Injury and Excuses

Friday Workout

• Swimming Lesson

Saturday Workout

• Walk/Run:          2.6 miles              00:28:12               10:51mm

Sunday Workout

• Long Run:            10 miles               01:39:37               9:57mm

So, once again I start this post with more excuses about why I have missed most of my training this week.

 

I started this blog to document my training journey and it has turned into a weekly list of excuses about why I have jibbed out on all my planned session and despite my proclamations of cleaning up my diet to lose weight and properly fuel my training.  I am still consuming far too many empty (and liquid) calories and as a result my belly still has rolls to rival Buddha’s and my thighs still rub together when I walk.  No one else to blame but myself.        

So, this weeks excuse: injury!

Remember I mentioned I was having problems with cramping in my calf muscle at the beginning of the week, well the pain continued to get worse and my calf turned a lovely shade of purple with and the lump got bigger.  I managed to convince myself that I had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and that I was likely to drop dead any second if I dislodged it by moving off the couch.  I was all set to go to A&E when Arran reminded me that whilst at Damage Control Fest on Monday some bloke had accidentally kicked me and in my inebriated state I had barely even registered it and then promptly forgot it ever occurred.

 

Now I knew that I wasn’t likely die just yet I decided to hold off of any training until the pain and lump had disappeared just in case I caused any more permanent damage.    So when Friday rolled around I headed for my swimming lesson.  Now, not having swum for more than a week, I really struggled.  I found I was out of breath much more quickly than before (although it didn’t help that my swimming teacher made us do lots of anaerobic work).  I find one of the hardest drills we do is front crawl catch up on our lowest pull count (mine is 12-13 stokes per length) but only breathing every 6 strokes.  My lungs are fit to burst after every length, and the recovery time is never quite long enough.  Then, as if we hadn’t been tortured enough, we were made to do 6 lengths of butterfly to finish off the session.  Now, I am physically incapable to doing butterfly.  All that happens is I stay stationary while splashing around like a drowning baboon, periodically flashing my bum in the air... it is quite a sight to behold :)

I wasn’t planning to run on Saturday, but Arran asked if I would take him out on a short run – I couldn’t refuse as he has never showed any interest in running before so I jumped at the opportunity.  We did a walk-run for 2.6 miles, running for about 5 minutes then walking for 60-90 seconds.  He did so well, I am so proud of him (I think he actually quite enjoyed it as he has already mentioned the possibility of a 10K... I won’t get my hopes up just yet though). 

While it is great that he did so well, it is also slightly annoying that he did so well straight off.  I always harp on about how hard it was when I first started out running and that you have to build up really slowly and he went straight out and ran for 5 minutes without stopping (and could have probably managed more had it not been uphill) when I could only manage 30 seconds at the start.  I guess some people are more athletically gifted than others!  

Like the party animal I am, I was in bed by 9pm on Saturday night in preparation to get up at 4:30am to have a pre-long run breakfast.  I actually woke up 5 minutes before the alarm went off and snuck downstairs for my usual breakfast of porridge and honey with a variety of seeds sprinkled on top.  After two cups of coffee, a lucozade and some time spent catching up on my favourite blogs I headed out for a 10 mile run.  It was perfect running weather, cool but not cold, overcast and slightly drizzly for the last 4 miles. 

I also ran in my compression socks for the first time in the hope of helping my calves.  I felt like a bit of a twit running in knee high socks, but at 6:30am on a Sunday, there was no one around to see me anyway... anyone with any sense was still tucked up in bed.  Not sure they made any difference during the run, although my legs felt really good the whole run (although that is probably because I have done nothing all week).  Time will tell whether they make a difference to my recovery time.      

I tried a new route which circumvents the whole of my town.  It was really nice to run a new route and kept things interesting.  While I was running through our local country park, I rounded a corner and was confronted by three women screaming and brawling and in the middle of the path... at 6:45am... what a nice town we live in.  I literally stopped dead in my tracks – like a deer in headlights, unsure of what to do.  So, as one of them looked up and caught my eye, I turned around and ran away before I became the new target!!     

After that little bit of excitement (which added on about 0.5 miles to my route) the rest of my run was uneventful.  I worked really hard on sticking to my 10mm and actually succeeded, except for mile 7 which inexplicably was 9:44mm and was mostly uphill... weird. 

I felt really good at the end of my run and could have kept going comfortably, I even managed to keep my heart rate under 159bpm. 

And so a new week begins... excuses are banished!!