Running

Ran the first(hopefully there’s more) edition of the Peak Divide over the weekend.
Was fucking great.
Weather held, slept ok, got fed more food than I do at home.
Bar some gnarly blisters thanks to the bog portion on day 2, all’s fine leg wise- which considering I did essentially fuck all in the way of training was a surprise.
Even had a quite bad ankle ligament event about 4 weeks ago, which stopped many things.

If there are more- you should sign up.

Day1
Day2

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Glad you got some good weather. Beautiful route.

Officially injured and officially bummed out. Was feeling in such a good groove too 😔

Looks great conditions for it. Nice.

They missed planning in a brutal awakening at the very start, Jutland Street, the purple line route here

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Any preventative hamstring stretches/strengthening that folks would recommend? I’m training for a half in May and things are going worryingly well.. I just feel a half-twinge in my hammys at the end of long run.. like a pre-cursor of something pinging if I tried to up the pace at all.

Ran the Paris marathon on Sunday - great course, but organisation and atmosphere nowhere near London. Not sure whether a knock on of everything else going on out there. 20 min PB though so I won't complain!

Deadlifts for hamstrings worked for me. I tried stretching and “hamstring strength” stuff like leg curls and whatever it is when you put your heels on one of the bouncy ball things, shoulders on floor, and pull it toward you.

No real improvement until I started doing deadlifts.

I think in running, your hams are all about stabilising which deadlifts play to - functional I guess - rather than strengthening them in ways they’re not used.

As always ymmv

I'd be very careful. Perhaps theyr on the verge of over use. I'd back off immediately, a few days to a week easy is way better than weeks off injured. I definitely wouldn't start doing heaving lifting (lifting does have a good place but I'd be cautious this is it). Look into eccentric hamstring exercises and start easy - IE floor sliders. Also get a massage and foam roll regularly. You can self massage but a proper one would be good. I'm not a fan of streaching, except for PNF done with somone. As above, exercises are my preferred way to look after muscles, and massage and rest.

Yeah, back off - especially if you've been trouble free for so long. Doing 'more' will just cause more problems.

Try a bit of this in the meantime?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuKQezeo3X4

^ major crush alert

Not watched the video yet but I can tell you for certain that I’m not able to hit the ‘before’ angle.

Quiet on here.. thanks for the input re. hamstrings, I’ve had a self-imposed low volume week and started some gentle but considered stretching.

Any marathon training updates from people, who’s running London?

I’m still injured and got some scans this week with the doctor 👨‍⚕️

MRI report shows some cartilage damage, and the minor meniscus tear that’s been there for a couple of years. Consultant nicely shrugged his shoulders - nowhere near bad enough to warrant major surgery, and he’s against going in to trim things and tidy up.

I opted for a hyalonuric (sp?) acid injection, and will focus on strength and stability. I’ll also go get some orthotics (painful - as im generally against them as I think they mask issues rather than solve them, but will give them a go to see if they help.)

However I’m left with two mysteries - one is the acute nature of the injury. I was totally fine until I did a single leg step up with weight in the gym - and I felt something go. That doesn’t tally with the long term cartilage wear.

Second - a couple of months back I had an epidural for sciatica (I’ve had a great 6 months). I came out of the sedation and both back and knee pain (different sides) had gone completely. I don’t understand how an epidural for sciatica on the right side can remove pain in the left knee for about 10 days before it came back. I think it’s fair to say that consultant didn’t really believe me - or at least it wasn’t something he wanted to engage with.

So, I’ll start picking up strength and a bit of running along with the other stuff and see where I get to

Managed to drag myself back out on the fells a bit recently.

Heartbeat Hobble in the North York Moors today. 6.8 miles and 640ft/11km and 200m, very flat for a fell race but was good fun. It seems I have absolutely no speed, but my aerobic capacity is a lot better. So I could happily trundle along, but I just couldn’t go faster despite feeling pretty comfortable.

Managed to get round Coniston Old Man and some other peaks in the Lakes last week. Much slower than when I’ve raced it, but getting round 9.5 miles and 3500ft/16km and 1100m in any shape with no training definitely felt like success.

GISBOROUGH MOORS Next Sunday - 20km and 850m. I’m quite keen if the weather isn’t minging, I’d usually be happy whatever the conditions but I reckon a race like that will be fairly near my limit at the moment, so I don’t fancy trying it in a storm!

As mentioned deaflifts are good for hamstrings and posterior chain. I found nordic curls the best strengthening exercise for hamstrings and posterior chain that aided in helping stabilise my knee as its as hard eccentric as concentric. It's not as systemically taxing as deadlifts but trade off is less overall strength gains.

Manchester marathon today (my first). I totally understand why people say it doesn’t start until 20 miles, the end was brutal. At 22 miles I felt like I was having some kind of out of body experience but luckily managed to sort my head out.

Congrats ! Happy with how you did?

Really happy, was aiming for 3:45 and got 3:46, I stupidly hadn’t put enough miles into my new shoes, some carbon adidas ones and the soles of my feet were killing in the second half.

Without the out of body experience I would probably have snuck under but I needed to walk for a min as I was feeling really strange.

well done!

In an act of possible stupidity, I’ve been gifted a number for London on Sunday…

Plenty of running really this year with 750km run but no runs over 2 hours… will take it steady and hopefully enjoy a nice day out, weather looks good if a little warm

Anyone get sleep problems after hard training bouts/races? Getting back into things after injury and I've been slowing ramping things up. All good, training going well, PB'd at a race last week. But my sleep is suffering. No problems falling asleep but waking up multiple times in the night. I remember having this after running the marathon last year.

Don't think it's overtraining syndrome as I'm not doing ridiculous amounts nor am I in anyway tired/sore.

Think I'll take this week off to try reset the body/brain and see if that helps.

I do a massage gun session late at night to help avoid this.

I have had similar, my routine (which works for me) all of this in the 90mins before bed.

Stretch, warm shower, protein drink (I have it with warm milk), no phone.

I basically just tried a bunch of stuff to help.

Yeah - I definitely get this. Not over training, but if I do harder session - running, gym, cycling, whatever - then I can struggle to sleep and feel buzzy and achey through the night.

Good to know I'm not alone. This is going on a few weeks now. I think my body has just gotten used waking up during the night. Need to figure out where the reset button is!