Things will come to those who wait...

dna_leri

Found this website which you might find useful, a few good articles on calf injuries:

http://www.running-physio.com/

pconn062

dna_leri wrote: »

Found this website which you might find useful, a few good articles on calf injuries:

http://www.running-physio.com/

Deadly, thanks for that dna, some very interesting articles on that. I have been given the all clear by the physio today to start strength work today so those articles are very helpful.

pconn062

Wasn't bothered posting a load of easy runs each day so here's the last week. All runs were on grass.

Sunday 9th: 3 miles very easy

First run back, lovely weather, took it very easy, calf felt fine.

Monday 10th: Rest

Tuesday 11th: 4 miles @ 8 minute pace

There's very little open spaces of grass in my area but I knew there was a place up the road from me, it's a guy who owns two fields on which he grows trees but he is a runner so he has left a 10 foot strip of grass around each field which is perfect for running on. One field is about 1k around and the other is about half a mile. I chose the longer loop as it was practically flat. Again kept the pace very easy, few twinges along the way but no pain, felt fine afterwards.

Wednesday 12th: 4.5 mile @ 7.40 pace

On grass again, few twinges in knee but calf was fine. Pace was probably a bit too quick but thankfully my stupidity didn't come back to bite me.

Thursday 13th: Off/Physio

Got another massage today, he did some very deep work on my calf and I was quite sore after it. He said it felt much better to him though than the week before.

Friday 14th: 5.2 mile @ 8 minute pace

Calf was a little tender during the run after the massage but was fine afterwards. Spent the evening volunteering at the beer mile, was great craic despite the weather (more on that in a minute) and a good night afterwards as well. Drove home with about 100 empty bottles in my boot, glad the guards didn't stop me!

Saturday 15th: 5.2 mile, no watch

Calf still a little tender from the massage, picked it up a bit for one lap during this, nothing too fast but nice to get the legs turning over a bit.

Today: 10k @ 7.35 pace

All the soreness from the massage seemed to be gone so I picked up the pace a bit today. I also switched between the two fields, the second one has a good hill on one side so I upped the effort for a few laps. I had to run on the road to get between the two fields and I was really taken aback by the solidness of the road after a week on the grass.

So a good week, 25 miles with no real issues. Calf still isn't 100% yet but it's getting there. I am a complete convert to grass running so will try to do at least half my runs from now on on grass, it is so much easier on the body. Unfortunately after standing around in the lashing rain for an hour on Friday at the beer mile and then wearing a damp t-shirt for the next few hours I am dosed with a head cold. It also seems to be making its way down to my chest so will have to keep an eye on that and play it by ear. I had hoped to get back into full training this week but will have to see now, if the chest is holding up I might do a light session on the grass on Wednesday and then maybe try a track session on Friday. My plans have kind of been thrown out of the window with this set back so will be a case of just trying to get back into some sort of shape for the Louth champs which are on in 1 months time. Won't be able to do all the track work I want but one session a week is better than none.

pconn062

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 5.5 miles @ 7.50 pace

First run on the road in a while, felt pretty good, no real issues with the calf although it is a bit harder on the body than the grass. My biggest problem is that I bought a pair of calf guards and I think they are making me look like a triathlete. :(:( They are very good though and definitely help.

Wednesday: Afternoon 5.8 with 5x1k, PM 2 mile very easy

First session back today, got the all clear from the coach to go ahead with it. Kept it fairly light, 5x1k @ tempo pace off 90 recovery. Did it on grass in the glorious afternoon sunshine. The first 4 were probably a bit too fast, around 6 minute pace, but the stomach started to react to the faster pace and I had to slow the last one down a touch. Felt very comfortable doing these and I seem to have retained most of my fitness. Then did two (unplanned) miles very easy on the road with my coach this evening. Going to take a rest day tomorrow and maybe chance a light track session on Friday evening. I am fairly anxious about this so will keep it light, maybe 8x400m @ 3-5k pace.

blockic

calf guards?

pconn062

blockic wrote: »

calf guards?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/compressport-r2-race-recovery-calf-guard/

The ultimate triathlete fashion accessory! (I'm so ashamed! ).

blockic

pconn062 wrote: »

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/compressport-r2-race-recovery-calf-guard/

The ultimate triathlete fashion accessory! (I'm so ashamed! ).

Ah those guys, get ya. Yep, triathlete....you know where the door is! ;)

ThePiedPiper

Feck sake PConn, between that and your fecking arm guards, or whatever they are.... Next step, the Cathy Freeman inspired catsuit, yeah?

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

Feck sake PConn, between that and your fecking arm guards, or whatever they are.... Next step, the Cathy Freeman inspired catsuit, yeah?

You love my arm guards, don't be jealous I'll get you a pair for your birthday!

pconn062

Thursday: Rest, still not back up to 6 days a week yet, hope to get back up to that next week.

Friday: 8x400m off 90 secs recovery

First tester session back at the track, didn't want to overdo it so kept the simple short and not too strenuous. Kept the splits fairly slow, between 77-80 seconds, mostly around 80 seconds. I was doing this session in 74's so this pace felt fairly comfortable. As there were only a few of us at the track I did every second group of two the other way around the track to take some of the pressure of my left leg. No problems with the calf on this and I seem to be over the worst of it so hope to return to full training next week. Going to cut my track sessions down to one a week for the rest of the track session and maybe do my second one on the grass.

Saturday: 6 miles @ 7.40 pace

Back onto the grass for this one, I had the full array of Irish weather during this one, started warm and sunny with strong wind, then dark skies, lashing rain, and then back to sunny skies. Was like a drowned rat at the end splashing round on the grass but really enjoyed this run.

Hope to get a "long" run in tomorrow morning of about 8 miles before heading up to Santry to cheer on my club mate in the European Team Champs.

pconn062

Sunday: 7.5 miles @ 7.55 pace

Spent the day up at the European team champs, a great day with some brilliant performances by Irish athletes. Good to see a decent crowd up for the champs as well. Got this run in early this morning before I left, was tired and I'm no good at running in the morning so found it tougher than I should.

However when I got home I noticed a dull ache on my right calf, the good calf that has been giving me no problems. Throughout the day it just got sorer and sorer and it is quite painful now, in the EXACT SAME spot that was sore on my left calf. I really don't know what the issue is, I've done everything right. I've run mostly on grass, built up slowly and have not run if I was in any pain at all and now out of nowhere my other calf suddenly gets sore, it's just a disaster. I've never had problems with my calves before and now suddenly both my calves give me trouble. Have a rest day planned for tomorrow and will have to see on Tuesday how it is, have physio booked for Wednesday anyway so will see what he says. I'm bored of being injured, bored of rehab work, bored of building up slowly so I'm going to knock the log on the head for a while as all I seem to do is log injury information these days, will wait and see if I can get back fully before posting anymore.

tunguska

Be careful with your calves pconn, dont try to get back too soon. Im having a bit of a 'mare with my right one, its seriously delicate and I Reckon it'll be next year before Im good to go again. And that was all down to trying to get back too quickly and being impatient. Bulid up strength in them both and forget about racing for a while.

pconn062

Update for the week!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6 miles @ 7.40 pace on grass

Chanced a run to see how the calf was, actually felt fine surprisingly.

Wed: Morning physio/6 miles @ 7.45 pace (road)/PM 2 miles very easy

Got a massage on Wednesday morning, physio said the calf was nothing serious, just a similar build up like on the other side. A deep tissue massage definitely loosened it out. Felt good on the run, didn't intend on running twice but had to kill some time at the track in the evening so jogged 2 mile very slow.

Thursday: 5.2 miles @ 7.45 pace on grass

Calf felt fine for this, had a few twinges in my dodgy left knee and was quite stiff after the run. If it's not one thing it's another, calf felt fine though.

Friday: 6 miles @ 7.48 pace w/2 strides on road.

Didn't feel great for this, quite sluggish. Knee felt OK but still a bit stiff, no problems with calf. Intended on doing more strides than this but my core was a bit sore from a workout the night before so knocked it on the head after two.

Saturday: 5.2 miles @ 8.40 pace w/4 strides (grass)

In comparison I felt great on this run, every thing clicked nicely and I felt good during the strides. Knee still a bit stiff.

Sunday: 8.5 miles w/Clogherhead 10k in 39:45

I wanted to run this race a decided to enter during the week. I've missed a lot of my favourite races this year and this was on my doorstep so I said I would treat it like a training run. Pretty shocking conditions, very strong winds and heavy showers. I decided not to race it full out so went easy at the start and kept it around tempo pace. Felt good up until the hills @ 8k before fading a bit, my recent lack of miles and endurance training showed up here. Still a decent result given my recent problems and the bad weather.

So thankfully my calf problems seem to be healing up, still not 100% but I will keep up the strength and stretching work. My knee now is more of an issue, it's not painful but quite stiff at times so will have to keep an eye on it. After talking to my coach we have come up with a new plan. I'm going to shelve the track work until next year as it's proving to be too hard on the body at the minute. Instead I am going to do a proper base building phase with a long term aim of getting into good shape for the cross country season. I've never really done proper base building before and I hope to very gradually increase the miles up to 60-65 a week. Hopefully this will make me a bit stronger and help with my endurance. So it will be lots of easy miles at the start before adding a few light sessions, mostly fartlek and lots of tempo stuff. Hopefully the body holds together to get through it!

ThePiedPiper

Good decision I think PConn. While it was definitely worth exploring, the track work has been hard on your body, and I can only imagine some of the frustrations you've felt with the various setbacks. Plus, track running is for pansies with compression sleeves and calf.... oh wait....

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

Good decision I think PConn. While it was definitely worth exploring, the track work has been hard on your body, and I can only imagine some of the frustrations you've felt with the various setbacks. Plus, track running is for pansies with compression sleeves and calf.... oh wait....

Cheers RFR, we'll see who the pansy is on the track at the Louth Champs in 2 weeks!

pconn062

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6 miles @ 7.45 pace (road)

Wednesday: 6 miles @ track and on road with coach

Thursday and Friday: OFF

Saturday: 3 miles very easy with the OH (11 minute miles! :eek:)

Sunday: 5.2 miles @ 9 minute miles, 155 AV HR (grass)

Total Miles for the week: 20.2 :rolleyes:

So the week started out well, took Monday off and recovered well from the race. Felt great on Tuesday, legs, calves and knees all felt great. Started to get a bit of a tickly throat on Tuesday night which developed into a annoying cough on Wednesday. Didn't feel too bad on Wednesday so went for a run with the coach, legs felt good but the effort was higher than it should have been. Woke up on Thursday and was in a bad way, went to the doctor who prescribed me antibiotics for a chest infection. No running on Thursday on Friday and even Saturday I wasn't right, but just jogged 3 very slow miles. Felt a lot better today so did 5 miles very easy and I felt good. The chest is still not 100% but didn't really affect me.

So not a great week but these things happen, I think I'm destined not to have a good run at the Louth champs! The good thing is my legs got a few days rest and feel great now so hopefully I can get back into normal training this week. After talking to my coach during the week he wants me to start training with a heart rate monitor so I got a Polar FT1. It's very basic, just a HR monitor and a stopwatch which is all I need. Still have to work out my Max HR and all the zones and stuff which I will do this week once I shift this bug. It will be a way of monitoring progress through this base building phase. I wore it today for the first time and tried to keep the HR around 155 which equaled 9 minute miles. This may seem quite high for the pace but the virus (and the heat) is affecting that and I usually have quite a high heart rate anyway, my normal resting heart rate is around 60 BPM.

The plan for the week then is to try and hit 40 miles and try and put in a half decent run at the Dunleer 4 mile race next Sunday.

pconn062

Monday: 6 miles @ 8.25 pace, 155 avg HR (on road)

Just an easy run on the roads with a friend in the hottest part of the day, sweating absolute buckets at this pace.

Tuesday: 6.2 miles @ 8.05 pace, 163 HR avg (on grass)

Another run in the scorching heat, the pace was fairly easy on this one but the effort was high as I ran a good few laps in the hill field, it is one tough hill especially in the heat, had intended on doing more but the heat was killing me.

Wednesday: AM: 4.5 miles @7.53 pace, PM: 4 miles at track w/1 mile jogging bends and striding straights in spikes.

Wanted to head out to the track this evening and wanted to bump up the daily mileage so did a few easy miles in the morning. I am supposed to be running the Louth champs next week so wanted to try out the spikes for the first time in a while. Just did one mile striding the straights. Felt good and no real issues.

My calf has been giving me more grief since Monday but it's not sore when I run so I've been giving the all clear my the physio to keep running. Have a massage booked for tomorrow so hopefully that will help a little. A little annoying thought that it won't go away, seems to be caused by a mechanical issue with my running form rather than a torn or strained muscle. Will keep plowing away anyway while it's not sore and keep up the strength work.

pconn062

Thursday: 55 mins w/fartlek session

4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3 mins hard off 90 secs rec

Myself and the OH bought a new treadmill and I was mad to try it out. Decided to do this fartlek session on it, this session and some tempo stuff is the only quality work I will really be doing during this base building phase. I have no fan yet and this really had an affect on the session, to say that I sweated buckets is an understatement!! It was unbelievably warm and the lack of a breeze nearly murdered me, must have lost five pounds during this run. The treadmill is great to have though, will come in very handy with work for double days and during the winter out here in the sticks where the roads are lethal.

Got a massage this evening off the physio, he asked me consider getting orthodics as it seems to be my quite severe over-pronation that is causing my calf and knee issues. He is not a massive fan of them himself but he thinks in my case it could be a good option (he doesn't make them himself so has nothing to gain from me getting them). Although we said I would give a few months of corrective work a go before making any decisions on it.

Just a few easy runs for the next few days to bring me up to my clubs own race, the Dunleer 4 mile on Sunday.

madon

Brownie points for running with the OH- maybe one day she'll have in her log that she went for a nice slow run with the OH!

pconn062

Friday: 6 miles with a friend of mine

Saturday: 30 mins easy on the treadmill

Sunday: Dunleer 4 mile

I learned a lesson today, don't run when you still have the remnants of a chest infection. Disaster of a run, was scorchingly hot, way too hot for racing really. Ran the first mile in 6.03 but was working way too hard so threw in the towel and just jogged the rest of the course. Finished in a pitiful 27:XX, my slowest time in years and a full four minutes slower than my PB. Everyone seemed to have a tough day, it really was very hot. Hopefully I have all my bad luck behind me now and get a few weeks solid training in.

The only good thing about this week was that I got a good 43 miles in so hopefully I can keep building on this over the next few weeks.

NiallG4

I agree with the "too hot for racing". I wanted to pull out at mile 1 and actually nearly stopped and was about to pull the plug at the 2.5 mile until 2 club mates came up alongside me. Rather then face the "he only pulled out cos we were gonna beat him" I told them I was just gonna jog to the finish cos I was not feeling good. Sat in behind them and was gonna stay with them for the last mile until one of your mates shot past us at 3 mile. The 2 boys said to each other "you go" and both declined. I said "I'll go". I found a wee bit of energy for a last mile of 5.28. Ended up with 22.56 which was way off where I "hoped" for. The month off in June finally caught up with me plus the heat was cruel. Fair play to "hose lady" at 0.5 miles. Great day out and a fantastic feed.

ThePiedPiper

Feck ya NiallG4, that was me!! Good fun over that last mile, thought my lungs were going to explode! Enjoyed the battle, you got the best out've me.

PConn, delighted you eased up on the pace and took it easy for most of that run. A faster effort would still have been not the time you wanted, annoyed the head of you and possibly messed you up for another week if you were still not 100% over the chest. You'll be right as rain for Thursday now. KM was asking me if I'm any good at the Pole Vault!!! Looks like we'll have a bit more on our hands than middle-distance running! See you then.

NiallG4

RunForestRun wrote: »

Feck ya NiallG4, that was me!! Good fun over that last mile, thought my lungs were going to explode! Enjoyed the battle, you got the best out've me.

PConn, delighted you eased up on the pace and took it easy for most of that run. A faster effort would still have been not the time you wanted, annoyed the head of you and possibly messed you up for another week if you were still not 100% over the chest. You'll be right as rain for Thursday now. KM was asking me if I'm any good at the Pole Vault!!! Looks like we'll have a bit more on our hands than middle-distance running! See you then.

OK. I have a face now. I will make myself known at the next race. I was out for a month in June with achilles so on a comeback of sorts. I really suffered yesterday and only for the 2 boys I was a drop out and then I was sent after you. That race will bring me on a bit. Going to train hard for 3 weeks now. Next up is Carlingford 5K.

pconn062

NiallG4 wrote: »

OK. I have a face now. I will make myself known at the next race. I was out for a month in June with achilles so on a comeback of sorts. I really suffered yesterday and only for the 2 boys I was a drop out and then I was sent after you. That race will bring me on a bit. Going to train hard for 3 weeks now. Next up is Carlingford 5K.

Good stuff Niall, fair play, that's still a great result and a good battle at the end. The heat was unreal though, fair play to you lads for coming down to support it. Few weeks decent training now and we'll be grand, Carlingford 5k is up next for me as well, might do 800m at the Louths on Thursday as well if I feel OK.

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

Feck ya NiallG4, that was me!! Good fun over that last mile, thought my lungs were going to explode! Enjoyed the battle, you got the best out've me.

PConn, delighted you eased up on the pace and took it easy for most of that run. A faster effort would still have been not the time you wanted, annoyed the head of you and possibly messed you up for another week if you were still not 100% over the chest. You'll be right as rain for Thursday now. KM was asking me if I'm any good at the Pole Vault!!! Looks like we'll have a bit more on our hands than middle-distance running! See you then.

Ha cheers A, will get practicing my long jump over the next few days! Great race yesterday, that mileage is starting to pay off something serious.

NiallG4

I have not run a track race since 1994 when I ran 1500M in the Antrim Forum. Played football then until 2010 when I made my comeback. RAW is trying to convince a few of us to support the championships. I am just back from an achilles injury so i am not sure if a track race 19 years after the last one is a good idea. Might wear the runners and have a go at the 3K (correction - just remembered I ran a 3k on ALSAA last winter). I work in Drogheda so I am 50/50 on whether to go over for the crack or not. I was always a track runner so might shoot over after work. Might be a good blow out.

pconn062

NiallG4 wrote: »

I have not run a track race since 1994 when I ran 1500M in the Antrim Forum. Played football then until 2010 when I made my comeback. RAW is trying to convince a few of us to support the championships. I am just back from an achilles injury so i am not sure if a track race 19 years after the last one is a good idea. Might wear the runners and have a go at the 3K (correction - just remembered I ran a 3k on ALSAA last winter). I work in Drogheda so I am 50/50 on whether to go over for the crack or not. I was always a track runner so might shoot over after work. Might be a good blow out.

Ah yeah, do it for the crack. I'm in pretty terrible shape but going to give one of the races a lash for a bit of fun. 3k on the track is fun and racing flats would be grand, should be a decent field in for it as well.

ThePiedPiper

Do we have to register in advance or just turn up on the night? A fiver a race is it?

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

Do we have to register in advance or just turn up on the night? A fiver a race is it?

Yeah a fiver a race, you just register on the night I think although you are supposed to "declare interest" beforehand, I'm just not sure who you declare it to!

ThePiedPiper

I declared it to KM and yourself. That'll do.