Swimming with a pull buoy, great for running injuries!

It has been two weeks and a day since my sprained ankle and torn ligaments. The road to recovery has been harder than I could ever expect! In the last two weeks I have only gone to work once, and even though I was on crutches it sure wasn't easy going. I spent the rest of the time working from home, as I am lucky enough to keep in touch and fulfil most of my duties through remote working.


The better part of two weeks were spent keeping the foot as still as possible, with slight relief once or twice a day when I did some stretching and strength exercises. Passive recovery is and never will be a strong point of mine, so it has challenging to sit around waiting for better days!  


I had a scheduled appointment at the physio department at the hospital on Wednesday. The journey turned out to be a bit of disappointment. The therapist seemed think that the foot and ankle were still too swollen to do anything but a bit of ultrasound treatment to get rid of all the gunk and inflammation around the joint. 


A day later and the foot was almost 50% smaller and almost the same size as the healthy one! Don't be fooled! It was apparent that ultrasound may reduce the swelling before the joint is ready to be mobile again, as I have been more active since then, but have also been in a lot more pain as a result. I ditched the crutches but was soon back in their safety net as the inflammation in the ankle and top part of the foot made things extremely painful. This forced me to take things a little easier, so I am on a little bit of exercise and stretching combined with a little walking and a lot of rest. The mornings are the worst when it comes to pain, as the blood gets forced into the foot when I get out of bed.


Sitting around without any form of exercise for more than two weeks is probably the worst thing about this injury, so today I decided to take the bull by the horns, and head to the pool armed with some knowledge and a couple of new drills that I have always wanted to try. I bought a pull buoy a couple of weeks ago, but have never had the chance to try it out. My thinking was that swimming front crawl might be ok on the ankle, and that I might as well turn into Michael Phelps whilst unable to bike and run. 


After one kick with my right injured leg I knew that it would not be quite as simple, but I persisted and managed to swim without using the sore foot. I had to counter my swim action by only using the left foot to kick to alter my position after the extension phase of the stroke. The seemed to work OK, and I managed a good 25 minute steady workout without aggravating the ankle again. 


I regard myself as a capable novice swimmer with a lot of potential for improvement. Although I spent countless hours in the pool as a child, I have been in the dark ages as far as technique is concerned. I have since read a lot, and found the Total Immersion (TI) swimming system to be very handy as it gives you a very good idea of the physics required to glide instead of fighting the water. 


One crucial skill that I have never learnt was to breathe on the left side, so that was my mission today. Being able to breathe on both sides just gives you so many options, and it is a great skill to have, especially for longer distances where efficiency and technique becomes key before your stroke breaks down and you tire. Since I started swimming last year before my Olympic distance Tri I took a breath of air every second stroke. If you can only breathe on one side you are basically stuck with a s-b-s-b-s type pattern where you take a breath every second or forth stroke. This is limiting in many ways and will shorten your stroke and hamper technique to name a few. If you can do both sides you are able to do a s-s-b-s-s-b pattern. 

Pull Buoy

Using the pull buoy to keep my lower body up I decided to persist until I get it right, as the pool was not very busy. I have been watching the better swimmers in the pool and most of them breathe on every third stroke. It was difficult at first, but I really took notice of what I was doing on the right hand side, and tried to break it down and copy parts of it on the left. By the end of the session half an hour later, I felt almost as efficient on the left side as the right....great success! 


It looks like swimming will be my best friend over the coming weeks, so I will try and improve on a part of my stroke on every visit. 

Tips for a successful marathon

Following the advice that I have been asked to give to the runners from Virgin Unite I have compiled a very brief list of things to keep in mind when your are raising funds for a charity whilst training for your first marathon.


I know when I ran my first marathon I made a couple of mistakes that could have been avoided if I had a crib sheet like this. There are obviously some things that I have left out but here goes:

If you are Fund-raising – Set up your fund-raising page, and promote yourself through it. Know what your charity does and use their knowledge about fund-raising. Be passionate about your charity’s cause and your fundraising efforts. Promote yourself using social media like Facebook, Twitter or email.

Training – Train often but do not overdo it, it is all about consistency. Have training goals like weekly frequency or mileage will help. Follow a training plan and make sure that you give your body enough rest after heavy training.

Nutrition – Follow a balanced diet and make sure that you always stay hydrated. Do not eat heavy meals before you run. Refuel within an hour after a training run – protein works best. If you run more than 90 minutes you might want to carry gels or a sports drink to top up on carbohydrates.

Gear – Buy good but flexible shoes and go one size bigger than your everyday shoes, or you might lose a toenail or two. Expensive shoes are not always the best, so visit a specialist running store! For carrying gels and liquids a fuel belt is a must, and if you feel that you need an extra kick on your runs music can provide a much needed boost. Dance music works best as a faster beat promotes a faster leg turnover. This should make you lighter on your feet and less injury prone.

Last week before your  Marathon – Do not do run too much, it is all about rest and recovery, and make sure that you get enough sleep the Friday night before the race. Prepare your packing list and make sure that you prepare mentally for a successful and enjoyable race.

Race day – Use a checklist to pack the night before, and get there early. During the race do not set off too fast and make sure that you take enough fluids and fuel during the whole race to avoid hitting the dreaded wall. Have a good breakfast more than 3 hours before the race and visit the loo as often as you can. Do not wear, eat or drink anything new on race day. Most importantly have fun, and enjoy the experience!

I love to read so when I started running I devoured a lot of books and bought most of the recommended books that I could find about distance running. Armed with all of that knowledge it was a lot easier not trip over the most obvious hurdles that running can throw at an over eager beginner. I still over-trained, did the wrong kind of running for my level of conditioning but that is just human nature!


If you join a running club you will also find that running and the required lifestyle becomes easier, as going at it alone can be a daunting experience for some.

Cross country race, and then disaster!

It has been 9 days since my last post, but for some reason I think I will be forgiven by my one loyal fan...ok maybe I don't have one yet!


Last Thursday evening I did a short talk on fund-raising and training for a marathon at the Kensington Roof Gardens. I was asked as most of Virgin's runners are new to fund-raising and training so I put together some pointers on what I thought the basics and most valuable points were. Here is a picture of me in action whilst doing the Q&A session afterwards boring everyone to death with my slides.


Friday night called for a rest evening as I had quite a hard week and the shins were quite sore from the increased mileage. The speed work has also had quite an impact, and although I felt great I needed a rest day before my second cross country race with my new triathlon club Ful-on tri in Fulham. 


The race was in Guildford, so I managed to convince Johan to make the journey with me (Thanks Johan). I really looked forward to the race as the last race in the Wimbledon common was my first run after taking a month off from running following my Amsterdam marathon campaign. In hindsight I will never take that long from running if I had a choice. The physiological adaptations that only running can give your body is something that no cross training can replace, so I felt it! Without going into too much detail, I can report that that race was a little bit of a disaster, but nothing compared to the race a month later in Guildford. I never knew that one could hit the wall in a 5 mile race, but I certainly did. It might have been due to the fact that I started with the leaders and kept that going for the first two miles. These are runners that ran 30 minute 10k's so I am not too unhappy, but it was still hard to get passed by half the field before I got home.


So back to the race in Guildford. As I say I was looking forward to a solid performance, and a sensible race. It was raining all week, and I was excited to race in my brand new cross country spikes:


 The Nike zoom VIII. A report on these shoes will follow at some stage, but they were really great. The race started in dreadful conditions; it was raining a little bit, and that was followed by a nasty head wind when we started. That said the last 4 weeks of training was kicking in as I managed to settle into a steady pace and felt that I would be able to hold it and even speed up for the second lap. The first mile was fairly flat, and then we descended down a very muddy mountain where I slipped and rolled my ankle quite badly. The tendons felt quite sore, but I was having such a great time that I thought I would keep the pace and see how it goes. Two minutes later we turned sharply to go down another steep hill. Just as we were nearing the bottom I overtook a string of runners, only to feel the same right foot roll and slip underneath me. This time there was no doubt that my race was over! The foot swelled up immediately and the pain was immense. 


I hobbled back to the start and spent another 20 minutes on my feet. I made it to the finish just in time for Johan to finish the race. We headed off and stopped at a restaurant where Johan got some ice while he drove me home in my car. I went to the hospital and the x-rays showed severely torn tendons. The main culprit's medical term is the anterior tibial tendon. I also tore a number of other muscles and tendons in my ankle and foot. 

After 6 days

For the first two days I was angry at myself, and could not believe that I did not stop after the first ankle roll. Oh well, such is life, at least I am learning a new skill....walking on crutches! Doing some research it seems that I will be away from running for at least a month, and looking at my progress to date it will probably be longer. The doctors in the emergency ward told me that I would be out for longer than two months. That means that my sub 3 London Marathon campaign is no longer a possibility, although I will still run. I am quite disappointed, but I have a lot of triathlon races this summer, and my first middle and long distance triathlons to look forward to. 


I believe that the road to recovery has a lot to do with self restraint not to overdo it too soon (note to self), and also discipline to do what is necessary to get back and healthier than before, i.e. doing flexibility and strength exercises.


I will do a couple of blog posts on wider subjects like ankle rehab, and longer term planning, as I now have a bit of time on my hands!

Progression run and sore legs

The tendons in my lower legs felt quite sore on the run home tonight. Managed 10 miles with the last 5km in 20 minutes without killing myself, heart rate ave was 145 for the run with an average pace of 6:55, so it all felt quite easy after the hill intervals from last night.


I have the day off from running tomorrow and will go to the swimming sets @ the tri club tomorrow night if I make it in time. I have been asked to do a talk on training and fundraising for Virgin Unite's Marathon team for London 2011 @ the Roof Gardens. I am sure a couple of more able people turned them down before I said yes.


Friday will be an easy run, with Saturday 5mile Surrey League X-Country and Sunday will see a long progression run. 16 miles with the last 5 hard and uphill with a grand total of just over 50 miles if it all goes well. That is higher than I have done since my Amsterdam buildup, so quite happy with the progress.

Hard week, ramping up the mileage!

After a very good ride to Windsor and back on Sunday, the week was set to be a good one. To be honest the ride took quite a lot out of me, the 60miles there and back was very steady, with the last half being quite brisk!

Yesterday saw an easy run of 7 miles to prepare for another hard interval session tonight.

The run was really rewarding tonight and the endurance hill reps looked something like this:

2 miles warm up with

6* 2 minutes * 5k pace. What really encourages me is that compared to the same workout in the Amsterdam build-up my heartrate was about 15 beats lower per rep, and I managed to do them about 20% faster.

They still felt hard, but the workout also made me make up my mind about my London shoes...they will be the racing green Tarthers.

Tomorrow night will be a progression run home, hopefully clocking up close to 10 miles with the last 8 hard.

Saturday long fartlek run

Managed my 14 mile long run with about 6 miles worth of fartleks at the end....had a lie in this morning, so the body is feeling much better. Felt good as I did not run yesterday and "fueled" by last nights wine and lamb after going out. Heart rate ave was 146 and ave speed of 7:20mpm so quite happy. The first 7 miles saw me able to maintain 7:35's and heart below 136 which was the goal.


I really hope I do not catch what 80% of the people in my office currently have. A guy sitting 3 feet from me has been off for more than a week with swine flu or something like that 


Richmond park was is very muddy but it was sunny so it more than made up for it. Looking forward to a +- 60 mile ride to Windsor tomorrow morning. Hopefully it is not too cold! 

Richmond Park today

Richmond Park 3 weeks ago

The importance of an easy day in distance training

The importance of rest is one of the most underestimated success factors in distance training. Last night I had to force myself to run home at 8miles per minute (mpm) pace and keep the heart rate down.

To give the body enough time to recover for the next quality session in any well structured training plan, one has to respect easy days, and keep them exactly that. My run home from work was 8 miles, and I kept my heart rate at 73% of my maximum at 133bpm. The workout felt like a bit of a slog as my legs were quite sore after only my second interval session in the new marathon training program. The added benefit of running on your recovery days are the physiological benefits that only running can add to your running endurance and it is also the best way of building your aerobic engine.

I have just finished setting up my fundraising page for this year’s Virgin London Marathon, so now there is no turning back!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/nico

Being lucky enough to work for one of the Virgin companies, I was able to secure a place on the Virgin team and hope to be one of the fastest runners with a time of under 3 hours! Just writing that sounds daunting.

Today I am just cycling to work and back, resting the legs for a hard long run tomorrow, followed by a long ride from Surrey to Windsor on Sunday.

Intervals

Managed a very decent session (measured against my standards) tonight. 2 miles warm up then 15*1 minute @ 3k pace with 1 minute active recovery finished off with another 2 miles to cool down.

I managed the intervals at an average pace of 5:30 mpm without slowing. The last 5 felt really hard and my heart rate touched 165 at one stage.

Glad this is over; the rest of the week is fairly ok running with 8 miles + 10*10 second hill sprints tomorrow. Friday will be 2*15 minute @ hm pace and I have to work in an easy long run of around 15  miles over the weekend with another easy run if I find the time, as there will be a long-ish bike ride on Saturday for good measure.

Marathon and Triathlon training statistics

I have never looked at my total mileage since I have only really been running for a year.

I log my mileage online through the Garmin site, so since the London Marathon and being seriously inspired to hit my Amsterdam goal I started doing some consistent mileage. So all in all I managed 1600km (1000miles) since May 2010, and that is with 3 weeks off after London and 1 month off after the Amsterdam marathon.

So all of my stats starting May 2010 which included training for a 5km, 10km, 21.1km Olympic Tri and Marathon.

Stats for running:

Total runs: 115

Ave heart rate: 141bpm

Total distance 1591km

Time running 127hours

Elevation gain 9000m (I run in Richmond Park...it's Hilly!)

Ave Speed 12.6km/h

Total swimming stats: (this year will see a lot more swimming!)

Total swimming sessios: 20

Distance: 22km

Time: 11h

Total Cycling stats (I commute to work when I can +- 7 miles one way):

Total bike sessions: 112

Totol distance: 1566km

Total time: 73hours

Ave heart rate: 120bpm

 I am currently doing about 40 miles a week and want to get up to 55 in my peak week for my third marathon and first sub 3.

Tonight was an easy 6mile run @ 7:45pace with heart rate at 135. My legs are quite sore after my hard 14 miles on Saturday followed by a brisk 40 mile ride in a very cold Surrey yesterday.

Tomorrow night will be quite a hard session of:

Speed intervals 3 miles easy, 15 * 1 min @ 5km pace/1min easy + 3 miles easy 

Following McMillan’s running calculator for paces it puts me at 5:55pace for a 5km race if I use my target of around 2:59 for a marathon, so that is what I will try and hit. I have done these workouts before, and although hard I do not see any problems, I had my nemeses of a workout last week...and that was 6*1 min hill intervals @ 3km pace....I felt tired for two days afterwards!

New Year - New Training Plan!

Welcome to my first blog post. It has been a while since I wanted to start sharing my training and racing experiences. One can say that I have developed into somewhat of a triathlon and running geek!

I started running last year and have really enjoyed being able to complete a relatively injury free and successful year. 

After a couple of half marathon races I competed in the London Marathon. I missed my target time but in reality I did quite well considering it has only been four month since I started doing any running, and looking back at the training logs I have barely averaged 25 miles a week. 

Over the summer months I started with a pretty serious plan to compete in the 2010 October Amsterdam marathon and set myself a goal to finish it in under 03:10:00. 

Build up races included a 5km, 10km, Olympic distance triathlon and a very enjoyable half marathon in September. I managed to reach most of my targets and credit most of my training to taking it relatively easy with consistent mileage.

I modified a marathon program that I found in a book called

Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald. I have read many books and this one has been one of the best so far. I will write more about the key points that I have taken from this.

From this week I am in full swing with my marathon training program for the Virgin London Marathon 2011. My big race for this year will be the Ironman Cozumel 2011 race in November on the Island of Cozumel in in Mexico just off the shore from Cancun. Do yourself a favour and have a look at this Island on Google maps, it is beautiful. Although most would think of beach holidays when taking in the breathtaking landscape, I imagine how it will be to swim in the clear water, bike through the scorching heat and battling the super strong crosswinds before trying to complete the marathon without slowing down too much.

After the Amsterdam marathon, which I completed in 3:08:34 :-) I took a month off from running completely, so I have slowly been getting back into it.

Yesterday morning after some Christmas and New Year festivities I got ready for my weekly long run and was quite surprised when I consulted my training program to see that I was due to run a hard 10 miles wedged in between a mile to warm up and cool down. It might have been easy to excuse myself for taking the easy option and going for a nice and slow aerobic workout of 15 miles or so, but it being the beginning of the New Year spurred me on and I decided to go for it. 

Looking back I am quite glad that I managed to complete the muddy run where I got lost in Wimbledon common before turning to more familiar ground in Richmond Park where it was quite muddy and crowded....dodging baby buggies is not my favourite pastime :-)

It is a good gauge of my fitness and I am really looking forward to the coming months. The legs feel ok today as I went for a steady and freezing 30 mile ride with some friends this morning. My aim is to keep this up as it would be good to share some of my training and even be able to help other motivated starters and more experienced runners and triathletes by sharing gear reviews, training plans and give some race reports.

Happy training!