Monday 11 April 2016

Unorthodox Rog

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, I’ve been working on a few things, investigating a few future opportunities and catching up on admin. Mind you I’ve not exactly had much to shout about, the latest injury in December, a reoccurrence of the one I had at the end of summer, stopped me in my tracks. It had me thinking that it could be the end of my competitive running life. I still don’t know if it is or not, at the moment I’ll keep trying to come back but there has to be a point where I’ll say no more, and, whilst not totally convinced I’m close to that point, I’m ready to accept it and move on if it happens.

However, whether I competed again wasn’t going to stop me running. I had to find a balance and that’s what I’ve been trying to do since December.

I started running again at Xmas, spending Xmas and New Year in Spain was always going to be an easier kicking off point than in the UK, warm air and sunshine makes such a difference. Starting gradually with the run/walk that I tried last time I was injured, I built my time and distance up on a daily basis until I was up to a reasonable 40 minute run by the end of the trip.

Continuing the build up on my return to the UK I was soon over the hour. I also started a bit of basic speed work. But, before the end of January I was starting to get worrying aches around the knee again.

I was convinced the problem was caused by my longer runs rather than my speed work, though I couldn’t be absolutely sure. So I decided to reduce the time of my runs, to ensure I didn’t go over the hour. At the time I was still thinking I might not race again, I certainly didn’t have a particular appetite for getting on a race start line any time soon, so I wasn’t too concerned about the fact that this was unlikely to keep me as fit as my opposition. However, with a holiday in Malaysia coming shortly, I knew I was going to have to spice things up a bit because steady running in hot countries can be mind numbing when I’m running alone.

So I set myself the following ‘unstructured’ plan. I would aim to run for between 35 minutes and one hour. I would do speed work on consecutive days, for as many days as my body and my mind could take it. I would not run if my body was telling me not to, though I might do some other form of exercise instead and, finally, if I wanted to take a rest day I would, irrespective of the day of the week and irrespective that the previous day or days, or subsequent day or days, were also rest days. There - I was in control of my own destiny and nobody else was going to advise me differently. It may not work, I could get injured again, but what did I have to lose, I was already thinking of taking up gardening instead of running. It seemed like a last throw of the dice to me. If it worked it might just give me a few more races each year.

I was also going to maintain my cross training, and I would also do this to the level I felt my body could cope with.

I started my new regime on 1st February and on the second day I was taking a rest from running. It wasn’t totally required but as I was running with a talented marathon runner on the third day I thought it best to be sensible, so as to not let them down. I pushed through from that with two more quality days before two days enforced rest days, due to travel and the difference in time zones for our trip to Malaysia.

WC 1 Feb 2016
M – am 52 minute run, pm abdominal workout
T – am 40 minutes on the cardio machines
W – am 1 hour run, reps with running client, eve 20 mins PT
T – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6, pm 1 hour boot camp
F – am 37 min run  inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 22
S – Rest – travel to Kuala Lumper
S – Rest – still travelling and settling in

Not bad for a first week, three consecutive quality days, but plenty of rest. Now in Kuala Lumper I was conscious running would be tough in the heat and humidity. My first day of running was very much a plod, still feeling a bit jet lagged and it was hot, hot, hot. I also took another rest day when we transferred to Langkawi, but then I was back on it and as you can see, by the following training plan, over doing it and suffering from a bit of heat exhaustion.  

WC 8 Feb 2016
M – am 36 min run
T – am 36 min run inc. (1 min/15 sec rec) x 21
W – Rest – travel to Langkawi
T – am 37 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3
F – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6
S – am 41 min run inc. (1 min/15 sec rec) x 21, pm squash. Unfortunately this was the day I got hit with heat exhaustion.
S – am 36 min run.

The easy run on Sunday didn’t ease the heat exhaustion so the next day I decided to go to the air conditioned gym. Having such a lovely beach to run on, I just couldn’t bring myself to hit one of the two treadmills so I designed a 30 minute PT session instead. By the Tuesday I was ready to go again, but decided to pare back the running a bit as it was the last few minutes I had begun to suffer on the previous week. And another rest day as we travelled back home.

WC 15 Feb 2016
M – am 30 min PT session
T – am 33 min run inc. 1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec/2 min/1 min rec/1 min/30 sec rec/1 min/30 sec rec/2 min
W – am 34 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 5, pm squash
T – am 35 min run
F – am 36 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec) x 15, pm squash
S – am 35 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec) x2 (2 min/1 min rec) x 3 (1 min /30 sec rec) x 4
S – Rest – Travel home

Back home I was able to put some solid training behind me. I was starting to feel fit again and my speed was creeping up. Even so I’d only been using this regime for three weeks and that had been disrupted somewhat by the holiday. There was no way I was ready to race yet, nor was I intending to. Though, as you can see, I did a parkrun on the Saturday. Carole really wanted to do one and so I agreed to go along with her to my local one, at Delamere Forest. It’s a great place but I really don’t like the course. Nothing personal, it’s just that the surface is really uneven and with my history of achilles and knee problems not the best surface for me to run fast on. Still, it was a parkrun, not a race, and I went into it feeling about as racy as Garfield the cat. My aim, get around uninjured and use it to see how my sustained pace was coming along. And as you can see by the time I ran, not particularly pacy. But you have to start somewhere and, if I were to be honest, I really didn’t expect to break 19 minutes.

WC 22 Feb 2016
M – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3, pm 30 minutes on cardio machines
T – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6, pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 37 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 22, pm 20 minutes kettlebells
T – am 53 min run with client, would have been reps at her pace, but it doesn’t state what they were, pm 1 hour bootcamp
F – am 50 min run
S – am Delamere parkrun, 18:48. Didn’t feel I was ready yet to test out my race pace, but Carole wanted to do a parkrun, so I thought I might as well get out there and see where I was. Despite always being in the top 10 and finishing 6th I never really got into any kind of race feeling, but at least I did a solid paced 5k run and survived the uneven surfaces intact.
S – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3   

WC 29 Feb 2016
M – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6
T – am 40 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 23, pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 48 min run, pm 30 min on cardio machines
T – am 59 min run with client, no details again but would have been reps of some sort, pm 1 hour boot camp
F – am 41 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec) x 7 plus 1 min
S – am 38 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec/2 min/1 min rec/1 min/30 sec rec) x 3  plus 1 min
S – am 51 min run

WC 7 Mar 2016
M – am 44 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 7 plus 1 min, pm 30 min on cardio machines
T – am 44 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 24, pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 50 min hill session with client, pm 20 minute core workout
T – am 35 min run inc. (3 min/30 sec rec/3 min/1 min rec/3 min/90 sec rec) x 2, pm 1 hour boot camp
F – am 30 min static bike
S – am 30 min static bike
S – 36 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3

Six weeks in now and things were going well. I’d started upping the reps a little and the pace was definitely getting quicker. But, at the end of the previous week my knee was starting to suffer so I had to take a couple of days off running and get on the static bike. It worked a treat, I was soon back in action.

WC 14 Mar 2016
M – am 43 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 25, pm 20 min of kettlebells
T – am 38 min run inc. (5 min/2 min rec) x 4, pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 59 min run with client, doesn’t state what we did, pm 20 mins on static bike
T – am 39 min run, pm 1 hour boot camp
F – am 45 min run inc. 1 min/2 min/3 min/4 min/5 min/4 min/3 min/2 min/1 min – all with 1 min rec
S – am 39 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min
S – am 47 min run

At Easter we had planned to visit the Scottish relatives. Usually when we’re in Scotland we do the Edinburgh parkrun, so this was going to be my next opportunity to see how my training was progressing. I purposefully took the Friday off running, which meant we could get an early start and enjoy the afternoon in Scotland. The forecast wasn’t great, strong winds, cold and wet, so I decided that we should try the Portobello parkrun instead. Result, still windy but not as strong as I would’ve encountered at Silverknowes and, despite the wind, I was 50 seconds quicker than four weeks ago at Delamere. You could put some of that down to the smoother terrain, but I was definitely more racy this time. I followed that up with a sports massage from Cath Ferry, good friend and EAC athlete. Cath pointed out that my achilles were thickened. Well they weren’t giving me any trouble so I suspected it was down to the achilles injuries I suffered in 2012.

WC 21 Mar 2016
M - am 20 min cardio machine, pm 30 min cardio machine
T – am 49 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 47 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 4, pm 20 min static bike  
T – am 33 min run, 8.1k on treadmill, pm 1 hour bootcamp
F – rest, travel to Scotland
S – am Portobello parkrun 17:58, pm massage
S – am 40 min run

Funny really, no issues with my achilles for a long while, until now. Nothing big but I was conscious that my right one was slightly tender this week. Now I’m not a psychosomatic sort of person so I was sure it was nothing to do with what Cath had said. Maybe I’d pushed a bit too hard too soon after the massage or, more likely, because I ran five consecutive days of quality and my quality was getting faster. By the end of this next week I was feeling it again and needed to take a day off running.

WC 28 Mar 2016
M – am 39 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min
T – am 42 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 47 min fartlek run, pm 30 mins on cardio machines
T – am 45 min run inc. (3min/1 min rec) x 3 (2 min/1 min rec) x 4 ( 1 min/30 sec rec) x 5, pm 1 hour bootcamp
F – am 42 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 25
S – am 30 min static bike
S – am 38 min am run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

The rest did me some good but the achilles were still hurting during the next week so I had to back off and made some of my reps longer, hence slower.

WC 4 Apr 2016
M – am 38 min run inc. 5 mins x 4 with rec of 2 min/1:30 min/1 min, pm 20 minutes of kettlebells
T – pm 1 hour boot camp
W – am 49 min run, pm 20 min weight session (all body, endurance)
T – am 47 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp
F – am 42 min run inc. reps of 10 min/8 min/6 min all with 2 min rec
S - am – 45 min run
S – am – 38 mn run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

So that’s where I am now. Slowing down the reps seems to have worked for now but I’m going to have to be vigilant around my knee and now my achilles. Running this way I’m under no illusions that I will once again be able to grace a podium, but if I can enjoy it, and I do enjoy speed work much more than steady running, you may well see me entering proper races again, before the summer is done. Though you may just as easy see me weeding the garden.

Whilst I haven’t been competing, others have, and it was great to see my club, Salford Harriers, win the Northern 12 Stage road relay, they and the B team both qualified for the National 12 stage. I had been asked if I wanted to be considered for the B team, but at the time I didn’t feel my leg was ready to race, and it was good to see I wasn’t missed. The National 12 Stage takes place this coming weekend. It will be good to see how the Northern Champions fare in this iconic championship.

Written by Roger Alsop