Six Minutes!!

Time: Six minutes
Distance: One lap of the local park

To be more accurately measured soon!

Used the frees today as pleased - got a little tight down the lateral side of the left knee for some reason, and a bit of an ache just to the right of the spine low down, and also a bit in the right hip. Seemed to ease off though.

About 30 minutes afterwards and so far no obvious problem with the knee. The good thing is that that's three days on the trot, building up as well :oD

Timed run - without a watch!

Time: Dunno!
Distance: one lap of the park

Here's a tip - if you're going to do a timed run - take a watch! Anyway - I knew how far round the park I'd got yesterday in four minutes, so I just ran a bit further. I suspect it was closer to six minute than to five.

Not a lot of problems - even wearing the 2080s. Some slight gentle ache above the knee all across it and a bit on the inside, but nothing that was any sort of problem, and it wasn't sore afterwards, other than the dull background ache that I'd had beforehand anyway. I did try bending the knee and got a distinct grinding/crackling sound at the front in the middle of the knee. Now that is a bit worrying. I do wonder if there is some sort of serious problem with the make up of the knee. My posture is a lot better now, but if the knee has a basic flaw then this could be a long term problem :o(

Half Mile?

Time: Four Minutes
Distance: Probably about half a mile
Surface: grass - wearing Nike Frees, no heel raise

Wow - was a bit nervous doing this as my back had been giving me gyp all day. Seemed to go well - got a fair few twinges from the knee but nothing too bad, and afterwards the knee hasn't been giving me trouble.

I am wondering how much of this is to do with the shoes - the 2080s have a heel raise in currently which must alter my posture. I'm going to try my next run (Tuesday probably) in the 2080s and see how that goes.

Running Free

Distance: 3 minutes worth

Wow! An extra sixty seconds :o) Back up the little park round the corner, this time in the Nike Frees instead of the 2080s, and it felt a lot better. Not sure if it was the shoes, or the fact that I just more even ground, or that I didn't have a sore quad to start with.

No need to ice again afterwards this time either :o)

Two minutes

Distance: 2 mins of running - 400 metres??
Time: 2 minutes - duh!

Two minutes of jogging around the edge of a local park (didn't know it was there to be honest - or at least thought it was a private sports ground).

Knee twinged a fair bit, but then I'd started with a sore quad for reasons I don't understand. Medial side of the knee was fairly sore afterwards - above the knee rather than below. Iced it for half an hour - with a tea towel.

Hmmm - now do I try another run or just decide that it's buggered?

To Knee or not to Knee?

Another visit to the chiro, having gone a week without a visit. The first few days I was sore and wondered if it was a good idea to leave it that long, but it's really settled down the last few days. Fantastic stuff!

Sara was pleased too, and in spite of some minor alterations (including one that I suspect was necessitated by a Tink pounce over the weekend!) , I've got the go ahead to try an easy two minute run on grass over the next couple of days, and then another week to the next appointment.

I have to confess at being nervous about this - the knee has given a few twinges, but I get the feeling that that's more nerve induced than anything. I've been told to stop if I get any pain. here's hoping :o)

Silly Sausage!

Another chiro sesh! Had to confess that I'd put the ice one without a tea towel or similar and got an ice burn, which led to Sara calling me a "silly sausage", which I haven't been called for a very long time - LOL! It was hard to tell whether the pain I felt when she prodded my knee was the swelling or the stinging from the burn, but overall she seemed very pleased with my progress, and even said that we could leave it a week before the next session :o)

Plus - the good news - we're talking about starting running again after next week if things keep going well. Only on grass, and only for five minutes, but all the same it'll be good to see how things go. I definitely feel better aligned but I do wonder how th eknee will respond. I've developed a lot of faith in Sara's judgement in a short space of time, so she's the boss as far as trying it out :o)

Give It a Rest!

Second Chiro session - back seems to be holding the alignment a lot better, although Sara did make some small adjustments. Amazingly she also found something wrong with my ankle, which I'd completely forgotten about!

The bad news is that my knee has swollen up. I suspect that this was as a result of Tuesday's run, that actually felt good at the time. We need to get the swelling down so we can see if there's any ligament caught in the joint or anything, as well as giving it a chance to heal, so that means six weeks off running. I am allowed to swim and do non-impact stuff such as cycling though.

Guess it all makes sense, and hopefully this will be a long term fix and lead to me running a lot better in the future as I'll be more aligned :o)

Back on Track

Chiro plus one day! Forgot to mention yesterday that even though my two mile run of a few days ago went great, the knee had flared up quite badly - worst it's been for a while. That continued today, although I did have good patches too.

The back was quite sore today after yesterday's activities. Not exactly in a bad way, just a bit achey, and in many ways it felt a lot more correct. I spent a lot of the day checking my posture and adjusting my shoulders in mirrors and in reflections in shop windows. The problem is, when I look like I have the best posture, I actually feel like I'm halfway to falling over! Just the brain getting used to it I guess.

The knee seems to have swollen up tonight, so as advised I'm icing it frantically. I have two of the blue gel packs. I've employed a couple of dyna-bands to fix a pack on my knee. I also used a pack of frozen sweetcorn, but unfortunately after I'd tied this on, the open end came loose and I left a trail of corn half way round the flat before I'd realised!

The Nerve of It!

Weight: 15st 10lbs

Chiropractor today! Must confess to feeling decidedly wibbly after a stressful day at work, but in many ways was glad to have something to take my mind off it!

Quite apart from the fact she looks like Davina McCall(!) Um - we had a good old chat about history, past injuries etc, and she then did various muscle strength tests, checked posture etc and concluded that various nerves weren't firing properly and that this would lead to a number of things, pretty much all of which matched up with my symptoms. She also mentioned several other things that I'd had but hadn't told her :o) She did various moves shoving my spine/neck about and re-tested the relevant bits and the muscels are working alot better - or rather the nerves are firing better. I could feel the strength I could produce in various movements had increased dramatically :o)

Early days yet of course, need to see what develops, and of course I've put various muscles and ligaments under excess strain as a result of my misalignment, and that's all got to heal up before I'm 100% - but so far, I'm impressed!

Two More Miles - Outdoors :o)

distance: 2 miles

time: 16:40

mins/mile: 8:20

Nice little run that - in the black 2080s, with surprisingly little soreness. All except the lungs that is, that really felt it! Knee a bit sore afterwards, and I could definitely feel my posture at the base of the spine all over the place, but hopefully tomorrow will sort that out. Or at least start to.

Guess it's going to be a fairly slow road back - I must have lost a couple of month's fitness since I had to stop early in Feb, and I hadn't got that fit by then. So - build up over the summer to about 15 miles long run, and then throw in some speed work, before a long FLM campaign with a 22 miler every other week. Sub 3:15 here I come :o)

Woo Hoo Big Poo!

Weight: 15st 9lbs

Must have been all that poo I did yesterday (nothing like the gory detail eh?).

Got an appointment booked at the chiro for 3:45 tomorrow. Hope it works out - Spans says they're ace so here's hoping.

Tempted to try a couple of miles run on the tready again tonight.

Ready Steady Tready Dready!

Weight: 15 st 11lbs

Distance: 2 miles

Time: 16 minutes

Decided to go down the gym today to try out my Nike Frees. I was only intending to do a few hundred metres in them, but they felt good and I ended up doing a mile. I could have kept going longer too. Just starting to get a bit tired just behind the bottom of the toes (or metatarsal heads, if you want the posh phrase).

That went so well, I decided to switch trainers and put on some 2080s that I'd barely run in before, and so another mile! They felt good too - maybe tready training is the way to go just for the moment as I build my mileage up.

I was worried beforehand as my back was giving me grief, but that all seemed to ease off nicely, and hasn't come back :o) Well - not yet!! I also did some upper body weights.

The other great news is that my shower is up and working :o)

555 - The Number of the ...?

Oooo!!

Weight had gone up after a mega pig out around FLM time. Was back up to 101.7kg, and has gradually dropped. Saturday it was 101.4kg (post social!), and has dropped a half pound or so each day.

Yesterday it was 101kg, today it was...100.4kg. Here's to getting it under 100kg again.

Not being able to exercise much isn't helping - must get that sorted ASAP. Spans (Anna) has given me a couple of numbers that look useful :o)

Somewhere...Under the Rainbow

...Under the water at the Rainbow Leisure Centre swimming pool that is ;o)

Didn't count the lengths, but overall probably about a mile. Great to have Lindi along for company and to chat to. The new goggles seem great, and are a lot easier on my dodgy eye. They also seem to leak a lot less, although oddly they started off totally waterproof, and got a tiny bit worse after I let Lindi try them. Probably just need to adjust them a bit. Can't believe Lindi would have a bigger head than me!

Had a great session in the middle where we did 50m (two lengths) every two minutes. Since we were doing the 50m in a bit under a minute, this meant that we had just over a minute to recover. Think the fastest I did was 55 seconds, and the slowest was 58, although that was after colliding with someone, which really slowed me down, otherwise I might well have got 55 again or even lower. Just behind Lindi on the first length, but lost it badly after that. My leg kick really seems to let me down :o(

Back was a bit sore afterwards - must be all that twisting from side to side. I really do need to get that looked at. Think it might well help my knee.

Rode the scooter to work for the first time today - was great, but some nasty bits of traffic. I'm going to have to find a way to beat them and those 'orrible red light thingees!

Back Ache - Related?

Distance: 1.5 miles
Time: 12:59

Decided to up the mileage today. Started the day with a sore back, and couldn't seem to get rid of it. No idea what was causing it.

Run was bad from the start - sore knee, sore inner leg, felt like my feet were really banging down. perhaps I ought to chuck this pair of shoes as they must be on the limit. Even so - don't think it's that; back ache seems to coincide with my worst knee days. Still - I kept going and did the distance - the pain didn't get any worse.

Must book to see the physio though