Tag: injury

Thursday – crashed with a weak middle

Jess Guth4 Comments

Well I’m doing well aren’t I. After my panic attack yesterday morning I then went to bed early (like 9pm) and read a little bit and fell alseep quickly – for about 90 minutes. Then I woke up. And stayed awake, and stayed awake and stayed awake. I finally dozed off again around 4.30am and when 6am came I was just exhausted and tearful and generally not coping. I hate that feeling, I am a successful, strong and pretty competent woman and should be able to keep my shit together… but no. I can’t, or not all the time anyway. I felt – as you’d say in Yorkshire – proper poorly. So back to sleep I went – until 11.45am. I think that’s what you call crashed.

Then I got up. My leg is still much the same as it was yesterday I think but I had the osteopath appointment this afternoon – possibly the only reason I actually made it out of bed. I wrote about the osteopath a bit back in May. but it is worth repeating: They are amazing. So I toddled off to the Practice, for anyone locally, they are in Keighley at Farfield House Clinic and they are worth bearing in mind for any niggles. I don’t really know how they compare on price but £40 for a session doesn’t strike me as massively expensive.

I saw the same guy as last time (seemed to make sense to me and he had apointments available when I phoned). I was, as I always am for any medical appointment, apprehensive. I tried my best to explain what had happened and he seemed to get it. I can’t quite explain how grateful I am not to be told to stop running or to lose more weight before I even think about running. So after a few tests which had me standing up and touching my toes, standing on one leg, leaning back, twisting my torso etc he examined the muscles in my leg. The good news – I am flexible (for my age – the ‘for my age’ bit being added is a new development!) and the yoga we’ve been doing is clearly working. There is now hardly a difference between left and right in terms of flexibility which is good. The bad news – I’m a bit weak round the middle. Basically the niggle I have comes from the top of my legs and hips not being strong enough. It’s a common issue and thankfully it has an easy solution – strengthen the weak bits. After a little bit of work on the back of my right hip which I can now feel but which I’m sure will be tons better tomorrow, I was shown to simple exercises to do.

The first one is the Monkey Squat. There are loads of videos and descriptions out there but I quite like this one because it is simple. Basically you stand with your feet hipwith apart and then go to sit down on a chair but don’t, stand back up. The second exercise is even simpler – all you need is some stairs. you put your foot on the second step up (facing up) and then step up (hold onto something for balance if you need to) and then lower back down. If you don’t cheat and use momentum or pull yourself up this does work – I did a few on my left side to practise earlier.

As well as these exercises I think I will have to get over myself and start doing the strength session from the yoga app rather than sticking to the flexibility and relaxation ones. Anyway, all in all good news. I haven’t been told to stop running, not even for a short time and it looks like the 11 miler may be on for Saturday – as long as I can stop feeling poorly and sleeping all the bloody time.

Wednesday – still grumpy

Jess Guth4 Comments

Today has not been a good day. We went for a run on Monday. My right leg was a bit tight and almost sore as we set off but it loosened up and was then fine. It was a hard but ok run and I took two walk breaks out. I think the pace was just under 11 and a half minutes per mile. I was quite excited because it meant we didn’t have any gaps on our training plan and we were ready to start week 10. On Tuesday we spent the morning at Kilnsey Show and then came back home and got ready to run in the afternoon. We set off, my leg was stiff and sore – same as Monday really but this time it didn’t ease. By the time we got down to the canal it was painful. I thought it might ease once on the flat rather than going downhill. It didn’t. We stopped. It was so utterly frustrating and of course there were tears. I am trying really hard to be patient. No running today. My calf is tight and there is a niggle further up my leg into my hip and I think the problem may be that my hamstring is really tight. I have an appointment with the osteopath tomorrow so we’ll see what he says. No more running this week anyway.

So instead I have been looking at running routes and we have figured our an 11 mile route for Saturday (fingers crossed I’ll be ok) and also looked at what we can do along the cannal without having to run the same route again and again. So the 11 mile route for Saturday is Bolton Abbey to Burnsall and back – along the river Wharfe. I won’t spoil it, I’ll share details of the route when we actually run it. There are options along the canal with starting points in Shipley, Saltaire or Crossflatts so I think we’ll be ok – conveniently marathon distance is Leeds to home-ish along the canal so we know where we’ll be running for the really really long practice run!

I also had a little panic attack this morning and that slight sense of panic hasn’t really left me today. It probably hasn’t got anything to do with running or rather not running but I don’t think that’s helped. Anyway I am reasured that you don’t lose fitness by not running for a few days so I am hoping we’ll be ok for the long run and then can build from there.

So as not to lose focus but also to remind myself that I really do need to do this right and if my leg isn’t right I’ll just have to wait until it is, I have spent some more time looking at all the work Panthera do. For example, have a look at the Cougar Channel for loads of little video clips  (I quite like the greet and play) or if you feel like you need a brain workout have a look at the publications – I loved reading some of them but I really wish I was more of a scientist to help me make sense of it all.

If you value the work Panthera do or you’re just feeling generous or just want to support us please consider sponsoring us or donate to Panthera directly. Thank you.

Calf niggles, eating crap and running in the sun

Jess Guth2 Comments

I was looking forward to a run after work on Tuesday – that never happens! I walked up the hill from the bus stop, got changed and we set off. For the first time since my injury we set off from home rather than heading for the canal bank. The first stretch is a slight downhill. Great. Then a bit uphill, fine apart from the huge gust of wind that nearly knocked us over but certainly took our breath away. As we turned the corner and started on the next little downhill section I felt my right calf complain a little. I finished that 2 minute run, walked and then set off on the next run, it niggled some more. The next walk came quickly and we set off to run again and the niggle turned into a twinge and I stopped. It was so frustrating. We’d been running a consistent pace of just over 12 minutes per mile and I felt strong even on the uphill bits. My calf however is not yet ready for hills!

No running Wednesday, instead I curled up on the beanbag (no sofa still), drank a glass of red wine and tried not to think about the utter crap I’d eaten during the day. It started well with porridge (finally found some in sachets that isn’t too sweet) but then went down hill from there with sarnies from work and chips and biscuits and stupid amounts of coffee to get me through the 13 hour day I did. Oh well Thursday was meant to be another day altogether…

So today I didn’t have to be at work early. We did half an hour of yoga (balance for beginners – or in my case unbalanced) and had pancakes and a big bowl of fruit salad. Then I made my way to Leeds. Things fell apart at lunch with crisps, chocolate, more sarnies, more crisps…  Not holding out much hope for the Sunday weigh-in this week. After a day in Leeds I was ready for home and after being stuck on a commuter train packed like sardines I wanted to be outside. I wanted space and I actually sort of wanted to run. We went along the canal for 30 minutes in our 2minute/30 seconds patters. It’s warm. Our average pace was 12.58 minutes per mile. It felt good, I felt ok, my calf muscle is behaving itself. I like running in the sun!

Strengthening the Calf Muscles

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We ran 4.25 miles today. Just had to get that in eventhough this post isn’t about that!

My injury was due to my calf muscles, or more accurately, my right calf muscle being too weak. Actually  it still is too weak. My osteopath recommended a very very simple exercise for which you need no equipment and very little time: Heel raises. So while my calf muscle was still recovering he recommended doing heel raises using both legs at the same time – so basically standing with your feet evenly placed and raising yourself up until standing on your tiptoes and then lowering yourself back down in a controlled way (you can hold onto something for balance). Now though I am supposed to do this standing on one leg – apparently people should be able to do about 20 one leg controlled heel raises generally and runners should aim to be able to do 30. I am currently aiming for 5 without falling over.

The heel raise exercise does get slightly obsessive. I did 20 while in the supermarket queue and I keep doing it when standing in corridors, offices, at the roadside etc talking to people – usually both legs at the same time though. It’s so easy and yet so effective. There are loads of clips on YouTube showing how to do them but the osteopath recommended just doing them on a flat surface/floor and not on the edge of a step as many seem to suggest. He did recommend standing on the edge of a step and pushing your heel down for stretching the calf muscle but I think those two exercises should be seperate so as not to risk injury – I might be wrong there of course but doing them seperately works for me.

Next on the list is to make time for yoga using a yoga app I recently downloaded. It has several 15 minute programmes at different levels. I’ll let you know once I finally get round to building those into a routine properly!

Back on the Road #2

Jess Guth4 Comments

So my last blog about running was on the 9th May when I was trying not to be grumpy about the injury to my calf muscle. I missed the appointment with the Osteopath and had to re-book for yesterday. I didn’t run at all from 3rd May to the 17th May. I was just a little scared of getting back on the road again. I spent Thursday- Saturday in London for work last week and when I got back Saturday evening I was actually looking forward to getting out. I was nervous about my calf though. It was still a little tight and the osteopath had said he wanted to see me again before advising on when I could run again. Yeah ok so I am rubbish at doing as I am told. So here’s what we’ve done since the 17th, all on the flat along the canal as per osteopath instructions and all using intervals of 90 seconds running and 30 seconds walking.

17th May – 30 minutes, 2.2 miles

It actually felt good to be out and the running felt doable

18th May – 30 minutes, 2.22 miles

Felt a bit sluggish but got stronger towards the end. Enjoyed it once it was over!

20th May – 30 minutes, 2.3 miles

We spent the day at the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs so had done a lot of walking during the day and then went for a run afterwards. I thought we would be quite slow because of that and because the first two runs made my lungs feel like they were on fire. There was another running interval around 20 minutes that felt really hard but we managed a really strong positive finish. Happy with that!

21st May  – 30 minutes, 2.28 miles

I saw the Osteopath in the morning. He examined my leg again and said it felt much better. After a bit of treatment he advised that running was fine but to take it easy and not to push myself on speed or distance for roughly 6 weeks. So, I am allowed to run but the strengthening exercises he has shown me are going to be key to avoiding repetition of the injury. (More on them another time). So, running it was then – after work feeling tired and generally a bit grumpy. From the first beep of the watch every little bit of me was screaming ‘Nooooo…. just no’. My legs felt heavy and my lungs were burning. I was huffing and puffing after the first 90 seconds of running. Somehow, and I am really not quite sure how, I made it through 8 of the 15 repetitions; we turned round. Usually I quite like heading back along the canal – it means at least half is done but this time it just didn’t seem possible to run back to pretty much where we started. Mind over matter… another running interval done… 10 intervals done and that stupid little nagging voice would not shut up: “I’m not a runner, I can’t do this, this is stupid, I’m NOT a runner’. And walk… 11 out of 15 runs done, breathe. No really breathe. I pretty much dragged myself through the next 2 runs with Kath’s constant and brilliant encouragement (I hope we never get to the point where she finds the runs so hard she doesn’t have enough left to talk me through the tough moments!). What I was doing can’t really be described as running, it was more plodding, plodding very slowly. Then the worst was over and when the watch beeped after run 14 I felt strangely competitive so I kept going and we ran the last 4 minutes. Hated it. Properly hated it. Just like old times. But it did feel good to have done it