Caged Lion

I haven't been able to run since my last post nearly a month ago and it's a source of immense frustration. I'll try to explain a little without turning this into a self pitying rant:

My Physio said I needed to get an MRI scan of my knee before she could help me further as everything she had tried didn't seem to be working. In fact I'm convinced the exercises she gave me made it worse. I saw my GP who said she'd refer me and recommend an MRI, but unless you're in danger of imminent death our wonderful National Health Service doesn't always move as fast as you might like. So I almost instantly got impatient and booked a private MRI, the results of which concluded: "Mild thickening of the patellar tendon at the inferior pole of the patella which is suggestive of a low grade patellar tendinopathy."  - which is good news. Only my wife now thinks I'm a big wuss with a low pain threshold.

When I say it's good news I mean that there's nothing catastrophically wrong but having seen her today for the first time since the scan was done, my Physio still thinks it will be three weeks before I can run again. She also said that this type of tendon issue can take up to three months to heal completely! This is very worrying in terms of my participation in the Copenhagen Half.

My Physio also discovered that I have very short hamstrings today. She thinks that failure of these to lengthen properly when I'm running is probably resulting in my knees being too far forward when my heel strikes the ground which is putting them under increased load and causing my current problem. So, for the time being, I just have hamstring stretches to do. I also need to get myself a Swim Pass and start swimming a lot more. I've been a few times but if it's all I can do for a few weeks I need to do much more before I lose all my stamina.

The pain I'm in does seem to have peaked. The stairs are easier and I can get my leg into the car without physically having to lift it with my hands now, but good grief! it's slow progress. I am going to the park in the evenings to sharpen up my skills with the balls which keeps me amused but I can't wait to get back out there running with them again. There's still plenty of time.

 

Blistered Balls or a Pint of Pimm's?

The answer is probably a bit of both. More of that later.
I've been at the physio twice this week. The second time earlier than planned as the exercises I've been doing for my knee seem to be making it worse. I can still run but it's aching more. So I thought I'd ask if completely resting my knee for a few weeks would speed things up, because now is the time I can afford to take a break. I'd much rather stop to let it heal properly while it doesn't really matter than have this linger on. Anyway, the physio says that's a good idea and that I can still swim or cycle. As I don't have a bike, I'm going to swim. The rules are 'any stroke but breaststroke'.
At the moment I have my knee strapped to lift the kneecap off the tender tissue underneath. The short diagnosis is 'housemaid's knee'. At the end of next week I'm getting a brace that will do the same job to wear whilst running.
So, my break conveniently coincides with the Euro '16 football, so instead of running I can sit back and watch England crash out of the tournament. Perhaps I should run.
I say I'm having a break but I am committed to a team running event at Crystal Palace on Wednesday that I'm not going to pull out of. It's only 5k. I'll rest after that. In any case, there are beers to drink at the finish line.
So there isn't going to be much to report on for about three weeks. I'm itching to do the 15 miles I had planned for tomorrow but I know I need to play the long game. It should pay off.
My other news this week is that the good people at Great Run have agreed that I can run the Bristol half marathon dribbling my balls. This is going to be great practise as the field is around 10,000. It's exactly a week after the Copenhagen half so it's going to be a busy time. The application form for Bristol asks "Do you have an interesting story that may be of interest to the media?". I ticked that box.
I'm going swimming tomorrow, I won't bore you with the results of that.

Oh! That title! I did a few ball skills in the park this afternoon. Not quite as sharp as I would've liked. I'm not sure if it's because my balls are getting so worn they're beginning to blister or because I had a pint of Pimm's at the school summer fair. Like I said - it's probably a bit of both.

My strapped knee - that I shaved rather more of than it turns out I needed to.

Horse Poo, Rain & Soggy Jelly Babies

It's been an interesting week following Brands Hatch. On the Monday I finally got round to seeing a physio about my knee and back. I've been concerned about my right knee for a while. It doesn't bother me whilst running but it's really painful to kneel on. I wanted to get it seen to before it started impacting on my running. I'll spare you the details but it's all treatable (including my back). The only thing is, one of the many exercises she wants me to do is to run backwards for 10 minutes twice a day - as if people didn't think I was crazy enough already! I tried it out before club night on the roads around Willett's Rec. I had to run in the middle of the road as it's too dangerous trying to run backwards on the pavement. There are too many trees, posts, lumps and bumps to trip over or bump into. Obviously you have to look out for cars when you're in the middle of the road and many of them on Tuesday had fellow club runners in arriving to training. I was a laughing stock. I tried to explain this to the physio yesterday at my second appointment in the hope that she would give me an alternative exercise but I've been told to go to the park when it's quiet and do lengths on the grass. On top of this humiliation she wants me to shave my leg for next week so she can strap it.
I saw a guy running this week with a hydration pack and he had the pipe coming up under his arm so it was pointing up on his chest. I'd always had mine coming over my shoulder so the pipe ended up pointing down. I've experimented threading the tube through different ways and I've come up with a way that means I can now drink on the run. I have to stop for a second to put the pipe in my mouth but I can then carry on running whilst sipping from it. When I'm done it pings back into place (almost). It needs further practise.
I was going to run this week after I'd volunteered at Bromley Parkrun on Saturday. I had everything in the car but it was really humid and oppressive. Watching some of the runners cross the line, grumbling about the heaviness of the air I decided not to bother and to go on Sunday instead after it had rained. The only trouble with that idea was that I was meeting friends in the pub Saturday night to watch England v Russia in the Euros. I managed to only drink three pints so I was pretty fresh when I got up to volunteer at Junior Parkrun this morning.
Once Junior Parkrun had cleared I got ready for my run. I managed to do the first lap in the dry but by mile 2 it was raining and it continued to rain for the next 12 miles - sometimes very hard! To begin with I tried avoiding the wetter bits of tarmac but it soon became very wet everywhere with many puddles to contend with. This makes it harder to dribble as you have to put more effort into bouncing the ball to make it come back to a suitable height. The water takes a lot of the sting out of each bounce. This is probably why my left shoulder began to ache a little. It's fine now though. I also had a trail of horse poo to contend with each lap. It went right across the path so I had to time the bounces well but it's all good experience. The rain also made all my Jelly Babies go soggy!
The increasingly difficult conditions meant that I did lose control once and had a couple of other wobbles but I still managed to do 13.52 miles in 02:00:58 which is 08:57 minutes per mile. I'm very happy with that as it was raining really hard at times. I now know that I can deal with it if it rains in April and that I'd much rather it did than have glorious sunshine. I don't cope with the heat well.
Now back to the real world. I have to take my daughter out to buy new school shoes.

I got very wet today

BH10k - Blumin' Hilly

In fairness, I was warned by a friend who'd run the Brands Hatch 10k before that it was a bit hilly but I'd brushed it off. I'd watched a YouTube video of the track and decided it wasn't an issue. However, stood on the track at the top of Paddock Hill Bend it was an awful long way down and even further up to the top at Druids. On top of that there were awkward cambers that I haven't had to deal with before. Having said all that, it was all good experience and I just stopped for water briefly at 2 and 4 miles.
I was a bit disappointed at the size of the field as I was hoping to get more experience of running in a crowd but there were only about 200 runners. I took it fairly easy on the first lap as the track was more challenging than I'd anticipated but according to my Garmin I covered the 6.12 miles in 53:03 which is an average pace per mile of 8:40. Not bad considering the hills. My chip time may just come in at under 53 minutes but I'll have to wait and see about that.
I had kitted myself out with the GoPro camera on a chest harness as well as my hydration pack which I had deliberately overfilled just to get used to running with the weight. But as I approached the start line the camera wouldn't come on. I've been calling it a GoPro in all my posts but in reality it's a cheap copy and I paid for that today. It's always been a bit temperamental. I certainly won't be trusting it with the record attempt and will buy the real thing before the Copenhagen half. At least it saves me the bother of all that editing time tonight.
It was cold to stand about today but not a bad temperature to run in. Towards the end there was a very light drizzle which was quite refreshing and made my shoes squeak on the tarmac - I'm guessing there were a lot of petrol and oil spills being rehydrated.
It was a shorter distance than I would've run this weekend but I won't take the balls out again until the following weekend when I might try a half marathon distance.
As I was leaving today a group of spectators asked me:
"Did you lose the balls at all?"
"Of course I didn't!"

Brands Hatch in the June drizzle

Keep Your Balls Well Separated

I broke my golden rule today. Just after 10 miles, as I decided to try and put in a fastest final lap, my balls kissed and one of them bounced off ahead. I managed to catch up with it and keep the dribble alive but I don't think Guinness would be happy on marathon day - I'd have to come back to the point where they touched.
Anyway, aside from that it was a pretty good run. I'll get the stats out of the way first this week and then I can blab on about everything else. Ten laps, 11.20 miles in 01:41:41 which is an average of 9:03 minutes per mile.
It was warm again today. I should've got out earlier. There were clouds about which brought welcome shade but when the sun comes out it's a bitch. I've learnt to speed up a little when the sun goes in and the wind picks up.
I was wearing my new hydration pack today (I bought myself the Inov-8 one I tested last week) and also the GoPro camera. I wanted to run in exactly the kit I'm going to run in on Friday when I do the Brands Hatch 10k. And that's another story. I contacted them via their website to ask if they'd let me run. I heard nothing so messaged again and then on 25 May the charity Events Manager replied: "My immediate response would be no... safety... stray ball..." blah, blah, blah "...but I am open to discussion." So I replied at length, sending him video links, answering his questions and explaining that I could almost literally to a 10k jaunt with my eyes closed. After a little nudge on Friday afternoon to see if he could let me know before the weekend he said: "Yes we are happy for you to take part" so I thank you Tom Abbott (www.hokh.org) for your willingness to listen.
I'm lucky enough to have a park behind my house so a couple of evenings this week I've gone out to practise some ball skills. It's something I'll be doing more of whilst the light and the weather hold. I'm getting much faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gyvh1MH_Bw
I didn't notice until after I got home today and washed the filth off my hands but the index finger on my right hand has split. It's a minor injury but it has reminded me of the importance of keeping my hands well moisturised even in the summer. It will heal before Friday.
Someone on Twitter called me an 'oddball' this week for what I am attempting. Someone else suggested 'evenball' which look me far longer that it should've to understand.
So the next update I'll do will be Friday night after Brands Hatch. I'm off for a shower now and then I'm going to scour YouTube for videos of the Brands Hatch race track to see just how hilly it is. It won't be a problem but it's best to be prepared.

Kitted out

Don't Garden on Race Day

Another decent training run in the bag, although it's been a rather busy day. First to Junior Parkrun with my son, then off to a friend's house to pick up a new hydration pack to try out. After that I spent the rest of the morning tackling the jungle our allotment has become - first with a heavy petrol strimmer and then with a lawn mower. My shoulders will ache from just this tomorrow without doing 10 miles with the basketballs. I then bought a sack of gravel and spent 40 minutes weeding and tidying up the front driveway.
It was quite warm this morning but I knew it was going to cloud over this afternoon with rain on the way, so I went out at 4pm to do 9 laps (just over 10 miles). I was trying out a new hydration pack today, the Inov-8 Race Pro Extreme 4 Litre Running Backpack SS15 which has an unnecessarily long name but is really rather good, having all the weight of the water sat on your hips rather than your back and handy mesh pockets on the hip fins for Jelly Babies and gels. As soon as I started running today I was worried that the pack was going to chafe and that perhaps it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be but as I ran the first mile far too quick (7:40) I took a few moments to make some adjustments and it was much better after that.
A few comments today. Nothing really worth mentioning though. I did get hit by a football (an accident I think) and I nearly squashed one of those silly toy dogs that got under my feet. Then there were the usual scooters, bikes and pedestrians to avoid. Oh, and a crazy lady started jumping around in front of me at one point, although it turned out to be a crazy lady I know - Hello Sarah!
I am still stopping briefly every mile to check my pace and have a few sips of water and I realised today that over the course of a marathon if I stop for 15 seconds every mile that adds up to 6.5 minutes. I can't really see a way round this although I might try going two miles at a time next week to see how I cope with that. It might save valuable seconds.
So I did the 9 laps I was after as the rain began on the final lap, which was 10.12 miles. My total time was 01:30:07 which despite a 7:40 first mile makes an average pace per mile of 8:54. I admit I was tiring a little towards the end but then I won't be doing any gardening the morning of the London Marathon. Last weeks pace was very fast so I hope I can fall somewhere between the two next week when I do 10 laps - about 11.25 miles.

Here comes the rain!

A Great Day!

It's been a very good day. It started in the sunshine as I was a marshal at my running club's members' 10k. I managed to get some really nice pictures to share with them too. Oh, and there was lots of cake at the finish. Then in the last games of the Premiership, Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 and Tottenham got spanked 5-1 by Newcastle meaning Arsenal beat Tottenham into second place.
Anyway, to the basketball.
I went out at 5pm today with the intention of doing the 8 laps it was too hot for last week. And it was easy. But I learnt (both last week and this) how power sapping the sun can be. It was much cooler but the sun was in and out during my run today and it's so much easier when it's in.
I had two comments from children on bikes today; one from a girl about 7 who said "You're really good!" and then a brief conversation with a lad of about 14:
"I can do that!"
"Can you? Can you do it for 9 miles?"
"Err, no."
I did 9.03 miles in 1:16:58 which is an average pace per mile of 8:31. This is nearly a whole minute per mile faster than last week when I did 2 miles less. My last mile was the fastest too at 8:07. Very happy with that. I had more to give. I might try 10 laps next week.