Road to Recovery & Physical v's Mental

Sunday Afternoon. I have just got back from the gym. The immense frustration I have been feeling since the 4th December are starting to turn into feeling of hope, Wednesday I ran 6Km, Thursday 7km, Saturday 10km and today 17km, it took me 1:20, a long way off the 1:19 half marathon times I was putting down before Injury but at least I can run.

My housemate asked at what point I would make a decision to pull out, to which I replied, no chance. The frustration is not about whether I will make it to the Sahara but if I would be able to test myself but from a position of straight. Ok, I only singed up in November, whereas most people entering plan it for years. I had never heard of the Marathon Des Sables until September, but I had just come off the back of the Berlin marathon and up until I gave up rowing in April I had trained 11 times a week for the last 5 years.

For several years now, I have really wanted to understand why in sport I get almost to the end and then break down, rowing in a 2k ergo test I would fall off at 200m to go, marathon running normally happens at mile 25. Is this a physical or mental weakness. Personally I really don’t know. is it that I push myself so hard that by the time I get to the final bit I just physically have nothing at all left, or is it a mental block. there is no question that I feared failure and if it is going badly from the off, I have been known to pull out once or twice, I think I have managed to overcome that now, simple changed can change the mind set, odd but instead of responding the question "how are you" with "not too bad" I now respond with positive words, why use a negative word to describe a positive emotion. 

 After most 2k tests I was physically sick and after every marathon I have run I have been taken to the medical tent. London marathon 09, I hit the first finish matt then the next thing I knew I woke up with a drip, legs in the air, no jokes please, ice in my groin and a thermometer in a rather less than pleasant place. I have lost my target time every time in that last mile or so, no one would be in a good place at mile 25, but can I just push to the end at pace. Berlin, I think I could have got close to 2:45 if I had not fallen off. Can you push yourself genuinely push yourself when there is absolutely nothing left in the tank - I think you can, I just need to find out how, and I hope to find this running the marathon Des Sables.

I have posted a few things about what has been wrong with my ankle and non of myself diagnosis turned out to be the actual problem. Having never had a sports injury before, well apart from flying off my bike the week before Henley (does not count because I could see the physical mess it caused) I have never understood the importance of a physio. I do now. It turns out that it is actually damage to my Common Peroneal Nerve (branch of the Syatic Nerve), most probably at the knee form when I fell out of the taxi. It has caused inflammation in the tissue surrounding the nerve and causing pain in the bonny bit of my ankle. I have read a few people posting about similar pain but the GP's have never worked out what it was and they have gone on. My GP told me I had soft tissue damage and you cannot get a stress fracture from running (he has never heard of shin splints it seems). The fact he said that made me realise he had no idea what he was talking about and self referred to a Physio, I have seen so much progress in the last 2 weeks it is untrue. Lesson: anything muscular skeletal, use a physio not a GP (a few acceptations, but mostly holds true), simple lesson but one that took me weeks to learn.

Springboard



Throughout my posts I have been talking about how with the correct support I believe you can achieve. I am a bit guilty of not following my own advise and letting my leg go undiagnosed by a specialist for a month, putting me back on training by about 2 months, but small steps in the right direction, I managed 5km on the treadmill on Saturday, I really need to start upping the distance as I really do HAT a gym bike and spending hours at a time has not been fun. Cycling out to Windsor on Saturday was a welcome change and a good day out.

I received a letter on Thursday that really did give me determination to get me leg fixed and get back on track, it did pull a deeply buried emotional cord and sums up exactly why I want to run this for Springboard for Children in a much more articulate way than I could ever achieve in my long waffly posts, which my sister described as hilarious, assuming she does not think I have become a comedy and more referring to the spelling.

One of the aims that I had for this run was to inspire the Springboard children and I am really pleased the children are really getting behind this, I have now received a number of letters and we are being posted to a facebook event page. Take a look there are some budding artist’s out there. http://t.co/R7R7oJeY

To date I have only managed to raise £61 for Springboard for Children, surly putting my body though hell as I run 155miles across the Sahara is worth a bit more than this.

The money will support Springboards great work helping children in some of the most deprived areas of the UK, providing them with a literacy lifeline, but more importantly, a mentor and someone to believe in them.

Coaching Video and Improving My Technique

I am up-dating my blog, again, with very little running done, I have done about a 1 mile in January so fare and last ran on the 4^th December. The London Ultra Marathon on the 19th February is fast approaching and looks like a 50km run maybe my first day out. My frustrations are an understatement to say the least.

There is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and I now at least have a professional diagnosis and my Physio is confident I will be back running by the end of January.  I will expands more on injury in my next post as it is a topic on its own with a lot of learning’s for me and anyone considering the Marathon Des Sables or any other similar event in the future.

The only mile I did run in January was ironically for a coaching session which I had signed up to try and improve me technique to prevent injury.  On the day of the session my leg was not feeling too bad, I had already paid for it, so decided to go and try and at least get some video footage to analyse. I did two laps of a 400 meter track to warm up. I had a few twinges but nothing too painful. I decided to do the additional two laps at pace which would allow me to get the footage. The first Lap was painful but I was able to finish. The second was a struggle – this is the footage from behind on in the video below. It shows terrible form and exactly the reason that you should not train on an existing injury as this will cause further problems else ware. Rather than keeping a strong stable core I am working my hips and body to compensate for the pain in my leg.

Although it is not perfect I did manage to hold reasonable technique to make the side views worth looking at.

I am not a coach so this is just a novice view on my own running. If any coaches are reading this then comments would be appreciated.

First thing to note is that I am toe lead, there are various views on how beneficial this is, however, this is a deliberate change I made over a long period, for me with arthritis in my knees, over extending into a heal led placement impacts my knees more and hurts. Being toe lead reduces the direct impact on my knees, allowing me to stay lighter on my feet and maintain a smoother placement with a fairly fast cadence.  Running on sand with 10kg on my back means I will revert back to a more neutral/ heal lead placement. 

The photo shows that I am not over extending (much) and as my trail leg is almost through. The trail leg should be a quick up and through like it is being pulled up with string; I do need to watch out as I am over doing this which is leading to a flick with my foot. My foot should not be flicked out behind me as shown.

I am a big fan of keeping the arms moving though quickly to maintain a quick cadence, your arms and legs are linked and it is much easier to think about pushing your arms though faster when your legs are tired.

A slight issues I have is that I do not keep them on the same plane, as my arm swings forward I tend to bring it round my body slightly, this causes a slight twist, it has never been a massive issue but something to work on.  It is something to drill by doing hill sprints, this really does embed arm movement under fatigue which is when you need it most in a race.

The one thing I could never get right in rowing is my body posture; interestingly for running I don’t think it is too bad. Looking at the still, I am holding myself up fairly well and almost forward. It is far from perfect, I could afford to be further forward over my feet and I do need to improve my core stability which is something I am working on at present.

Really hoping I can start to put this into practice very soon.

Kit, Training and Motivation

Not the best start to the Year, I have still not managed to get out running due to my leg but today I took off my support and all seems good so fare so fingers crossed I will be out and about at the weekend. I hope so anyway, I have a video analysis session to see if I can improve the efficiency of my running which I hope will help prevent injury in the future.
Although I have not been running, never fear, I still feel fairly fit and I have been busy pushing myself fairly hard at the gym. I have hogged my old friend the rowing machine and bike at Virgin active Clapham most evenings (don’t tell them I ignore the 20 Minute max signs, an hour and 20 minutes is how I read it). Don’t know what they will say when I turn up to Run a full marathon on the treadmill, 6 layers and a backpack full of weights, we will hopefully soon find out. I am sure it will accurately re-create the Sahara heat and I stole a bit of Sand from Filey beach to put in my trainers.
I am actually really excited, my main pieces of Kit, Trainers, OMM back pack and Compression shorts, are all sat ready and waiting to be tried out and my entry is in for the London Ultra Marathon on the 19th of February. I will let you know how my first taste of Ultra Marathon running turns out once I cross the finish line, hopefully 10Kg pack and leg still in toe.
More than that, I am actually really excited that I am running the Marathon Des Sables for Springboard for Children. I gave a talk today at the team meeting, and am so happy to be supporting such a great group of people, I felt quite embarrassed at one point when I receiving thanks for doing it. I am spending 6 days in the desert; most of the people at the meeting have given up years of their time to supporting the children which, with out there help will not have the opportunities which I have had.
I was asked why I am doing it. I initially signed up this November out of stupidity as my friend said instead of sponsoring me £25 for running a marathon he would sponsor me much more to run 6. So I am now running 6 back to back marathons – I expect a big check. What really motivates me is a sense of competitiveness which I mentioned in my last blog. As a child I suffered suavely with Dyslexia and Arthritis in my knees. Not only could I not play contact sport, I also struggled academically; it really can be tough having a reading age of a 5 year old and very poor short term memory when you get to the later years of secondary school. I had a great group of people, family, friends and teachers, which supported me and allowed me to excel in the things I was good at [I now have a Masters in Engineering from a good uni and found a love for rowing (ok, maybe I did not excel at rowing, but still really please to have made a few rounds at Henley.)]
Because I had to work harder as a child to prove myself, I still carry that with me as an adult. I do think that this is an advantage in some respects. Like everything life is never straight forward, but I do truly believe that if you have the will and determination with the right support around you can achieve whatever the obstacles.
So I am putting this to the test, running the Marathon Des Sables is tough enough for anyone, add in Arthritis in both knees and a shoulder and only 3 months training, and setting myself the challenge of a top 20% finish, let’s see if this works.
An apology for the length of the blog today; has been a reflective day.
On a running front, if anyone made it to the end and has suggestions for a training plan I am just working on one now and help would be appreciated. Also great if people could let me know if they want it to be all running/ training or a bit of a mix with the emotional journy too - Click comment.