a mile and got considerably worse over the next 6 miles. But then when I've had this before I've run through it and then it's gone away after 2 or 4 runs. But I don't remember it ever being this bad. I'll try and stay disciplined enough to cross-train through until Sunday morning. I really want to turn up and race in the half marathon on saturday, but that would be stupid, and just isn't going to happen.

Everyday that passes feels like a day lost right now. Struggling not to panic mr mannering. (Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?)

anterior shin splints

doctor confirmed the following, and we've come up with the following plan...
Anterior shin splits = muscle/tissue damage...
should be fixed in 3-5 days
cross train for 3 days and then try and do a gentle 5 miles a day until things feel good.
goal: even if I can't do perfect training, the goal is to get to the start line at london in perfect shape...
icing = good
stretching = good
cross training = good
booking a sports massage or many sports massages = good

he watched me walk and run a bit and gait/form looks to be perfect/good/great/whatever so thats not a problem. he checked a pair of my running shoes and theres nothing wrong with them (no need for othortics)

so this is the plan...
today through saturday:
90minutes exercise bike - morning
30minutes exercise bike with situps and pushups - lunchtime
120 minutes exercise bike - evening
saturday:
scratch the half marathon race this saturday, and hopefully be in shape for the cherry blossom 10miler in 12 days time.
sunday (if there is no pain in my shin at all):
5 mile - really gentle slow jog on the trails - morning
120 minutes exercise bike
be extremely disciplined about my diet - more so than usual cause I'm not running 20miles a day and therefore I have to really watch what I eat now.

start running properly next monday/tuesday and take it from there...

I could still be in good shape and rested for the cherry blossom race in 12 days time. so this might all work out as a great taper. positive thoughts. happy thoughts.

doctors tomorrow am.

booked an appointment with this doctor tomorrow - http://www.drpribut.com/ - hopefully having a second pair of eyes and ears go over the problem will help ease my mind a bit. Still hurts a bit to walk... but it feels better than it did this morning. Have to be disciplined about diet and cross-training not to throw away all of the hard work I've put in over the last 18 weeks.

I've been icing it all afternoon and taking lots of vitamin I.

Going to sit on an exercise bike tonight for a couple of hours and just read a book or two. Probably do something similar tomorrow morning.

Definitely starting to panic a bit. I need to do everything I can to get this fixed so that I can still run, and run well in London. The half this weekend is looking very unlikely - unless I feel 90% by friday morning... I know I recover quickly, but that might be pushing my luck. Happy thoughts.

On the up side - I'm really enjoying Following the Flame by Greg Lautenslager. A running book, granted, but I'm really enjoying it...

not so good.

right shin really bad. gritted my teeth through a very slow 7 mile run last night - all on my toes. Now painful to walk. Looking around to book a doctors appointment today... not good.

i'm thinking it's going to be better than alright...

did 30minutes on an exercise bike at lunchtime to get the legs working again. Right shin and right calf both feel a bit funny... but I'm probably concentrating on them a little too much. The link for this entry is a cracking decent single by a band called Battle. damn fine single. The rest yesterday has left me with loads of energy and my legs are just bouncing all over the shop. If I didn't have the weakness in my shin i'd probably be in quite good shape. If thats how I feel after one day off, imagine how good I might feel after a solid taper...

tempo run tonight... in just over an hour.

some websites predicting possibility of light snow showers for the race on saturday. that'd be cool. as in great. as in bloody brilliant.

minor set-back...

right shin still causing me trouble on sunday so didn't run in the 10k club race. Spent Saturday and Sunday doing lots of icing and overdosing on Vitamin I. Sunday was my first day off since January 23rd, and the previous day off was early december, and there you have my only 3 days off since Chicago last october. So... I probably needed a day off.

Not time to panic. But I'm going to stretch lots, and stick almost 100% to trails from now through to the Half Marathon on Saturday. Track workout on wednesday morning. As I only ran 100 last week I need to be more disciplined about what I eat. Those 3 lbs I lost last week might be back on. 35 days. 35 days. 35 days.

34 days to go - last weeks training

Mon, Mar 13 am	Easy	4	right shin
Mon, Mar 13pm	Easy	10	with Erik
Tue, Mar 14 am	Easy	11.5	deliberately very slow. right shin painful.
Tue, Mar 14 pm	Easy	7	right shin still hurts.
Wed, Mar 15 am	Easy	6	legs felt fine. right shin not bothersome at all. windy. lungs felt great.
Wed, Mar 15 pm	Hard	10	3 warm up - 4 tempo @ 5:37 (by Erik's watch) - 3 cooldown. with Ben and Erik and Max on C&O as track is closed.
Thu, Mar 16 am	Easy	15	legs tired after last nights run. tough.
Thu, Mar 16 pm	Easy	4
Fri, Mar 17 am	Easy	11.5
Sat, Mar 18 am	Hard	20	6 warmup - 14 slr - jogged in the last 2 because my right shin flared up again. RIGHT SHIN! knickers.
Sun, Mar 19	-	-	DAY OFF - first day off in two months
		99

erg - right shin bad during long run

right shin flared up again during the saturday long run. shame, because my legs and lungs etc were feeling fine.

Easy 12 friday morning. 6 stealth then 14 for slr = 20... shin started to hurt around rose drive after about 14 total and managed to grin and bear it for the next three or four. Then just had to back off the pace and jog home the last 2 miles. Shin got really bad down the concrete into georgetown after lovers lane. Erik came back to keep me comfort through just over the last mile which was very decent of him.

Iced it, taken a few too many vitamin I tablets. Icing it again in 5minutes. Need to stretch before every run - even first thing in the morning... I guess thats as much required discipline-wise as eating well, in moderation, and running the training runs I'm supposed to...

Next steps? Might do a gentle 4 this afternoon to just see how it feels and maybe sit in the creek to ice both legs. There is that race tomorrow... it makes sense for me to go, warm up with people, and then only race if it feels ok. It's a 5 loop thing so I can bow out if it hurts... and I know from previous experience that running fast and short actually doesn't seem to bother it because I'm more up on my heals I guess. Need to look after this one though...

Monday's plan on the canal with Erik is 2warmup followed by 3mile tempo X2 followed by 2cooldown... come on shin... sort yourself out. I don't have time for this.

continuous doubts - t minus 38

i do wonder whether i'm going to be in a position to run close to a 2:30 marathon. right now, i don't think so. I definitely am not comfortable enough running around 5:35's - 5:40's to consider doing that for 26.2 miles. But as I've not rested enough to run a fast workout (race or tempo run) on fresh legs, there is that unknown tapering effect that i'm beginning to dream about.

3warmup + 4tempo + 3cooldown last night which = 10.
15 this morning - down rock creek along c&o canal, switch to capital crescent, cut through up into west georgetown heading east and then up around Battery Kemble Park and then north through Glover Archbold Park across van ness area on melvin hazel trail to Pierce Mill then down rock creek a little until home = 15. I'm tempted to get one of those garmin gps watches so that I'll always know my exact distance and my exact speed... then i can train all scientifically. like einstein.

The more I think about it the more annoyed I am about this past sunday's race. With some many decent fast local guys out it would have been nicer to place higher up to show that I'm getting faster. It doesn't put next to your results what you did the day before. So that doesn't really count. I've added a couple of piccies from the 8k. look at me, aren’t i special and such rubbish. face like an arse kicked in.

Getting back into the habit of exercising at lunchtime... be it a 4 or 6 mile easy run or exercise bike and stretching. My weight is also starting to drop towards where I want it to be. 151 on the scales this morning. First time I've toughed that in a lot of months. Cutting out the cookies and the bingeing and anything bad and replacing lunch with just a bowl of oatmeal seems to have done the trick. I'd like to get down to <148,>London. Much less of hugh to carry along with me on that 26.2.

Only 38 days left of being disciplined. Only 3 more races (10k, Half Marathon, 10miler). Only 4 more long (19+) runs. I need to add in some track workouts - probably early morning if I jog over to the AU track (work out where that is). Need to add in about 3 or 4 more tempo runs as well. Need to push myself right to the point where I'm about to break and hold myself at that point until I taper... Last hard workout on the 12th April - 8X800's. That leaves me 27 days until I taper. i need to stop be half arsed.

right shin feeling better

just went out and did an easy 6 and my right shin didn't give me any trouble whatsoever. Hopefully it'll feel fine after the tempo run tonight. It's just best if I avoid running hard on concrete unless it's really necessary.. or running hard two days in a row. And the scale of how happy i'll be with marathon times in London... looks a bit like this in my mind... so nothing short of a pr will really make me happy.




Such silly high goals... if I run a sub 2:35 then I might have half a chance of getting a semi-elite place in New York. That would be fancy.

39 days to go - booked flight to london

My right shin still hurts from the long run and race at the weekend. It was sore and tight during the warm up on Sunday. Felt sore afterwards. Really sore Sunday night and I ran with it Monday (12 am, 4 noon) and Tuesday (12 am, 7 pm). Slept in this morning to give it some rest. Sometimes it feels better after a run, but I’m not able to push my runs that hard… so I could do without it being hurt. Will put in an easy 4 this lunchtime just as an excuse to stretch it.

Booked my flight back home for London. Flying out on the Wednesday night, getting in Thursday morning. Gives me 3 days and nights to adjust to whatever jet lag there is. Thought about paying extra for a slightly bigger seat on the way out but instead I’ll just beg and grovel for an upgrade at the counter and see if that helps me any. Visa appointment at the US Consulate on Thursday, and then spending the Friday and Saturday just kicking my heels dealing with the hyperactive child that is hugh on taper.

Been looking back over my training before Chicago… wondering if I’ll even do as well as I did in chicago in London. Wondering if my goals are too big right now… should I be content with a pr? In my mind I see this scale of times from 2:39 down to <2:29>

less than 6 weeks - great 23 long run - poor st patricks day 8k

Probably shouldn’t have raced on Sunday. The long run (23) on Saturday morning went really well… really ended up pushing hard in the last 6 or 7 miles and felt like it was hard effort too. Then put in a gentle 6 on Saturday afternoon and my right shin was tight and starting to hurt a bit. During a couple of miles worth of warm up on Sunday my shin felt quite painful. Raced, and then the pain came back again during the warmdown. It’s the same old shin pain I’ve had a number of times before, and running higher up on the balls of my feet alleviates the problem. I think it comes from either warm out shoes or too much concrete running. There was enough concrete in the last 7 miles of Saturdays long run for the fatigue to really stress my shins so that must’ve been it.

The race went ok. So-so. I was quite slow, and about a minute slower than I should have been. My body didn’t feel like it wanted to go fast, and I dragged myself around in about 7-10 seconds faster than my marathon pace. I’m happy enough about the 23 long run not to be that bothered about not performing well in the 8k race. I am thinking about putting myself all out in the National Capital Half in two weeks time… take 3 or 4 days and rest beforehand, and really go out to see how well I can do. It’s risky, because If I do badly I’ll get all depressed and worried that all of this work has been useless. But then again, unless I take a risk and go all out, how on earth am I ever going to find out what I could do? “High risk… high reward” or something like that.

It’s getting up to a high of 80something today. Back to freezing first thing in a couple of days time. Silly weather. Went out and did suburban 4 miles from the golds gym without a shirt… I like running in the cold, but it’s nice to be able to run outdoors in just shorts and sweat a little. I’ll be bored of it by august. Easy 10 tonight with Erik. Hopefully shin will be fine after a couple of easy runs. 16 on the trail tomorrow am… probably take it really easy. Might even take my mpthrees with me.

Oh, and really starting to get fed up with my lack of discipline about diet. So… am going to start exercising at lunchtime as well as morning and evenings. Just through to London… but something like 4 miles through suburbia or on the exercise bike or just stretching and light weights. Enough to get my mind off a cookie and a coffee and fire my metabolism up enough to get me through the afternoon. And no more eating what I want. Strict policy of no cookies during the week, no chocolate at all, and no eating after 8pm if I’m just snacking. Get myself down to race weight for London as quickly as possible so I don’t waste all of this effort by going into a race holding onto 5 to 10 lbs worth of hugh that I really don’t need to carry around for 26.2 miles. Maybe I’ll lose 5lbs by the half in two weeks time and then see if 5:30’s suddenly feel really easy for 13 miles? No? Come on, let a boy dream a little.