Traction control

Wednesday morning was a little less cold than anticipated, but still below freezing and the coldest air temperature I've run in. Having run at 4C in a long sleeved under shirt, T-shirt and some old trackie trousers (I can't bring myself to buy running tights) I was pretty sure I'd need something extra to ward off the 4.5C difference.

I added a windbreak zip-up fleece, bobble hat and upgraded my gloves from some sailing gloves, with the first finger and thumb half open, for thermal gloves. The sailing gloves are intended to allow for the tying of knots and fiddling with little metal pins holding the sheets in place. They are also really good for accurately pressing buttons on a Garmin.

Having loaded up on the layers, I was already overheating as I made my way out the front door, so I had a few moments to cool down slightly - taking in the gloriously clear sky, just starting to lighten, before kicking off.

This run moved me forward again now 3 x 9 minutes with one minute walking between. Again I kept the pace down and followed my MapMyRun planned route. It was pretty slippery out there and in some spots I was only really keeping myself upright and letting momentum carry me forward. Mind you I had plenty of padding if I did go over.

The gloves only lasted the first mile before they came off, and the hat lasted another mile before I just couldn't stand the heat. I was pretty much roasted at the end, so will be replanning my run-wear for next time.

9 minutes felt pretty good, but now 24 hours later I can feel that right ankle tendon complaining again. I've been wondering if Carmen has something similar which has put her out of action for a while.

Not wanting to loose this progress, I'm considering rolling back to 8 minute sections for a while longer, then trying again at 9. Physio help would also be great and I keep promising to get an appointment but can't see where in my diary it will fit until mid February.

Hope all is well with you.

Monday: 2.7 miles, 10:02 pace 27 minutes. 9 run : 1 walk.

Mr Stumble

For the benefit of Mr Stumble

I've been considering over the last few days what benefits my sorry attempts at running have brought me thus far. I was somewhat surprised when I realised that since I started way back in April last year, I haven't had a single "bad head" day related to lack of sleep.

I had recognised a pattern. If I had less than 7 hours kip for more than 2 nights in a row, I'd wake with a bad head which would progress to debilitating migraine by lunchtime, and then ease off in the evening.

The response to this was clear. Go to bed earlier. However, over the past couple of weeks, I've broken this golden rule of sleep at least twice with no ill effects. The conclusion: my lack of any conditioning and fitness were having a much more corrosive effect on my life than I had ever guessed at.

The maths of the benefit are pretty positive. I spend about an hour and a half running each week and gain between 5 and 7 hours each week awake in return. That's a bargain.

Over the last week and a bit, I've maintained my running schedule much better. Monday was my last run at 7 minutes x 3 and went OK. Wednesday I moved up to 8 minutes x 3 which strangely felt a more comfortable distance and time.

Friday nearly didn't happen. I got stranded in London due to the storm-force winds closing the rail network. I had a suit, my PC and a credit card. The credit card got me a room for the night, so I ditched the PC, jacket and tie, and headed out into the West End with a collegue for a good Chinese meal and spur of the moment tickets to Spamalot. Cool.

Having made the best of a bad lot, I still didn't know how I was going to get my Friday run in. Thankfully, despite chaos at Euston station, I managed to get a train home and arrived by lunchtime. So first job was pounding pavements which was great relief from the previous 24 hours.

Monday 22nd was much colder. I'm starting to increase the clothing layers now and I expect it to be well sub-zero centigrade tomorrow morning, probably -2C or lower. I'll be watching my step!

Last 4 runs :

Monday 2.1 miles, 21 minutes @7:1 run:walk 9:59 pace 11C
Wednesday 2.42 miles, 24 minutes @8:1 run:walk 9:55 pace 13C
Friday 2.46 miles, 24 minutes @8:1 run:walk 9:46 pace 11C
Monday 2.4 miles, 24 minutes @8:1 run:walk 10:01 pace 4C (trouble crossing a road!)

Phil, congratulations on your marathon finish. Just brilliant!.

Mr Stumble.

Good intentions.

It's been one of those weeks of good intentions but poor results. Following my run on Friday 5th, the tendons in my right ankle felt sore through the weekend. I knew I was off to London very early on Monday, so wanted to run on Sunday evening, but when it came to it, I was worried about not giving it enough rest time.

So Monday turned into a long day - 5 hours of travel, 7 hours of work and wasted on my return. Tuesday, however, was an altogether different kettle of fish and I was working from home. I didn't manage to get up early enough to run first thing, so decided to brave the oncoming forecast rain at lunchtime. Happily, this rain turned up the moment I stepped back in through the door, having completed another 7run:1walk x3. This was done purposefully at a lower pace, just under 10 minute/mile pace, as although I don't find the running difficult on the cardio/energy/breathing side, the slower pace is far better at damage limitation to my tendons.

This meant that my next scheduled run would be Thursday, giving myself a day recovery. However, Thursday was another day in London, this time starting even earlier. So no time to run in the morning and, as we do most Thursday evenings, we had a baby sitter booked for an evening out (seeing Pan's Labyrinth at the local Arts cinema - very good!) so no time then either. Bah.

The weeks second run occurred 2 days late, on Friday morning, bright and early-ish. Again, this was a slower paced run, the same as Tuesday and all fine.

This then left me with a problem. To fit in a 3rd run would mean going out on consecutive days, Friday and Saturday, or Sunday and Monday. My next week diary is again shot through with 2 trips to London on Tuesday and Thursday, leaving me Mon, Weds and Fri as convenient days to run. I don't want to jeopardise Monday by running Sunday and then needing a rest day for my ankle, but then I do want to get my 3 runs in for this week.

So, I might write this week off as "underachieved" (there's nothing like emotive language to spur you on to improve) and stick to a regular schedule next week. I'm also going to try to keep my future London meetings to Tuesdays and Thursdays only - if I have any choice in the matter!

Mr Stumble

The uphill struggle.

A late post for a run last Friday. This was a middle of the day run, it had dried up nicely and as I was working at home on nothing in particular, the luxury of an hour's break for a run, shower and lunch was welcome.

Since the previous run on Wednesday, I'd had some moderate tendon soreness again in my right foot, but this had all but gone by Friday morning, so I went ahead with another 7run:1walk x 3.

The route I'm now using gives me a short light downhill, followed by a steady slight uphill incline for a half mile, then a substantial flat-run along a busy main road before turning downhill. It finishes with a bit of uphill. RunningAhead tells me that the biggest elevation changes are 50ft up and 80ft down, which doesn't seem much over half mile distances and are purposefully much less than in my original 3 mile course.

However, the extra slight ankle stretch going uphill is still causing me problems. Since Friday, my right ankle has continued to be sore through the weekend, and a long trip down to London today gave me an additional excuse not to run today to give it a little more time to settle down. The plan is to run tomorrow (Tuesday) early - I've seen the weather predictions and don't want to be out after 11am - and see how it goes. I might even drop back to 6:1 for a while, to see if I can maintain something while my ankles try to build some strength and I can push on up again.

Of course, Christmas feeding hasn't helped as, once again, I find I am that little bit heavier. This in turn loads my ankle up and isn't helping. I get the feeling I have the ankles of someone 2 stones lighter. So, I'm going to see what I can do to reduce my weight through being more careful about what I eat. I don't want to use the D word. I'm just going to eat less and better, that's all.

Friday: 2.21Miles, 21 minutes running @ 7:1 run:walk. 9:31 pace

Mr Stumble.

How I did in '06.

After spotting Phil's snazzy diagrams and run-metrics, I thought I'd take a look at RunningAhead myself and see what it could do for me. As it turns out, quite a lot. My Garmin does not have the data upload facility - it's the cheapo one - but manual data-upload really only takes about 60 seconds of clicking and typing, so it's not really a problem, especially if you do it regularly.

Of course, having found it, I then hacked in all of my Garmin recorded runs from last year too. This told me that I'd run a grand total of 32 times last year (probably more like 40 with pre-teched-up runs taken into account) and racked up just over 69 miles. If nothing else, this is 69 miles more than I ran in 2005. However, I also note it's under a weeks mileage for Thomas at the moment, so I have a clear perspective on this one.

It's return-to-school day here in Blighty, at least for two of the three kids, so schedules were as ever mucked about, especially as we've all become so used to staying up late and sleeping in late. My plans to run this morning went out the window, so I've run this evening instead. I can't really leave it later than 8:30 to run, as I know the weight of prevarication increases exponentially thereafter and I'd end up eating my way out of a tub of pistachio nuts for the remainder of the evening.

However, 2 hours is still a bit short for digestion, so I ate reasonably lightly, knowing a Christmas Pudding, which had survived this long because of us all being ill, would be a delicious high-carb reward on my return.

Today, I moved up to 7 minutes x 3. RunningAhead helped me plan a slightly longer route and I headed out into a relatively warm (9C) blustery, drizzly, dark evening. Aside from a calf twinge at the start of the second 7 minutes, all went fine. I even managed to tidy away some stray bin-lids which were blowing down the road - good deed for the day. Still some slight tendon strain in the right ankle after the run, but I expect that will subside before Friday.

2.18 miles, 21 minutes running at 7:1, ave 9:39 pace.

Back to work tomorrow. Bah!

Mr Stumble.

Spritely, for the New Year.

Staggered out of the house this morning at about 9:30. It's not that I had a bad head from revelry, I'd just been daft enough to stay up after the Big Ben bongs to watch Amnesty's Secret Policeman's Ball and not managed to unstick myself from the sofa. All those nuts, dates and Black forest gateaux probably didn't help either.

The particular 20 minutes I selected turned out to be the best, sunniest part of the day. I spent half the run squinting into the Sun which all the incline parts of the loop point at and the other half at the neat purple blotch in the middle of my vision.

Mustn't grumble though as it felt fresh and new, and nothing like the miserable Thomas Hardy poem about New Year I studied decades ago, but still comes back to me on New Year's day.

I found this morning I was a bit more spritely than anticipated, and had my first 6 minutes at a 9:10 pace. This meant I would run out of road if I didn't alter the route - well actually I'd have to run past my house for a few hundred yards and walk back - so I added the Woodlands Walk back in - it tacks a few hundred yards on in going across, running parallel to the road and then coming back again. And it's far more pleasant than the main road.

I followed on with the next two 6 minutes at 9:23 and 9:20 giving me a total run of:

1.94 miles, 18 minutes running at 6:1, 9:18 pace.

All remains well with foot and ankle, so on Wednesday I'll move to 7:1 x 3, and alter the course again.

At the moment, this new approach seems to be working, so I might start thinking about a 5K target for March soon.

All the best to you.

Mr Stumble.

The stolen week.

Got up extremely late this morning. Woken up by the bloke delivering the weeks groceries some time way past 9:30am, which is embarrassingly late. However, the whole family has an excuse for being stay-a-beds. We're all just getting over a whole week of some dread lurgy, pitched somewhere between a nasty cold and all out flu. I actually had a flu jab just after my last run on 21st Dec, so I suspect I picked something up and had that and a de-activated flu virus to handle.

I was third of the five of us to get something, hitting me on Boxing Day, but having two kids with fevers and stuff gushing from just about everywhere for the previous two days had meant running had been suspended anyway. Then D got it a couple of days ago and I was Mr Mom while she got the fever and achy bones. My son spent nearly every waking hour since Christmas wrapped up in a blanket and watching a constant loop of Doctor Who in the living room. I don't think he remembers he was ill now - sci-fi-self-hypnosis.

However, not wanting to fish for sympathy (sickness is what holidays are for isn't it?), I've not posted on the subject till now, as I've not had a run to talk about.

Which I do now.

After the groceries had been packed away, I headed out to try and do some catching up and general lung-clearance. I know I'll have a continuing cough for a week or so, and I think one benefit of the exercise is to get fresh air into bronchioles which otherwise just hold the gunky stuff. Lets say I cleared some of that out and leave it there.

Although still short, all seemed to go well and I don't have much feeling of tendinitis at the moment. Still keeping to my previous plan, the run was:

1.88 miles, 18 minutes running @ 6:1 averaging 9:34 pace (best pace 9:18 on first 6 minutes)

It's unseasonably warm here. 10C this morning and I managed to find a time between rainstorms, so although the streets were wet, I stayed dry.

Had a nice post card from my Physiotherapist this morning, with a "Hope all is well" message. I'll have to write back.

Just checked on my target 10K date: Stourbridge Stumble 2007: Saturday 16th June 2007 at 6pm. It's in the diary!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year to you. All being well, I run NYD morning.

Mr Stumble

Shortest day, longer run

Thursday was my first day of the Christmas break, so I allowed myself an extra half hour in bed before heading out. This meant that thigs were just getting light, although the fog made things a light grey. It was also pretty cold, -1.5C. Not having running tights, I'd dug some old paint splashed track suit trousers from the back of a wardrobe - what the hell, no-one was going to see me.

This run, as promised, was three lots of 6 minutes, starting to move the time up. I've changed the route so the whole thing is under streetlighting. Pace kept fairly easy, averaging just under 10 minute pace.

[update: 1.82 miles, 18 minutes runnig @6:1, ave 9:54 pace.]

I finished the run fine with no real problems, but have had all the signs of tendonitis again in my right ankle. The tendon may have healed, but I can feel a lump of calcified tissue in there, and that is causing some inflamation when I run.

It being the wrong part of the year to make a doctors appointment, I'll have to wait till after boxing day. I need further ultasound to break down the deposits. In the meantime, I'm going to carry on as planned, but with a load of icing, massage and stretching. I really feel that if I can chase this last problem away, keep the program easy I should be able to finally make the progress I need to. I'd love to be able to make a 5K in the spring, and the Stourbridge Stumble next April.

So another 18 minutes on Christmas Eve.

Mr Stumble

Running in the dark.

Well, after that bit of planning, it all went to the wall as the weekend turned into a long haul of many different things - mainly concerned with finding a school for my son who has special needs. We had some bad news on Friday concerning his secondary school placement - our local education authority appears to have rejected the school everyone says he should go to and we are waiting for a formal letter, telling us we have to choose a mainstream school.

Never one to wait for the bad news, a lot of letter writing ensued and our campaign to appeal the decision has already started.

Yesterday (Monday) I realised that even if there were a plan, there would always be something to prevent me running in daylight and that I had to take the plunge and run in early morning darkness. And this meant overcoming the daemon of complacency, whispering about the cold, the safety aspect (cars and psychopaths), how mad this would appear to sane people who are still tucked up in bed at 6:30.

D commented that I would never get up, and that really solved the problem for me as I'm stubborn and won't stand for this prejudgement. She knows this of course, so it was a double bluff.

As it turned out, it was dryish and a bit misty - the fog descending an hour later as I was driving North for work. Temperature was around 4.5C. The side roads were empty except for a couple of people heading for the bus and aside from an excursion through the "Woodlands Walk" - part of my normal daytime route, all was lit by street lamps. The Woodlands Walk was pretty dark - a 3 minute section with no lights except that coming from the main roads at either end and the perfect place for Rutger Hauer to be hanging out, so I might re-plan the route for next time.

The only problem - as I couldn't see Mr Garmin, I managed to fudge up the display by pressing the wrong button when trying to get it to light up, so there was a fair amount of guessing for the segments. Also, the Garmin speaker grill was muffled by my fleece jacket and I couldn't hear it. So, I'll be repositioning that next time.

No bio-mech problems so I expect to be out Thursday with an increased time and distance.

Tuesday - 1.4 miles @ 5:1 - 10:10ish pace

Mr Stumble.

Focus.

Thanks Phil for your comment. In today's 15 minute run-let, I realised the problem was - just as you were telling me - not having a plan. Therefore no focus on a goal and before long it will all come off the rails. So, given these few moment, here's the plan outline.

1) whatever happens, if a run causes pain for more than 24 hours, back off.
2) keep things in 3 "intervals" of running separated by a minute walking.
3) increase each week by around 1 minute per interval (so 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30 minutes total) unless I have good reason to think I can increase by more (say the 24 to 30)
4) run 3 times a week. At least.
5) plan the next goal when I have 3 lots of 10 minutes under my belt.

So next run will be my last at the "15" level, and that should be this weekend.

Mr Stumble.

Winter blues.

A poor week for running. I am doing a lot of travelling at the moment and the idea of getting up extra, extra early to run in the dark, when it's only 3C outside - and it's raining and blowing - I 'm not in that place at the moment.

Being usually home based, I had been planning to run at lunchtimes - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but since early last week, have not been home at the requisite time to do so. Except on Thursday last week. I did actually manage to get out of the door on Thursday, but managed to get about 400 yards down the road before the double glazing van I had been waiting in for shot past me in the other direction. At least I now know that I can run short distances at a higher pace!

Once I'd had the faulty pane measured up for replacement it was too late to go out again - people to speak to, tasks to complete. The weekend then turned into a dead loss, and I'm sat here blogging on my second train trip to London this week.

I guess this is the perennial runners problem of winter motivation. Too dark. Too cold. My motivation has been exceeded by sheer volume of excuses. The answer, of course is to increase my motivation somehow. Perhaps listening to Steve's Boston 110 again will help. Or just be bloody minded about it and force myself out onto dark and rainy streets. I might actually fond that I like it once I try it!

Anyway, I'm working from home tomorrow, so am planning to get out sometime between 12 and 2, come rain or shine.

Mr Stumble.

Head full of goop

I managed to pick up a cold in the middle of last week - I think my immune system has caged up a few nasties over the last 6 weeks and has started to release them. This happens to me when my job has me running on adrenaline on a sales opportunity and I can't get sick. I get the backlash when things calm down again. Anybody else get something similar?

Last week I had some physio booked for Thursday and having had the green light, wanted to get a couple of runs in beforehand. On Monday I ran the basic 15 minutes at a 10.02 average pace and repeated this again on Wednesday with a 9.45. Both went fine, a little tightness in the right calf and ankle - only slight discomfort the following day.

The physio session was for a sports massage on my right calf, which has become increasingly knotty over the past few weeks. Rather than my regular physio, Nicky I was with Joe, who specialises in sports massage for runners.

This was the most painful half hour I've had in a long time! A lot of time was spent trying to separate my calf muscle from the bone. Where it had become very tight and was putting up a fight. This being my last scheduled session, I got some tips on how to continue teasing the muscle out to loosen it, and even more variations on stretches.

On Friday, I lost my voice (there was some cheering from my work colleagues - thank God for instant messaging) and then spent the weekend with a head full of gunk and garden fences to repair after some strong winds on Friday night. Yesterday, I was breathing a little easier, so got in another 15 minutes at lunchtime. I can feel an improvement in how I feel after the run already, but there is some way to go before I get back to where I was in July.

With a busy week ahead, I'll probably run next on Thursday and then at the weekend. Perhaps then I'll start to increase the running time to 18 minutes.

Hope all is well with you.

Mr Stumble

Keeping things nice and easy

Today's post comes courtesy of my new toy, a Treo smartphone. Nothing that helps running, but might get me back on track posting a bit more regularly, as I can compose away from my PC.

As for running, there is finally some good news. Whilst off in Hemel Hempstead last week (I get to go to the most glamorous places) I booked into a hotel with a pretty good gym and managed to get 15 minutes at a 10 minute pace, as agreed with my physio. I don't find treadmills that entertaining, so I was glad I didn't have to run any further. That went very well, and was followed with a nice meal in the restaurant - not bad for an evening away.

I've had a fair amount of calf-grumbling on the right side over the past couple of weeks, possibly as a result of stretching or new pairs of shoes, so I really hope that doesn't turn into something bad as I start up again.

In the meantime, I've reached the end of my main course of physio, with one sports massage remaining to try to sort the calf out and on Tuesday lunchtime just gone, I headed out for my first outdoor run of my new Autumn program. The plan is to keep to 15 minutes running until it is comfortable, with no recurring heel or calf pain before increasing the time and distance. Nice and easy while my tendons and bones get used to the pounding again.

As with the treadmill, this run was in 5:1 run:walk intervals. Mr Garmin had forgotten where he was after being switched off for so long, so no pace or distance recorded, but probably a nice easy 10 minute mile pace over a total 1.7 miles.

It's a start.

All being well, I'll run again tomorrow, although it's my daughter's 4th birthday party in the early afternoon, which might throw the whole day's plans out. We'll see.

Mr Stumble.

Permission to run.

As instructed, I arrived at this weeks physio session 15 minutes early so I could get 15 minutes warming up on an exercise bike before hitting the treadmill. The exercise bike is more of a recumbent device, than a sit-up-and-cycle, and I had a good 20 minutes of peddling and stretching before we were ready to go.

The treadmill is a monstrous thing, and I think it gets used by some of our local soccer team who, from the "wall of fame" in the gym, frequent this place to get back into playing form. Can't be a bad place then. Once established at 6mph I asked if the machine went up to "11" - recalling Spinal Tap's amplifiers. It does in fact go up to 15 and there have been people on the machine for whom even that has not been fast enough.

6 is fine for me though.

The running session was simply to gauge any running pain in my foot, and thankfully there is non there. However, my right calf felt very tense from the start, in the same sort of way that my left calf used to do when it was warning me. After 6 or 7 minutes of mixed walk/running, we headed off to take a look at the calf and continue the ankle tendon treatment.

There is a load of bunched up muscle tension in my right calf, so she had a good dig in there to try to loosen things up, and a couple of days on, I do think it has helped.

But the best bit is that I'm OK to begin running again, with certain boundaries - a very slow start - a good warm up and no more than 15 minutes for the moment.

With a busy travelling week ahead of me, I'm hoping the hotel I'm booked into for the next couple of nights has a gym and treadmill, otherwise running might be difficult.

We'll see.

Mr Stumble.

A light, I see a light!

It's been a very long 2 weeks working, which has made it difficult to keep up with normal family life, let alone this little journal. However, there has been a change of pace from about 9am Monday morning (yesterday) and I'm back to normal ... well … normal running isn't quite the proper phrase, but you know what I mean.

I missed one physio session last week as I was suddenly at the wrong end of the country, but have otherwise tried my best to keep up with stretching, icing and keeping kind-of active.

Yesterday, I had another appointment with my original physio, now back off her holiday, and her assessment is that it's about time we had a look at how the mechanics are all coming together, with a treadmill session on Friday - there being a mini gym within the centre I'm going to.

So I'm looking forward to a 15 minute warm up on a cycling machine followed by ... some running on a machine!

This isn't to say I haven't run at all for the best part of 10 weeks. In fact, this morning our local railway station had a bit of a problem with its automated ticket issuing machine - locally referred to as Daleks (see Wikipedia for that one, if you're outside UK!) – which delayed my obtaining a ticket and gave me 90 seconds to get down the length of a platform, onto a bridge, over 4 platforms and down again - before the train left. I made it and even that little jog felt good!

Hopefully, the result will be I'll start up again, perhaps this coming weekend at a suitable rate to-be-determined. I'm thinking 5:1 run:walk as a starting point and perhaps even time limiting to 20 minutes for the first week. I don't want to go out too fast again and I so hope I can put all the silly injury behind me.

Hope all going well for you out there.

Mr Stumble

Electro-shock therapy. For feet.

This was a new one on me too! My regular physio is off this week on her holiday, so I'm booked in with an alternative. There are always difficulties in catching up with the history when you see someone new, but thankfully having typed a load of what has happened in here, I remembered a fair bit (unusual for me!).

I think we are all now moving away from Plantar to Posterior Tibial Tendinitis and the treatment again began with my confessions of poor ankle stretching during a busy week, followed by ultrasound on the tendon and then something new. I wondered why she was strapping electrodes at each end of my foot, and being the trusting sort, I didn't question. Until the "let me know if this hurts" comment.

It is weird seeing your toes twitch involuntarily as waves of power wash through your foot - I was suddenly reminded of Young Frankenstein, as Gene Wilder wakens the monster for the first time. Classic. Ever one for new experiences and assured that electricity is a good thing for me, I sat through a good 5 electrifying minutes before the machine went beep and it was all over.

If nothing else, I will definitely be doing my stretching and icing EVERY DAY now. I'm pretty sure that machine has a lot more punch in it - if I go back on Friday and admit to slackness, I might get my voltage upped! It looked pretty old too, so maybe I'll look for it's last electrical safety test ...

I'm being hassled / advised over my footwear. Having the good fortune to work from home 60% of the time, I've been wearing my old running shoes as "trainers" as they have a better shape than my normal, comfortable, old shoes. I'm not running in them though. Ever again. For the other 40% of the time, I'm in offices wearing those comfortable old shoes and they are just no good for me. So, the hunt is on for a good cushioning regular shoe, into which I might stick an off the shelf orthotic if I ever get to Boots in town. And these were recommended as a good basic orthotic before taking a plunge into custom orthotic territory. Somewhere I don't want to go.

Mr Stumble.

If I was blogging about films, there would be so much more to say.

I'm sure I'm not the first to get blogger's block, and I'm sure I won't be the last. However, having finally dragged my fingers back to this particular keyboard, I have little to report on the running front. That is, I am still waiting for my foot to fix itself.

What has been happening is another physio session earlier this week and a further one booked for Monday coming. I noted the first session in my last post and was waiting for the post-massage pain to hit the following morning. Nothing. Not even a twinge. A strangely happy disappointment.

My last visit centred on a particular tendon - I think the posterior tibial tendon - which runs down the rear of the inside-knobbly-ankle-bone and supports the arch of the foot. This particular tendon got demonstrated by plucking it like a guitar string. I never knew it was there. There's some tendinitis in there so it's having some ultrasound therapy. I know ultrasound therapy is good, as it sorted out an Achilles tendon problem for me last year.

My 3 year old daughter continues to remind me every night to do my stretching, and I have a lot to do now, not just the calf and hams, but ankle ones too. Hopefully, only a couple of weeks until I'm able to start again - I'll be dressing for colder weather though!

Mr Stumble.

The trouble with Stumble.

Apologies for yet another delay in posting. Partly busy, partly not having anything interestingly run related to post.

Following my ankle injury, I've laid off any running and taken things easy, aside from a 40 minute session at Laserquest - man that was fun - although I twisted the ankle on the outside this time, but with no permanent injury, just a bit sore for a day. What was worse was having fallen over (thinking the worst had happened and I would never walk again) someone leaned over a balcony and shot me. Unsporting, I thought.

I'm not a Laserquest regular, but this is turning into an annual event. We get an invite to a birthday outing at Laserquest every year from one of my son's school friends and, well, you just have to go along to "help". I did notice that this year, I was far less out of breath by the end than previous years, so running has done something for me, I'm sure.

Last Sunday, I thought I'd give my ankle a little more strenuous activity, so I went for a brisk 30 minute walk to see how my foot-mechanics were getting on. As it turns out, not very well. My ankle and underfoot ached after the walk and for the next couple of days. So given that it had been about a month since the initial injury, I went to see my GP on Tuesday. After a short discussion, and a prod of my foot, he recommended I go back to the podiatrist.

On calling the Podiatrist, I had a discussion with them on the phone and they recommended that I actually see their physiotherapist for assessment and treatment initially. They could fit me in Thursday (today).

So, after some more prodding and standing, we reach a diagnosis. Plantar Fasciitis, the root cause being over pronation and probably the frame in my old shoes bashing into my plantar fascia. Bah.

The treatment - firstly a foot massage along the band of affected muscle (this was not bad, mmmmmm!), and then a deep tissue massage on my right calf muscle because of the connectedness of the calf and foot muscles. This was pretty painful, and damn good! My physio warned me that it might feel great for the rest of the day, but tomorrow morning it might feel like it's been run over.

Next, I had my foot taped up to support the arch, and that's going to stay on for several days. Unless I get sick of it. I'm not looking forward to removing the tape - very sticky stuff.

Next, an analysis of my regular shoes which were embarrassingly covered in grass clippings from chasing down our pet rabbit in the back garden, across freshly mowed lawn the evening before. Simply put, I need to consider shoes with more cushioning and better support. I'll consider whether to consider this, as with my feet and the high street choice, it'll be difficult to comply.

Finally, some more stretches and advice on compression and ice. I'm going to have a word with my medical insurance company to see if they'll stand some more physio sessions, probably weekly until I start running again, which looks like it will be another 4 weeks.

But I *will* run again ...

One last thing, whilst looking up Plantar Fasciitis I came across these interesting articles on therapeutic massage you might enjoy:

Plantar ...
and then
Tension Headaches
Low back pain
Shin splints
Neck pain
Tennis Elbow
Back and hip
Jaw clenching a personal favourite
Quads
Pecs
Upper back Pain
Lower Back pain

Use with caution!

Mr Stumble

Still here, Still static

Hi folks. Sorry for not posting for a while. I'm in the midst of so much stuff! Anyway, very quickly: no running yet; ankle not fully mended; stretching still going well; still determined.

Mr Stumble.

Ice and a slice.

After 9 days of ice, compression and rest, I managed to get back out running again this morning. My ankle finally started feeling reasonably stable again yesterday, although when the alarm woke me up Monday morning, I waggled my foot around to see how it felt, was unsure and so went back to sleep for half an hour.

This morning, a different story. I had pizza and sticky toffee pudding (mmmmm) from my son's birthday meal-out last night to run off, so guilt got me up.

Sunrise here is now around 6:58, so this is my first pre-dawn run. Thankfully, it's a good clear day today with the temperature around 12C/54F - later this week it's going to get very wet, we're told. However, as the weeks go on, I know I'm going to be getting up and running in the dark and the cold, not a good combination for getting me out of bed in the morning. I think the part which I'm most worried about is getting the warm up walk in before I start running, I expect that to be the most challenging part.

Back to today though. I know I started out too fast (I think it's the new shoes!) and Mr Garmin was telling me at one point I was running an 8:40 pace, so I slowed right back to get that segment averaging 9:19. I had decided on 7:1 run:walk splits for this morning, so I was at least moving forward from the last run without overdoing it.

Overall I managed an average 9:35 pace covering 2.82 miles, 27 minutes total running time. My HR monitor shows an average 149 and peak at 165. I took a peak at the HR every so often on the flatter sections and it showed my normal running rate increasing from the mid 140s to mid 150s from around 5 minutes in to 25 minutes in.

Once back in, I could feel a little tension in my ankle, so I immediately strapped on some ice and will keep a compression bandage on for a few hours this morning.

So hopefully, my ankle will be fine and I'll be out again on Thursday.

Mr Stumble