Still here ...
Well it has been two months since my last post to this blog after a pleasing run in the BRRC 10 mile championships in August. I set my sights on a 10k and a 5k BRRC race in November. I had an easy week after the 10 miler to recover and then started to build the Ks up over the next few weeks with 73 & 80 k weeks at an easy pace. Only problem was that by all my indicators, I was struggling on these runs. The heart rate was much higher than expected for the times I was recording. As well a slight niggle had appeared in my right hamstring. Just in case I was suffering from a bit of overtraining, I had three days off to freshen up with the added bonus that it should help the hammie as well.
On the first run back, the hammie felt worse than before and the run was crap as well. I was also starting to just generally feel off and was not sleeping well. Over the next three weeks I only managed to get out for a run twice as I continued to feel poorly. I then picked up a gastro virus that laid me out completily for two days. With all this time off from running, I would have thought that it would have been enough rest to allow the hammie to heal but that didn't seem to be the case and it was still troubling me even just walking around. It seemed such a minor issue to start with but once I realised it was going to be a chronic problem I have taken it more seriously and have been doing lots of strengthening and stretching exercises to get it better.
I also realised I would have to go back to square one in terms of training, and started doing only short slow 6k runs. So for the last two weeks I have only gone as fast as I can without feeling any pain and things have slowily improved from doing 6k at 5:25 pace to yesterday's run where I managed 15k in 4:46 pace at the BRRC 15k Championships. Still my heart rate continues to be way too high for the effort I am putting in.
I have abandoned any thoughts of racing for the forseeable future and just need to get some base fitness back and start feeling generally better. Possibly where I got to in July and August in terms of fitness may be as good as it will ever get for me. Time will tell.
On the first run back, the hammie felt worse than before and the run was crap as well. I was also starting to just generally feel off and was not sleeping well. Over the next three weeks I only managed to get out for a run twice as I continued to feel poorly. I then picked up a gastro virus that laid me out completily for two days. With all this time off from running, I would have thought that it would have been enough rest to allow the hammie to heal but that didn't seem to be the case and it was still troubling me even just walking around. It seemed such a minor issue to start with but once I realised it was going to be a chronic problem I have taken it more seriously and have been doing lots of strengthening and stretching exercises to get it better.
I also realised I would have to go back to square one in terms of training, and started doing only short slow 6k runs. So for the last two weeks I have only gone as fast as I can without feeling any pain and things have slowily improved from doing 6k at 5:25 pace to yesterday's run where I managed 15k in 4:46 pace at the BRRC 15k Championships. Still my heart rate continues to be way too high for the effort I am putting in.
I have abandoned any thoughts of racing for the forseeable future and just need to get some base fitness back and start feeling generally better. Possibly where I got to in July and August in terms of fitness may be as good as it will ever get for me. Time will tell.
posted by Robert Song @ 8:46 pm
3 Comments:
At Wed Oct 20, 03:35:00 pm AEST,
Ewen said…
I wondered what you were up to - thought Scott Brown might have converted you to Twitter or something ;)
Speedygeoff can give you some hammie tips. My experience is that it's a wait and see thing, then easy running (as you're doing).
Don't give up on running fast times. I was talking to a bloke last night (a good few years older than me) who recently ran a 6-year PB for 800m.
At Wed Oct 20, 05:57:00 pm AEST,
Samurai Running said…
You hit on something that I've been thinking about a lot recently.
That is, just how hard it is to come back after a break or injury! I really understand how this can have many saying #"*! it and take up carpet bowls or something.
Anyway, oneday I guess we will have to call it quits just hope that is a long time off!
I heard that runners, on average, begin to get disabilities at least 16 years after our non-running brethren. So there is a good reason to keep it up, apart from this is fun once running is pain free.
At Thu Nov 11, 04:21:00 pm AEST,
Unknown said…
Bugger about the setback Graham, but from what you've said it'll only be temporary in the long run. I understand the frustration though - my Achilles still gets randomly sore sometimes!
Hope it's coming along well!
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