Running

As of last night I now have the somewhat dubious pleasure of being a member of the 'Run Dem Crew' alongside the forum's own Tika. Figured it's a good way to keep running after the marathon if I have somewhere close to work that I can get to easily to do some runs and after sitting through the introduction last night looks like a pretty sound group. certainly a lot more laughs than a traditional running club (of which they staunchly insist they are not).

In other news though, my left knee is basically fucked. I cut my easy run short at 3 miles last friday, struggled through my 16 miler on saturday behind pace because of it and after 2 days of not running I managed my strength run but had to pull up before I finished my cooldown because it was just too sore. also had tightness at the front of my arch and a pain that that jumped around all over the front of my foot as I went along. I also seem to be getting a random acute painwhere the top of my foot joins my ankle that just hurts for a few seconds even if the foot is immobile and then goes away again.

with my knee it's the muscle running inside of my left knee cap and i think is related to a niggle I've been having with my achilles where I get a kind of compressed spot after long runs just at the bottom of the calf muscle which hasn't been at all painful it just kind of clicks when I overextend my knee (typically only when walking down stairs).

right now walking is quite painful, so think my tempo run tomorrow is out, may push it back to saturday and see how I get on.

can't believe i'm picking up an injury this close to the marathon and it just came out of nowhere in the middle of a gentle easy jog, ffs.

am wondering if wearing a strassburg sock to bed might help keep the achilles stretched out and avoid making it worse as I tend to point my toes down in bed which shortens the achilles a lot which can't help.

Fresh is Rundem too - Douguie Kerr - and Dommy he is a long term member, one of the elders I think

^cool

physio gave me a clean(ish) bill of health. some muscle imbalance is pulling my patella to the left causing the right side to become inflamed but he did an ultrasound and confirmed that there's no damage anywhere (and that I'm not pregnant).

he also scanned my achilles and there's a tiny little bit of fluid in the sheath around the tendon but nothing impeding it's movement or function nor is there any damage to the tendon itself.

he's taped my knee up to try and loosen the patella a little and agreed with my suggestion that wearing a knee support just for the next week and the marathon is an acceptable approach to getting through the marathon with as little pain as possible but only as a one off (it's not a valid treatment beyond that).

So I'm happy. ordered a knee support that will hopefully be delivered before I go out tomorrow and I'll see how I get on running with it on sunday. would be good if I could finish up my training by sticking to the final week at least.

Fucking hayfever. I went for a run in the park this morning and felt like I was having an asthma attack - wheezing, hacking, pain, fucksake. Bring back the saharan sand.

knee support arrived. can barely bend my leg in it. not sure how it will work whilst running.

anyone got any recommendations for an open patella knee support that is actually useful whilst running I think this one might have to go back...

What was done/wrong?

Too hairy.

Nasty calf strain on Wednesday.

Ouch, mend soon.

I sacked off this mornings group ride (it was the disaster I predicted it to be) and got all my housemates and one of our neighbours along for a park run. The 1st time for a couple of them. Everyone had fun.

I've not been running recently so was happy enough with a 22:18.

knee support arrived. can barely bend my leg in it. not sure how it will work whilst running.

anyone got any recommendations for an open patella knee support that is actually useful whilst running I think this one might have to go back...

I can post you mine to borrow of you want. I never actually got a chance to use, as my knee seemed to fix itself. It's one of these:
Mueller Coloured Knee Strap:Amazon.co.uk:Sports & Outdoors

Things I learnt today: if you're doing a race, try to work out in advance where the registration is so that you don't end up riding around in circles and miss the start. Also, if it's chucking it down and you plan on riding 10 miles to said race, don't put your running kit on and then a pair of skinny jeans on top as you will end up stuck (as in, it took me 5 mins to struggle out) in a horrible wet-denim combo and your running kit will soaked and manky.

I hope everyone doing Paris is having a blast!!

I can post you mine to borrow of you want. I never actually got a chance to use, as my knee seemed to fix itself. It's one of these:
Mueller Coloured Knee Strap:Amazon.co.uk:Sports & Outdoors

thanks for the kind offer but i think the physio meant the sleeve type when he said to get one with the open patella hole in the front.

Sheffield half and not a drop to drink

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/06/sheffield-half-marathon-runners-cancellation-road-blocks

didnt the runners just say fuck da police? and go

^ according to the wireless, yep.

Too hairy.

I'm shaving them for the cycling season. Pretty sure they'll look worse.

Ouch, mend soon.

Ouch indeed. But it feels pretty good already. Did 50 fixed gear km's yesterday. Going to run 5 careful km's tonight.

Did a 40 miler solo round London on Sat, followed by the Coventry Way 40 miler yesterday. Did 6h30 on Sat, which felt nice, but was clearly too fast, as suffered a bit yesterday. CW was nice, if extremely muddy and I idiotically wore road shoes. A hard day, but it's a while since I did close to 120 miles for the week, so no surprise. Will do more LDWA events, they're a lot of fun and have a nice vibe.

Coventry people, please note, were the polar opposites to those surly Wiganers - everyone we met on the trails was friendly, smiley and welcoming.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/sheffield-half-marathon-runners-farce-water-shortage?CMP=twt_gu

Knightlancer, you're crazy.

Paris marathon on Sunday. Lack of proper long runs and a few niggles if been ignoring exploded about mile 14/15 and I had horrible hip pain, then my knee flared up from compensating. Had a horrible few run/walk miles then a lot of even worse walking miles. Nasty marathon.

Now on train to Berlin and trying to rest up. Want to do London on Sunday still but it's not going to be pleasant.

Sparky repped for being a badass and doing 2 marathons in a week even when injured. I hope you enjoyed at least some of it and the smog wasn't too bad? RICE and all that, eat lots, look after yourself, and hopefully see you on sunday.

Props to you Mr Sparky for toughing it out.
I gave my place away in the end as my knees continue to go apeshit beyond 15miles. That said I will be attempting Essex and Halstead next month after spending the next few weeks getting myself back up to scratch.
Spent an awesome weekend bumbling around Paris with Liz so was far from a total washout..

Just back in London after Paris.

I did not expect that to be so hard!

Training runs in winter do not prepare you for 20 degree heet... last 15k were agony..

Was aiming for 4 hours and all was looking good until about 26km then bam, undulating hills took me right out and I never recovered..

Cramp at the top of my legs and ended up doing the second half 40 minutes slower..

This was my first marathon and a fantastic / painful experience but next time i will make sure I am at the front of my time segment at the start. I must have wasted so much energy trying to zig zag between people...

Did a 40 miler solo round London on Sat, followed by the Coventry Way 40 miler yesterday. Did 6h30 on Sat, which felt nice, but was clearly too fast, as suffered a bit yesterday. CW was nice, if extremely muddy and I idiotically wore road shoes. A hard day, but it's a while since I did close to 120 miles for the week, so no surprise. Will do more LDWA events, they're a lot of fun and have a nice vibe.

wow. Good effort.

I did the road relays on saturday followed by some slow miles on sunday and thought i had had a big weekend.

Congrats to all Paris runners. Hope the taper is going well for London marathoners.

seconded that LDWA events are great, and cheep

Sparky you're nuts!

Good luck on Sunday, I think you'll need it - are you fundraising at all - what's the link?

Horrible night's sleep on a train last night. Just woke up in Berlin. I think I may need to do a run/walk strategy on Sunday.

http://m.virginmoneygiving.com/mt/uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=sparkyhalfmarathon&un_jtt_redirect

And here's me sitting at home on a lovely day like this desperately trying to convince myself to go for a 10 miler. I need to HTFU

Rep to Sparky.

Did 6km last night. Calf felt OK. Did'nt push things though. Bit stiff today, but have to say I'm a happy bunny.