"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt



Sunday 27 January 2013

It. Is. On!

This post has been a long while in writing, but now I feel I am able to knit together the story in order to give a proper update about my running. For the last week to 10 days I have been telling porkies somewhat to my friends and family about running… Here’s something I wrote 10 days ago:

“It’s 17th January… A Thursday afternoon. Yesterday morning I went to see the NHS physiotherapist. It’s more than safe to say I wasn’t expecting much other than a one off 40 minute appointment with an outcome of ‘we can’t see a problem’, or ‘do these strengthening exercises and you’ll be fine’…

I should have had more faith in the physio who I was due to see; Amanda, from South Africa (who is by my reckoning, a star!)

As soon as I went in for my appointment Amanda was upbeat and confident about being able to treat my problem, she expected me to be back on the streets pounding away in the not too distant future.

I wasn’t optimistic.

She examined both legs comparing the strength and flexibility in my muscles and ligaments from left leg (‘we will call this your normal leg’) to right leg. It turns out the 4 main muscles of my right leg are weaker than those of my left, and are not as flexible.

She sent me packing to a lower limb service at my local hospital, but not before telling me that I should go for a run, until I feel pain. As soon as I feel pain, I am to stop, and walk home”

Back to present day… Well I went for that run, 5 minutes in, I was expecting pain, there wasn’t any.
10 minutes in, I was expecting pain, there wasn’t any.
15 minutes in, I was expecting pain, there wasn’t any. I decided at this point to stop; I didn’t want to overdo it.
The day after I had DOMS, and it felt good! Of course I had had to walk like John Wayne, of course I made sex noises every time I lowered myself onto a chair, but my knee was ok – not perfect, but ok.

Since the original physio appointment I have been for 5 runs; one of which was at the lower limb service at hospital where I was told to get on the treadmill and hammer it. They wanted to see my body’s reaction to putting my knee under stress. By the end of the 10 minutes I was breathing out the proverbial orifice, but again, my knee was fine.

My orders have since been: stretch, strengthen, run – but only if it doesn’t hurt. So I have duly obliged and I have been following orders strictly (I fully expect to be able to perform a one legged squat with an elephant on my back before February!). This morning I went for my longest run of the year: a meagre, but brilliant, 2.65 miles













Hot, sweaty, but feeling like a runner again :D

Fingers crossed I can now start looking onwards and upwards. There is still a long way to go, and I’m taking nothing for granted, but I will continue to work with, and without, the physio to get back to where I want to be.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Guest Post

I was given the opportunity to guest post on a fellow runners blog; if you would like to read it, the link is below :)

http://borntoplod.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/guest-post-what-runners-do-when-theyre-injured/

Wednesday 9 January 2013

My year in numbers

If you combine a runner and someone who is paid to analyse numbers full time, what do you get? A running geek, that’s what!

This means that every run I complete – whether that be a race, club run, or plod round the block, I recorded it using my trusty Garmin 305…

…I then may have created a spread sheet to record these miles logged (despite Garmin having a program and website to provide this functionality)

In 2012 I ran 419 miles – this will miss off a few due to rare occasions of my Garmin batteries dying (sacrilege I know!) or (even worse) forgetting my Garmin altogether.

I completed these 419 miles in 2 days, 1 hour, 50 minutes and 47 seconds meaning my average pace was a not too shabby 7 minutes and 8 seconds.

I’m quite impressed with that given that total includes some feeble half and 1 mile runs whilst injured and recovering from injury. The total mileage completed isn’t great, but as my ‘proper’ active months where from March up to, and including, August (so 6 months) it stands to reason that had I been fit for the full 12 months I would have been close to 1,000 miles.

All this miles per minute chat is really making me miss running quite a lot, and, in a moment of weakness I entered a race.

It’s only 10km, but it’s on the 10th February, a mere 4 weeks away. It’s the Mad dog 10km in Southport and I missed it last year through injury. It was silly of me to enter it really, but there is a very slim chance I will be fit for it, and whilst there is hope… I will keep on hoping!

Fingers crossed for my physio appointment next week  :)
“To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”


Tuesday 1 January 2013

2012... The year of injury

I'm sitting in my house, in the living room, on the floor, in front of the fire, with Up just about to come on tv. Over the Christmas period I have read two autobiographies; Jessica Ennis', and McFly's (yes I'm aware I'm opening myself up to some ribbing with my latter read, but it was a christmas present, and very enjoyable)

Both of which have got me thinking about this past year, which I have dubbed the year of injury - simply because I have spent over 6 months of it being injured and not being able to run. As a runner, there is nothing worse than not being able to run, much like not being able to do something you love because it causes you physical pain (go figure! )

Since my earlier ramblings about the injury I sustained at the end of August I have since had a MRI scan, which revealed (at 3 months since original injury) I have bruised the ligaments in my right knee. I dread to think what the problem was at the time of injury that after 3 months the ligaments are still bruised (maybe REALLY bruised ligaments! )

Anyway,  since then I have paid for acupuncture which has helped,  slightly. I will in two weeks time be having physio on the NHS, having waited 6 weeks. Unfortunately I'm not holding out much hope of it helping. Maybe I'm being cycnical, but this injury has been going on for so long and has been having such an impact on my day to day life I don't, at this moment in time, envisage a time when I will be free from pain, let alone running again.

It feels like right now my life is a bit of a waste as I'm very restricted to what I can do without spending an evening wanting to chop my leg off or waking every couple of hours in the night with similar thoughts.

The highlights of 2012 for me were joining my running club, racing a train (even though I lost), and setting a 10k PB (oh and being turned down for a job promotion - but i can't really talk about that). That's about it. Fairly unimpressive stuff.

2013 has started the same way 2012 ended;  in (horrible achy knee) pain.

So, as I can't run at the moment I am trying to keep an open mind as to any oppurtunities that arise or come my way...

In the mean time, hopefully I'll be back running soon(ish), maybe for my birthday at the end of February.

"Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it" J K Rowling,  c/o Albus Dumbledore