Week 38: Injury worries

My knee is still giving me cause for concern.  My leg muscles, hamstring and quadriceps, feel tensed and sore, and I get stabbing pains on the inside of my knee.  As I have said before, my doctor sent me for an operation on a torn meniscus two years ago.  It took me a few days to recover from the general anaesthetic, and my knee was weak for a long time afterwards.  So I hope to avoid the same problem. A few years ago I consulted an osteopath about a shoulder pain with good results, so I decided to do the same here.  The osteopath asked a lot of questions, reviewed my stance and then manipulated me in all directions.  By chance I had chosen an osteopath who had worked a lot with sportspeople, in particular rowers.  He advised me to drink a lot and pay attention to my diet.  He seemed to think that my skeletal problems were related to tension in my stomach muscles.  After an hour of manipulation I came away feeling drained.  He advised a few days rest and then a slow restart to running.  Then another visit in a couple of weeks.
It is rather disheartening to review my Starva data and not see any runs for a week.  I am taking a rest from running, as per advice from other runners and the osteopath.  But I am worried that this gap in my training will have a negative effect on my race in August.  In the meantime I am still going to the gym to cycle and weight train. My leg muscles are still stiff and painful and my knee gives periodically stabbing pains.  Next week I will be on a school field trip for ten days so no gym sessions.  However I am taking my running gear in the hope that I can slowly start running again.

Week 37: The 20 run : 5 walk ratio

Still trying to find a solution for my negative thoughts and worries about level of training.  I feel I should be running more, for longer and faster.  I am pleased to have found some advice on the internet that comforts me a little.  It seems some trail runners train to run 20 minutes and walk for 5 minutes.  This certainly seems to fit more with my training style.  Today I always walk uphill.  I find myself quickly out of breath and my heart rate soars if I try and run uphill.  So I use uphill sections to recover by walking at as rapid a pace as possible.
Only managed one run of 10km this week.  The weather was against me so I spent more time cross training in the gym.  At the weekend I was accompanying my kid's rugby team to a tournament.  My left knee started playing up again, with tight hamstring and thigh muscles.  I am really worried now as the symptoms are very similar to by meniscus tear, two years ago.  I really do not want to go through the whole scan and operation circus again.  It would also put me out of action for a few months, meaning I would miss my trail run.

Week 36: Battling negative thoughts

Negative thoughts again on my first run of the week.  Everything seemed to be wrong; my watch couldn't get a satellite signal, my legs felt tired, my new shoes felt wrong, my wife unwittingly pressured me, asking when I would be back, everything was to blame.  I wasn't even sure where I was running too or for how long/ far.  I tried to push out the negative thoughts and concentrate on something else.  No good.  Okay, maybe if I concentrated on my breathing, no that didn't work either.
Refused to run around the reservoir like some dumb hamster, so went uphill.  At least this gave me an excuse to walk.  Stopped for an angry breather, paused my watch. Started again, then after a few minutes, realised I hadn't restarted the watch, angry again.   Still trying to push away the negative thoughts, but no luck despite the cheery "Hellos" of other runners.  Running downhill again was a little better but finished the run with an angry, frustrated walk.  Perhaps it was because this was one of my rare evening runs.
Midweek I went out for a longer run on a new route to try and boost my motivation.  The first hour involved a steep 700 metre climb over 7 kilometres.  Then a run along the ridge for 2km before descending steeply back down to the village.  The weather was perfect sunny with a light breeze.  I felt reasonably comfortable although my new shoes are still breaking in.  The next day I followed the route again with my family.  My legs were pretty sore so walked the majority.  My wife and kids ran sections, and my wife, a road runner, enjoyed the experience.
I finished the week feeling a little more positive, with a short four kilometre run.  I am averaging around 20 kilometres a week but mostly on shortish runs, 10- 12 kilometres maximum.  However these are all trail runs with a fair amount of height gain and loss.  My worry is that my objective is a 42 kilometre run and I have only ever run a maximum of 20 kilometres.  I am afraid that this will not be enough preparation.

Week 35: Sport in my underpants

A silly start to the week.  I wanted to go to the gym, but on arrival found I had taken two T-shirts and no shorts.  I had a brief moment of madness when I considered doing my exercises in my underpants.  However painful memories of school gym in underpants, after having forgotten my gym kit, stopped me.  There was also the very colourful underpants, that I had pulled on in my half asleep state, which brought me to my senses.  I consoled myself with the idea that I could at least have a hammam.  Wrong again.  After having slipped on my swimsuit, I wrapped a towel around myself and strolled nochalantly down the corridor, only to discover that it was closed for cleaning.  So I headed home frustrated and did a series of exercises in the living room.
The weather has turned cold, again, it even snowed on Monday morning.  Despite this I forced myself out and up for my first run of the week.  This time it was my calf muscles that decided to cause problems.  As soon as I started climbing, they began hurting and became rigid.  I pushed on, with frequent pauses.  I reached 1100m before running back down to the village at 500m.  My performance was disappointedly slow but at least I got out.
My stiff and painful knees are still worrying me.  It occurred to me that when I first started running a year ago I used an old pair of Reebok trainers and suffered knee pain.  As soon as I invested in an expensive pair of running shoes the pain disappeared.  These expensive shoes are now more than a year old and, though outwardly looking good, have covered some 900 kilometres.  Once again I hit the web for advice about when to change shoes, everything I read seemed to suggest a new pair of shoes was in order.  I had been planning to get a new pair before my run in August so now is as good a time as any.  Hopefully the added benefit will be less knee pain.
The weather turned bad again at the end of the week, so I went to the gym with my new running shoes.  I gave them a good 9km test on the hated running machine.  So far so good they seem comfortable but I need to test them on the trails to be really sure.