Running

Wtf this is awful news.

Four Lions becomes painfully real. This is bad news for all big city marathons - such an easy target. Big potential negative knock-on effects with regards to licensing, security costs, insurance, participation, fundraising etcetc.

I grew up in Winchester, and you always knew when their was a terrorist trial on because the bins vanished and the letter boxes were sealed.

Basically anything that you could put a bomb in was either shuttered or removed.

That was over a fairly short route- having to secure a 26 mile route is going to be very, very expensive.

52 laps of the Olympic track? But yeah, no idea how you would do it.
My personal opinion is that the risk/reward makes it not worth it, but I'd imagine anyone professionally involved must be having a nightmare right now

^^I grew up in Belfast, there was litter everywhere, constantly. We didn't see our first bin until long after the ceasefire. That was when we first knew change was real.

I went to the physion whom Jamie kindly recommended today- great experience and I'll be seeing him (Paul) again shortly.

We started off with what was wrong (lots of pain in the Soleus in my left leg) then moved onto a treadmill to have a look at how I am put together.

I only got as far as a fast walk on the treadmil before Paul said "right, I can see what's wrong- you're spine is curved", which was something of a surprise.

Got off the treadmill and stood in front of a mirror and I could see what he meant- if I'm standing with both arms hanging down relaxed then there is a gap between my left arm and the left hip, but no gap on the right hand side.

This in turn means that I'm tilting my pelvis, affecting my gait.

In addition to this he said "you basically have no soleus on either side", so when I land whilst running I'm absorbing the impact with both the muscle in my shin (leading to inevitable shin-splints) and by deforming my forefoot, rather than with the under developed soleus.

I've got 300 calf raises per day per leg to do to resolve this, and some orthotics to stiffen my foot up to stop it absorbing the impact.

Finally I'm only "firing" 3 out of the 4 hip flexors, this means that when pulling up (thigh toward body) I can only raise it my leg so far and then have to arch my back- which is causing me to cycle with my back arched and arms stretched out.

The dormant hip flexor is also allowing my femur to pop out of the socket, which needs to be resolved.

I have another exercise for this.

Good news is that according to Paul I will, if I follow the exercises then I should a) rectify the problems and stop getting injured and b) get a lot faster as I'll be using all the muscle groups that I should be using, rather than relying on only a few of them.

Awesome. GF went to a physio called Paul a couple of days ago and got a very similar diagnosis... something about her core being lopsided and her belly button not being in the middle.

Hope all those calf raises sort you out.

^^ Good news.

Finally I'm only "firing" 3 out of the 4 hip flexors, this means that when pulling up (thigh toward body) I can only raise it my leg so far and then have to arch my back- which is causing me to cycle with my back arched and arms stretched out.

The dormant hip flexor is also allowing my femur to pop out of the socket, which needs to be resolved.

I have another exercise for this.

Could you explain this exercise? I've had hip flexor issues in the past and want them to stay away. Any other exercises/stretches I can do would help.

Sit on a chair/similar.

Grasp your lower leg just below the knee and bring the leg up toward your chest as far as you can.

The goal here is not involve none of the hip flexors in the raising of the leg- they should all be totally relaxed.

Ensure that your spine is upright- in fact, better to be arching backward slightly, then release your leg and hold for 10 seconds.

Try it with your back arched the other way- hunching slightly, and notice how (if like me your flexor is not working) much easier it is.

Then go back to doing it with your back vertical.

Got a youtube link?

Afraid not.

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

I've just done mine- if it hurts then you are doing it right.

I need to get a 15 mile run in this weekend so was thinking to just get a train out somewhere west and run home along the canal.

Does anyone know if you can actually run along the length of the canal as far out as say Northolt or Ruislip?

Won't that be very harsh on the knees? Dunno about out west but the side of Regents Canal is just concrete

Theres not much of the green stuff in London though without doing laps of the park. I kinda thought it'd be a bit more scenic than your average London park.

Yeah probably. If it's like over here in the east though it'll be full of tossers on bikes pretending it's a race ringing their bells like there's no tomorrow.

Is it Runnergeddon out there at the moment or what? I've seen more 'runners' these last few mornings than cyclists, bus wankers, peds and foxes put together.
I really hope they're not doing the marathon and thinking they should be doing 'lots of training' in the days leading up to it!!

There will be a lot of people running a few miles to loosen off I would have thought.

And a lot of people getting excited/inspired by what is an awesome event.

And its just warmed up!

I just want to run!!!! Tapering week has been awful. Not sure if I'll go for a short one today, or stick to plan and do 2-3 miles tmw am with some 80% sprints to fully glycogen deplete for the carb dinner- as per recent research which suggest best loading strategy is to do 2 mins sprint, then load.
And I'm very, very nervous now. Each tweak of muscle or anything sends a wave of fear through me.

Things I need to do: Print name onto Bib, buy some means of carrying gels on run.

Things I may buy at the expo but don't need at all- Garmin 910xt thingy.

Also, looking forward to a summer of shorter distance running.

Ha, I know what you mean so I've abandoned the Hal higdons method, I've still developed some pretty life threatening ailements too!

Two hard runs on Monday on Tuesday have left me full of running zen, looking forward to Sunday but not desperate to run!

They've got discounts on the garmin stuff so avoid the stand if you can, I desperately want the fenix, don't look at it Henry, seriously!

Loads of free kinesio tape floating around, head to the lucozade elite stand as they are giving free tshirt s if you register and run sub 3.30...

There wasn't the buzz of the Paris expo but it was brilliantly efficient!

Looking forward to a catch up/chat/ pre-race poo-queue solidarity in the start area with you and Branwen..

I'm in pen 2 apparently, I hope its the right one....

[strike]^ Noob question, where do we find out what Pen we're in? (Not done any reading at all)[/strike] Pen 5

There are loads of discounted belts/gel holders etc, and quite a few free samples. I'm personally going with a pack of skittles in my pocket :)

I'm right now sick of running, just want to get it done with. Think the actual run will be fine but really not looking forward to all the pre race stuff :/