Speed kills. Tendons.

Speed kills. Tendons.

Well, my tendons certainly seem to dislike speed - or to be precise, my left hamstring origin tendon dislikes speed.

Sigh. This was supposed to have healed by now.

I had to skip my track and long interval sessions last week - my left leg was still not up to scratch. I hated having to skip sessions so early back into training, but I guess if I push through things now I'm going to make it worse further on down the road.

To be honest, I'm feeling very up and down right now. After initially thinking I was about to get back on track, time seems to be slipping away rapidly and I often feel myself starting to panic when I realise how quickly Melbourne is approaching. But, in reality, there's no point in panicking is there? It's not going to help the situation - it'll just make me more frustrated. Instead, I have to take this whole thing One. Day. At. A. Time.

Yes, there is still a 'big picture'. And I'll get there. I have to. It's just going to take a bit longer than I originally planned. Freaking crying about it won't help.

Interestingly, while we're on the topic of Melbourne, the Melbourne Marathon isn't the Australian Championships this year - they've gone to Sydney. Even if I were in top form I doubt I would have changed my plans and run Sydney. Melbourne has always been faster for me and the elite athlete coordinator, Tim Crosbie, does everything possible to make it a really positive and easy experience for us. I'm out to get the fastest time I can and I think Melbourne's the place for that. Especially now they've sorted out the merge with the half marathon runners.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

I did 30k on Sunday (23/6) for my long run. Do you know, I'm pretty sure that's the longest run I've done since Melbourne Marathon last year. It felt good to get it done and the tendon was OK. My endurance held up fine and the next day I only had a tiny bit of tightness in my calves - nothing you'd think twice about and my morning run got rid of it.

I've also been in touch with Mizuno to ask about some other shoes that might be worth testing out. At present I am running most of my kilometres in the Elixir, which is working out well. The Elixir used to be my marathon race shoe and I trained in the Nirvana because it had more support so would be kinder on my body. I'm doing all my track work in the Ronin, which I love. Love, love, love. Best shoe ever.

I've found that using a lower profile shoe, such as the Elixir instead of the Nirvana, helps me maintain the body position and form that I need to focus on to get myself through this injury (and to stay uninjured). There doesn't appear to be any scientific evidence for this - even the Mizuno podiatrist said there wasn't much correlation with hamstring injuries and lower profile shoes and my physio said he didn't know, so all I can go on is how my body feels and how it reacts to different shoes.

I am going to try the Inspire as a training shoe - it's got a little more support than the Elixir but less that the Nirvana, so it might be good for doing lots of kilometres. I supposed I'm lucky in that I'm a lightweight so it's not as vital that I have shoes with loads of cushioning, but I'm going to test the Inspire out and see how it goes. A friend recently started running in a pair and he's really happy with how it feels.

So where to from here? I'm literally taking things day by day - seeing how the body is feeling then deciding if the program has to be modified. This week I swapped some days around but I did all the sessions (but again, the track session was cut short - probably a wise move because my 4k cool down had some 'not-right-discomfort'). I had a 25k trail race scheduled for this Sunday - I had a choice of two. I entered one - Woodford to Glenbrook, that I've won the last four years in a row - knowing I'd only be a 50/50 chance of actually racing, depending on my leg. However, it's been cancelled because of flooding. The other one, the Wingello Trail Classic, is a new race in the Southern Highlands. I am doubtful I'll head down to that. Even if I feel OK on Sunday morning, a two-hour drive before a race is never going to benefit the tendon. Sitting in a car for anything more than 40 minutes still causes it to ache.

I do need to get a race in soon though - just to get it over with. I haven't raced since last November and I'm nervous (more nervous than usual!)

So that's where things are at right now.  I'm still fighting.

Two steps forward... and...

I have been making solid progress in regards to returning to a 'normal' training program. I'm now into week three and, generally, the hamstrings have been behaving themselves and I've been able to do some solid training. Last week I did 95k in total, with a fair bit of quality running. It's made it feel like a weight's been lifted off me and I've been feeling so happy and motivated.

Yesterday and today, however, were not good days. My left hamstring/tendon was definitely feeling something so yesterday I decided to swap Tuesday's track session with Wednesday's 14k run in the hope that an extra day away from the track would settle things down.

Unfortunately when I woke up this morning my hammie felt a bit achey and, as I feared, when I did the hamstring bridge to test things out I felt the slightest little twinge up under my butt. Just the slightest bit, and only for a split second at the start of it, but it was there. Not what I wanted.

So, in an effort to let it settle down completely, today was a cycle only day - as per my instructions from physio Brent that if there is any pain when I do a bridge I'm not to run (let alone to the track session I was planning on doing). I've been feeling very positive these last few weeks so today broke the spirit a little bit. I'll admit to having a bit of a cry this morning, then another one this afternoon when the Athletics NSW email newsletter arrived rubbing salt in the wound.

I just want this to disappear once and for all. I suppose I was naive in thinking there wouldn't be any setbacks when getting back into training. At this stage I suppose I'm prepared to modify my training every now and then to cater for any niggles but the worry is that I'll have to keep modifying it, and modify it too much, to the point that I'm not going to get the best out of myself.

Bah.

Here we go again

I am officially on day two of 'proper' training. Woo hoo!

I finished with my physio last Friday - we just went through the exercises I needed to keep doing (as in, keep doing forever and ever, amen, if I want to continue running) and talked about the warning signs I had to look out for that would signal tendon problems.

The biggest warning sign is pain when I do my hamstring bridge - that's my number one test to make sure everything is still OK. If I get pain I have to back off the training until the pain goes away.

I am also about to start riding around on a scooter. You know, one of those push scooters that kids use. I thought my physio was joking when he told me to use one - he wasn't. It makes sense because it strengthens all the areas I need to work on. This weekend I'm going to go to my parents' place and dig out the (awesome) scooter my younger sister used. And yes, it will probably look like I'm a crazy lady trying to reclaim my youth. I don't care. I'll do anything if it helps my running!

Today I hit the track, as per my program. I've done some track work over the last month or so but they've been short sessions with decent recovery between reps (very basic - two mins fast, two min recovery, just so I felt I was doing something). Today that recovery time was cut in half (two mins fast, one min recovery) and we added some one minute reps (with 45 sec recovery) at the end.

Yes, it was tough for me - it's been at least six months since I've done this. Yes, some of the reps were a bit off the pace, but some were faster than the set pace. In all, I feel so positive and happy that I'm finally back to it.

Life is good.

J

Ready... Steady...

One more physio visit to go. Only one more!

It's like looking forward to graduation. Or prison release. :)

J

Some days

Some days it all just seems so hard.

I feel like I'm trying to climb backwards up a waterfall.

Ironically, now I am almost on top of this injury I am feeling completely hopeless. It's like the past five months (yes FIVE awful months) it's taken to get me to this point were only the preliminaries. The real hard stuff starts now, when I have to come to terms with just how slow I have become; when the end goal is now so far away I can't even see it anymore.

Last year I was finally starting to feel confident in myself as a runner. Now I am struggling to see anything beyond these terribly slow runs that appear to be taking me nowhere.

Ironman Australia was yesterday. Ouch. Twelve months ago I had such different plans - I had entered to race Ironman and I was excitedly freaking out about it. Then, when my running started to make progress again, I made the decision to withdraw from Ironman so I could focus on some key road races in the first part of this year and really do well in them. To be honest, the decision wasn't really that difficult - running will always be my first love and I truly believed if I worked hard I could do well.

As it turned out - I didn't do any of it. Nada, nothing, zip. Instead, I've spent five months trying to rehabilitate two stupid hamstring tendons, always knowing there would be a chance they were blown for good.

Can you tell it was a bit of a tough weekend? Not only was Ironman yesterday, the state road 10k championships were on Saturday too. And I was... nowhere near either of them.

I have really tried to keep up the positive rhetoric as I've been treating this tendinopathy, but some days it just all seems too hard to believe. When I'm out running and only hitting a pace that's slower than my previous recovery-run pace, it's difficult to see how on earth a sub-2:50 marathon is on the way.

Things are looking up!

The past week has been really promising and I'm starting to feel I truly am on the way to beating this injury.

I saw my physio nine days ago and he said it was time to start building up my kilometres to about 75-85% of my normal training load. He also said I could do one 'light' speedwork session a week. This was the best news I've had in ages.

I had some dry needling (which is apparently great for high hamstring tendinopathy) and we also talked about how important it is for me to consistently do strength exercises - glutes, hamstrings, hip extension. I've got a whole lot of different ones to do, some using body weight, some using weights and some using resistance bands.

I had two new 'toys' delivered early last week - a 'power band' to use for resistance work (rather than the makeshift things I've been using) and a 'pocket physio' that I can use to release some of the pain and tightness I get (especially after sitting and driving - I actually sit on it in the car).

Super band.

Pocket physio.

I got these online from Sport & Physio Supplies - I have absolutely no relationship with this business at all and I want to say how fantastic the service was. I ordered on Friday night and the parcel arrived on Tuesday. The price of the band was cheaper (in some cases much cheaper) than other places I looked and the quality seems good. (See the end of this post for a video of an exercise using the super band).

I'm really pleased to say my body has handled the increase in kilometres really well. Greta (Garmin) has come out of retirement once again and is back recording distances. Over four days last week (Sat-Wed) I clocked up 70.13km, including one small set of 6x2 min reps (with 2 min rest) at the track - my first time doing anything 'fast' since November last year. I had no idea what to expect in terms of pace when I was at the track. Part of me was really afraid I wouldn't even be able to get to 4min/k pace. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as I feared. My fastest rep was at 3:16k pace and my slowest was 3:32k pace. I felt strong through my glutes and I played it a little cautiously. I was prepared to call it quits if my hamstrings/glutes started to feel 'wrong' but it all went OK (even though the daylight suddenly disappeared and I found myself running in near darkness and guessing where the lane was. I was worried I was going to trip over because the grass track I go to is in crap condition and there were also water bottles and rubbish all over it).

After a great start to the week, getting sick wasn't the greatest thing to happen. Every second person seems to have a head cold or flu at the moment, including me. I didn't run Thursday, Friday or Saturday and today I did a slow 22k. My legs felt good (which is why I kept going to 22k) but I had a cracker of a headache and a bit of a cough. Nonetheless, it was very heartening to be out running without pain.

I know I have to be careful not to do too much too soon, but I have gradually been building up the running (on physio approval) over the last few weeks. I am paying close attention to how my body feels - I'm not going to jeopardise the last few months and set myself back again. If everything goes well over the next fortnight I'm hoping to be able to start proper training with Sean again (modified proper training, but at least following a program and starting to work towards goals other than 'fix injury) in about the second or third week of May.

Finally, here's an example (from YouTube) of another strength exercise my physio has me doing with the super band. The guy in the video talks too much but put up with it and you'll see the hip extension work I'm doing. The only difference with me is that I start with my knee bent (not straight like him) so it mimics the running motion.

Keep on keeping on.

J

For Boston

I, like so many people today, am trying to get my head around the gut wrenching tragedy that took place at the Boston Marathon.

There are no words.

I think runners, in particular, around the world are reacting so strongly to this because it hits so close to home - we've been there, racing towards the finish line, elated and euphoric. We've had our own friends and family on the sidelines cheering us home. From its sheer simplicity - running - comes a moment that celebrates all that is good - self belief, determination, community, camaraderie.

How dare some crazed, sick people take away our freedom to enjoy a life without fear? Who now will take to a start line without a worry, even just fleeting, that the events in Boston may be repeated? Innocence is lost.

My deepest sympathy to everyone touched by the bombings.

This popped up on my Facebook feed a little while ago, and it shines a little bit of light in a dark moment in time.