Staying Motivated With Slow Progress & Injury Worries

Ososlo

fanbloodytastic! delighted for you!!!!

Zaram

Great running Laois Man. Well done !

Laois_Man

4 mile recovery/test run done tonight.

I say "test" run because, given the large degree of discomfort I've been in with my left leg all day, I wasn't too sure if I was actually gonna be able to run whatsoever after a few steps.

The good news is I completed the 4 miles at 11:23 per mile average pace.

The bad news is, that was probably as fast as I was able to go right now. I most certainly couldn't seriously attempt any hard session right now. This keeps happening when I run at race pace.

Did some back stretch exercises when I came in. I'm encouraged in that I am able to actually run.....albeit slowly.....coz I wasn't the couple of times this has happened before. I'm putting it down to the Plates making me stronger. (Note to self: Step up the Pilates).

I'll see how I am tomorrow and I might ring a physio. Not the same physio as before coz I'm pissed off with him.

I might try the same run as tonight at the same pace tomorrow night. Hoping I'm able to walk straight in the morning.

Laois_Man

So it's Thursday and I haven't ran since Monday night. I went to see my new physio this morning - my new physio is an absolute pig of an animal....And I love him!!

I've gotten more out of the 45 minutes spent with this guy than I did out of the dozen or more hours I spent with the last guy! The amount of information I got was actually a bit overwhelming. But he hurts, and he promises he's gonna hurt even more soon. Lovely!! Ye'll hear me roaring from Dublin, Cork and Galway! :eek:

Anyway, I hope he's as good as he seems. The instructions are to do only a couple of short runs between now and my next appointment next Thursday morning and to do other exercises or, animal says, don't bother coming back.....which is tempting!!

Laois_Man

So last night (as in, Monday) after not running for a whole week, and getting increasingly antsy, so I did a spontaneous 1K, just to see how it felt.

I followed that up tonight with a 4 mile run at 9:39 pace. Feeling a little bit of pain but nothing too bad. I feel fine at the moment - but how things are feeling in the morning will be the real test. I won't run again until after my next physio appointment on Thursday anyway regardless.

Although I have been off the road for a bit, I have been working really hard on the things the physio asked me to do last Thursday morning.
Although I usually hate indoor workouts, I have a spring in my step with it at the moment coz I feel the new physio I'm seeing (and his very good assistant) is really tackling the root cause of my injury problems and if I play ball with him, he'll sort me out and they'll be behind me for good.

I hope!:cool:

Laois_Man

I didn't feel great Wednesday morning after my run on Tuesday

I feel a bit better today after my visit to the physio this morning tho (they weren't quite as rough as last week)

This foooooker is not getting the best of me....The Gods are gonna find out how stubborn, persistent and determined I can be!!

Laois_Man

Lovely evening for a run....despite the odd patch of ice here and there down my way.

I was going to head out for a run on Saturday as I felt good - but I thought it wise to give it one more day. I thought it important to get out tonight with the end of the world storms forecast for the next couple of days. I'll still hope to get out tho....With a 3 year old who got chicken-pox spots popping up all over the place this morning, I might need my running to keep me sane over the next week.

Legs are sore at the mo - but it's a good kinda sore with all the work I've been doing that the physio gave me to do.

Ran my old 10K route tonight @9:52 per mile pace.

A little discomfort on the injury but happy out.

Hoping it feels OK in the morning.

Laois_Man

So I went out for a makey-uppy run tonight. No planned structure to it. I wasn't sure how it would go coz I was still feeling a little discomfort during the run and I knew I would be coz I had to go chasing some rubbish blowing away in the wind this morning and I felt it a bit then. That pissed me off coz having not run since Sunday, and feeling nothing in normal day to day activity and cross-training routine, I thought I was over it.

So, I thought I would just run 6 or 7 miles making it up as I went along. And it kinda turned out to be an unintentional progression run.

7 miles @ 9:16 pace

9:49, 9:22, 9:15, 9:09, 9:08, 8:18, 10:02 and then a walk.

I really want to start 2014 totally pain free and I don't know whether I am helping or hindering that aim right now. But I'll see how I fee on Sunday. I might run again then to have a better idea where I am for my next physio appointment on Monday morning.

Laois_Man

10 miles under my belt today....my first long run in 4 weeks....and I am barely feeling the injury - Just a tiny twinge. Delighted!

Given it's been so long since I went that distance - combined with the fact that, like most, the ol' diet hasn't been great over the last week, it was a hard slog at the beginning and for the last 3 miles. Average pace came to 9:45.

There was a local 5K race earlier today and I'd love to have run it but I don't think that would be in my best interests for now and I couldn't have done myself justice anyhow. The same goes for the Kilanerin, Gorey 10K next Saturday that I had my eye on. I've missed too much training and I wouldn't have the confidence yet to push too hard. So I'll pick out another one soon. Maybe I'll look at the Great Heath 10K in Laois on January 19th. Dunno yet.

Physio tomorrow and a recovery run to round off the year and hopefully start 2014 with a really strong run on Wednesday.

Laois_Man

Struggled through just over 6 and a half 'easy' miles this evening with 10:23 average pace. A bit sore and generally very weak. Didn't enjoy it much. But after tomorrow, the proper diet is back in earnest!

Anyway, December ends as yet another injury interrupted month - ran 75.58 miles during the month. Still my 3rd best month of the year I suppose.

2013 was an often disappointing and frustrating year overall. 3 weeks missed in April, practically the entire Summer missed completely and now struggling again since December 8th.

But it was my first full year of running (apart from the stupid injuries) and I end it having covered 661 miles (1,063.78 KMs) overall. I would have hoped for more from 2013 this time last year....but oh well.....

Looking ahead to 2014, I am more upbeat than I ever was before that I will get a handle on the injuries because I feel my new physio is doing well with identifying root causes and I am working very hard on taking the guidance that they're giving me and which my old physio never gave me much of. That's why he's my old physio. I'm only sorry I didn't give him the boot sooner.

As regards overall race aims for 2014. I am actually undecided if DCM 2014 will be in my plans for the year or not. I am not gonna be thinking of it as the be-all and end-all of the year like I was this time last year. I won't decide 'til about May if I am gonna go for it at all.

My aim for the first half of the year is to do 2 or 3 10Ks between now and around Paddy's day and then hopefully take on my second attempt at a half marathon on April 27th. I'm not really thinking beyond that for the moment.

Happy new 'running' year to everybody.

Laois_Man

7 easy miles @ 10:08 per mile.

Only doing my first 2014 run this evening :mad:
When I did my last run on New Years Eve, I decided to wait 'til Sunday to do another one and give my discomfort a chance to feck off.
After seeing tomorrow's weather forecast, I decided to go this evening.
Has my discomfort fecked off?? No such luck!
I feel nothing all day...even in my cross training routine....but as soon as I take off running, it's there - and stays there to varying degrees throughout most of the run.

Frustrated!

Laois_Man

Been thinking back to last Summer and how I kept shooting myself in the foot by impatiently trying to force my way back from injury and how I probably would've been back a bit quicker if I had stopped trying to test it. Back then, it wasn't until I forced myself to not even attempt a run for the entire month of August that I finally got over it - and I'm doing it again aren't I.

So I'm resigning myself to the fact that I just have to bite the bullet and do that again. Not a whole month this time tho - coz unlike Summer, I can actually run now. The injury is nowhere near as bad. But I think I"ll just have to take 2 weeks off. So strictly no attempted runs for me til Jan 19th no matter how little or not at all I am feeling sore

Bummer. But plenty of daily cross training to focus on in the meantime to keep me busy and the routine I do is specifically tailored for me and this reoccurring problem I am getting. So I know if I work hard, I shouldn't see this particular injury again. Touch wood.

Ososlo

Sorry to hear that Laois_Man but undoubtedly you're doing the right thing. Maybe start logging your core work etc to keep your mind and body occupied.
Best of luck with the recovery.

Laois_Man

Thanks!

I don't think I'll update my log with my cross-training details daily coz it's the same routine every day at the moment and will mostly remain so for a few more weeks at least. It would bore myself to write it as much as everyone else to read it.

But I'll write it once....

The routine consists of lots of both Ankle Inversion and Ankle Eversion exercises with resistance bands to try to improve my situation with over pronation (although I doubt it will ever be actually cured at this stage).

On the very first post of this log, I said that "I have no ass at all". Well, I still don't, and as it turns out, that's a big problem - the biggest cause of my issues in fact. As a result, much of my routine is aimed towards building an ass....or to put it more elegantly, build up my glutus maximus, medius and minimus. So I do side steps with resistance bands, one legged supported squats (I think I'll have a go at unsupported squats today actually). And there's lots of stretching - piriformis stretches, a back stretch, the Cat stretch, calf stretches and hamstring stretches. I might add some lunges soon - although the physio hasn't mentioned them to me. butshur what the harm.

I always hated HATED this kind of thing - But I'm not actually that bored with it anymore because there is some evidence of what it is doing for me. All good. But I can't wait to get back out running in the cold wind. Temptation is being resisted well though

Laois_Man

Should anyone be interested, I am attaching a word document made of from different documents sent to me by my physio detailing, with the aid of diagrams, most of the routine that I do. However, I do a lot more reps of these things than what is outlined in the document.

I also add a bit of my own stuff to this - planks, lunges, various stretches and I have started adding other styles of squats also.

Laois_Man

So injury wise I was feeling nothing and was tempted several days ago to start running again. But I forced myself to take the full 2 week lay-off and not return again until January 19th as I had promised myself. So I waited and concentrated on my cross training. I thought I would leave this log entry until this morning because from my experience, you don't fully know how the injury is until the morning after the run.

So I did 4 miles at easy pace last night (9:11 average pace - may have been a tiny bit fast). Anyway, I felt great injury-wise, and otherwise a little unfit after 2 weeks off which I expected. But the main thing was I felt nothing of the injury so I was thrilled.

Until I got out of bed this morning that is....because there it was again. Very very slightly when I first got out of bed. But there nonetheless - and I don't feel it right now. But also a bit of new pain around the left knee which has never been an issue before.....WTF that's about I don't know. So I'm torn on what to do next. Take another week off....or run again and see what happens.

Laois_Man

Did the same 4 miles again last night. Pushed a bit harder than Sunday and I feel fitter already - I wanted to go faster than Easy pace but not as fast as Tempo - somewhere in between - So I went 8:50 per mile average pace. The outcome was pretty much the same. No pain or discomfort during the run or afterwards last night, but again, a slight discomfort this morning which is still there now a tiny bit.

Think I'll have to take another week away from it or I'm afraid I'll be back to square one with it again in no time.

Ososlo

Maybe try just running at recovery effort until you're back in the swing of things?

Laois_Man

Ososlo wrote: »

Maybe try just running at recovery effort until you're back in the swing of things?

Yeah I've been thinking that too. I think I'll do that. But I still think I'll leave it for a few days too. Maybe I'll try again on Sunday - McMillan puts my "Recovery" pace at 9:38-10:22 so the lower end of that scale is what I'll shoot for I think. Although, what I ran last night is well inside the "Easy" range according to McMillan - I often think McMillan's pace guidelines are too fast. I think I like Jack Daniels' paces a bit better than McMillan's.

menoscemo

Laois_Man wrote: »

Yeah I've been thinking that too. I think I'll do that. But I still think I'll leave it for a few days too. Maybe I'll try again on Sunday - McMillan puts my "Recovery" pace at 9:38-10:22 so the lower end of that scale is what I'll shoot for I think. Although, what I ran last night is well inside the "Easy" range according to McMillan - I often think McMillan's pace guidelines are too fast. I think I like Jack Daniels' paces a bit better than McMillan's.

Yeah I don't know what's wrong with Mcmillan lately but the easy paces it sputs out are way too fast. If you put in your Predicted Marathon time it says easy start at 10 seconds/mile faster than MP :eek: That's just nowhere near easy.... It never used to be like that.... recovery, tempo, interval paces etc seem to be ok though, but I would go with Daniels for the correct Easy pace.

Ososlo

Or just run to recovery 'effort' and forget looking at the watch. For me, recovery pace can vary a lot depending on how I'm feeling on the day. If I have a sore arse for instance!!

Laois_Man

Very slow run in the strong wind last night. 4 miles again, this time at 11:38 pace and I feel perfectly fine . Think I'll stick to a similar pace to that over distances of 4 to 6 miles for about 4 runs over the next week and see how it goes. Trying to keep my impatience in check and hold back.

Anyone else getting an awful lot more car horn beeps lately? Very rarely got them from strangers before and now it's every 5 minutes. Is it that everyone thinks you're just out coz Operation Transformation is telling us all to do it?? :rolleyes:

Ososlo

Laois_Man wrote: »

Very slow run in the strong wind last night. 4 miles again, this time at 11:38 pace and I feel perfectly fine . Think I'll stick to a similar pace to that over distances of 4 to 6 miles for about 4 runs over the next week and see how it goes. Trying to keep my impatience in check and hold back.

Anyone else getting an awful lot more car horn beeps lately? Very rarely got them from strangers before and now it's every 5 minutes. Is it that everyone thinks you're just out coz Operation Transformation is telling us all to do it?? :rolleyes:

Are you wearing lycra whilst running by any chance Laois-Man?:D
Well done on the running extra slowly. It'll stand to ya!

Laois_Man

Ososlo wrote: »

Are you wearing lycra whilst running by any chance Laois-Man?:D

Wouldn't be caught dead.....I'm too hard, me!!!

Ososlo

hey how's the training going Laois Man?

Laois_Man

Thanks for asking Ososlo

Been training away quietly without much fuss and I'm happy to say the last 3 weeks have been really good. After a poor start to the year for the first 5-6 weeks, the last 3 have gone well. I felt I was upping the mileage a little too quickly for my own good though (25 and 27 miles over the 2nd and 3rd weeks of February respectively) so I took a step back from it a bit over a few days last week....concentrated on my cross-training which I had started to neglect again since getting back on the road properly - note to self....I HAVE TO keep that in check.

I set my 10K PB of 52:20 in a race in Carlow last March and the same race (although over a different course) is on in 2 weeks from today. All guns blazing now for that and to set a new PB. The aim is to go sub 50 minutes but training has been so poor since early December until 3 weeks ago, I'm not sure I am in a position to do that....so sub 52:20 would make me happy enough. Perhaps more important is the fact that there's loads of people I know running it and I am having my own secret race against them....although I know there's 2 guys I know I wouldn't have a hope of beating....have the beat the rest of them tho.

Ososlo

Laois_Man wrote: »

Thanks for asking Ososlo

Been training away quietly without much fuss and I'm happy to say the last 3 weeks have been really good. After a poor start to the year for the first 5-6 weeks, the last 3 have gone well. I felt I was upping the mileage a little too quickly for my own good though (25 and 27 miles over the 2nd and 3rd weeks of February respectively) so I took a step back from it a bit over a few days last week....concentrated on my cross-training which I had started to neglect again since getting back on the road properly - note to self....I HAVE TO keep that in check.

I set my 10K PB of 52:20 in a race in Carlow last March and the same race (although over a different course) is on in 2 weeks from today. All guns blazing now for that and to set a new PB. The aim is to go sub 50 minutes but training has been so poor since early December until 3 weeks ago, I'm not sure I am in a position to do that....so sub 52:20 would make me happy enough. Perhaps more important is the fact that there's loads of people I know running it and I am having my own secret race against them....although I know there's 2 guys I know I wouldn't have a hope of beating....have the beat the rest of them tho.

Great to read your update Laois Man! Best of luck with the 10k race. Going on your recent 5k time you'll have no bother achieving your goal I suspect! And beating those guys!

Laois_Man

Ha...thanks...wish I had your confidence in me.

When I did that Jingle Bells 5K, I had more than 3 months of uninterrupted training behind me. This time it will be off the back of a poor December and an utterly awful January and early February.

Plus...I did a 9 mile LSR yesterday evening at only 11:06 pace - my longest one this year so far - and I'm left with a TINY pain in the left hip again after it Debating whether to do my slow recovery run and stretches tonight - or just do a stretching routine only.

I might end up not even running the race at all if it starts acting the ****e again.

Laois_Man

Saint Laurence O'Toole Fit4Life 10K

49:40 - New PB

Delighted

Thought I was gonna just miss out on the sub 50 goal but when I saw the time passing the 8K marker (39:53) I knew I'd make it if I pushed hard.

First mile was a bit too fast for me at 6:52 pace and I was really suffering for a while after 2K. Reached half way in 24:18. But delighted with the overall time and I know there's more in me.

And I feel no pain

career_move

Nice work