Month: November 2013

Hey guys, sorry been a while… I’m so behind on all the blogging business at the moment…I kind of avoided it a bit as I wasn’t feeling all that up-beat. But I’m feeling more positive now.

I worked from home on Thursday which is always nice. Though Alfie gets very confused and expects me to walk him every five minutes. Hmm. I also managed to make my own standing desk.

I am so aware of how much of the day I spend sat down so I’m trying to minimise this where I can. At work there’s not much I can do but get up a lot and walk about (go to the loo, get lots of drink – helpfully it’s a self perpetuating cycle). And lots of my hip flexor stretches!

I had the day off on Friday. Ben was supposed to as well but in the end he had to go in. So what does an Anna do when she has no plans and the house to herself? Clean. Fun times. I also washed Alfie in the bath. I used the shower head thing and he was not loving it at all. Neither was I as he kept shaking and getting soap and water everywhere.

An old photo, but essentially the same look on Alfie’s face

Then I dropped the shower head and the water went straight in my face and all over the walls. Joy.

I also had the sports massage that I’d gotten from Groupon. *Sighs* I have mixed opinions about the guy I saw. It seemed he was a bit hell bent on trying to sign me up for another five sessions to properly ‘fix me’. And though he certainly didn’t say it, he definitely implied that if I didn’t come back and see him again my niggles were bound to reoccur and I won’t be able to run. He told me a lot of stuff I already knew and was already working on with my running school coach so I don’t feel I’m missing out on any valuable hidden information. The appointment wasn’t completely worthless though as he massaged a lot of knots out of my body, but I won’t be going back there.

Saturday morning was my first day back in my trainers and ready to run. Sort of. Ben and me went down early to help set up.

It was so cold. We had our winter coats on over our running gear but we were still freezing. I was dreading taking my coat off to run!

I ran with Ben and left the music at home so I could just focus on what my legs felt like. I kept things very, very easy. I had a knee support on as well. Things felt OK, not amazing but no pain. Just a bit weak and slightly uncomfortable. But better. The plan for this week is to keep things very easy.

Sunday I went to the gym in the morning to get back into my strength workouts. I did the following routine:

• Bridges (holding for 30 seconds and pulsing)
• Squats (holding a weight in front)
• Wall squats
• Single leg squats (no weights, and went fine – these were my biggest concern as when my knee was its worst I couldn’t do this without pain)
• Russian twists
• Press ups
• Glute ham raises
• Planks

I spent an hour just going through all these moves and repeating them. My aim is to continue to build up my leg strength. I’m terrified I’ll crumble in the marathon!

Then I gently cycled 6.5 miles to meet my parents, Ben and my mother-in-law at the lovely tea room we’re loving. I wanted to do something gentle to shake my legs out after the weights and also start to build things back up again.

I have to say, the cycle there was far better than the cycle back. Cake doesn’t lend itself to be a great cycling friend.

How pretty is that plate? Oh and the cake was amazing obviously

So my plan for the rest of the week in terms of running? Oh jeeze, I have no idea! My legs felt fine for the rest of the day after the Parkrun, and the next day. Doing the leg exercises in the gym felt fine as did cycling. But I still don’t feel like I could just go out and bang out 18 miles or run 7 min miles at the moment. My leg doesn’t feel strong – does that make sense?

So this week is all about gently getting back into it. I’m going to run on Tuesday night and aim for 6 miles but just see how it goes. I just pray everything will feel OK and I can maybe think about a longer run (10-13 miles?) on Sunday. Nothing crazy and it’s not set in stone. At this point, I’ll be lucky to get in one decent long (17+ mile) run before the marathon. Maybe I’m being pessimistic…I’m not in a confident place right now! I know my knee is miles better than it was but I don’t want to aggravate things again before it’s ready…it’s a guessing game at the moment. All I can do is take one mile at a time.

I know it’s almost Tuesday…but how was your weekend?

 Marathon runners, how many long runs did you do before doing a marathon?

 Do you sit down a lot for work/school?

Hey you lovely people. Thanks so much for the lovely support and comments regarding my last post. It really meant a lot to me and I was smiling so much by the end. Thank you 🙂

Well, it’s Wednesday. Dare I even mention it for fear of jinxing things, but my hip feels a lot better and my knee is definitely getting there. Specifically this is what I’m doing:

Nothing.

OK, maybe not just nothing, but in terms of exercise I haven’t gone to the gym. I haven’t run. I haven’t even done that stupid tester run down the corridor when no one’s around – please tell me someone else does this? You know, you do a few running steps to ‘test’ things out. I haven’t even done that.

Instead I have been giving Alfie a longer walk in the morning…he’s loving this week, the furry little traitor 😉 and a longer walk in the evening.

Nothing major though. And working on my planks. FOUR AND A HALF MINUTES!!

Excuse me while I celebrate a little – a PB I can physically achieve right now. Hurrah.

Incidentally a man at work who cycles a lot happened to mentioned planks to me the other day. I loved that I could tell him I can do a 4.5min one. He got down on the floor there and then and attempted it himself. 1.5minutes. Not bad for half way through a day in the office!! And now we’ve launched an Office Plank Off for December as a competition. Amazing.

But yeah apart from doing planks, I’m also taking Ibuprofen and foam rolling. That is it. Come on Saturday – I’m going out of my mind with energy here!

But onto things a bit more exciting. FOOD. In line with WIAW, let’s cheer things up a bit round here!

 I’m still eating what I would normally eat. A girl at work asked if I was suddenly watching what I eat because I can’t run. Nope. Not worried, don’t care. My body needs good food and nutrition right now. And the cake and chocolate are still there, rest assured. Gosh, wouldn’t life be even more depressing for me otherwise??

I had the most INCREDIBLE slow cooker meal on Monday night:

Bacon, Squash and Goat’s Cheese Mess

All I did was chop up a load of veg (onions, courgettes/zucchini, mushrooms), a load of chopped squash and sliced up four slices of bacon (I got the ‘healthy living’ ones with the rind cut off as we’re not fans of the fatty bits so the slices are smaller) and cooked it in the slow cooker for 8 hours. Then I crumbled goat’s cheese on top and allowed it to get all melty and then promptly scoffed the lot. Oh my gawwdd it was good.

Still loving the slow cooker soup as well. The flavour last night was Pumpkin, Coconut Milk and Chickpeas.

Pretty much same as previous soups, just with pumpkin. A hug in a bowl.

Right, I will leave it there. Have a great Wednesday!

What meal has rocked your world lately?

Do you go to food for comfort when you’re sad? I wouldn’t say I do but it helps to have different things in your life to take your mind off things, like a good meal. But I can’t be more grateful to my family and Ben right now. They’re definitely my rocks!

What’s your favourite soup?

Hi guys, hope you’re weekend was good.

I’m not going to lie. I’m feeling pretty down at the moment. I can’t believe I’m writing this post. I apologise hugely in advance for the tone and for the fact that ‘here I am again’ moaning about my running and my stupid body. I don’t blame you if you click ‘close’. Hey, feel free! This is not a happy post. I’m in a dark and shady place.
 
Since the Great South Run my right knee has felt off. My left hip didn’t feel too great either (when it rains it pours). So I went to my amazing, lovely physio the next week. She worked her magic on my hip and said the knee pain was due to me over-compensating on my right side to nurse my left leg and the wind didn’t help pushing me at an angle. She wasn’t hugely worried, told me to take it easy.
 
I didn’t run until the Saturday (so I’d taken three days off). Then ran 7 miles (3 being a speedy Parkrun) and then ran 17 miles Sunday.
 
Very stupid, I know. I jumped straight back into it too quickly. My 17 mile run felt hard and if I’m honest with myself, it felt unreasonably hard. It felt hard before I’d even gotten to 10 miles – not normal. It wasn’t even as if I was trying to keep my pace down. My body wouldn’t go faster. My knee and my hip niggled all the way through and for the rest of the day it felt pretty rough.
 
I took Monday and Tuesday off. I ran Wednesday night (planned 5 mile recovery run) and could only make 4.
 
I cried walking home. I know this is ridiculous. I know I sound very self-obsessed and oh so repetitive and in the great scheme of things this is such a minor, minor thing. Believe me, I know this. But I cried. And I cried when I went to bed and tried to sleep. It didn’t help that Ben was away with work as well 🙁
 
So I’m currently taking at least one week off of running. No Parkrun. No long run. No running school. Nothing. Then I will reassess (probably this Saturday). If I feel any niggle, I’ll take more time off.

To make absolute certain that I’m going to heal properly I’m not doing anything else. Usually I’d just switch to spin and use the cross trainer (elliptical machine). But I tried that and felt my knee, not being painful just uncomfortable. So all I’m doing is walking Alfie. I’m not going to Pump either. I want to avoid any excessive pressure on my knee and hip.

This also means not running the Gosport half marathon this Sunday. If all is well at the end of this week I need to gradually get back into running, not jump into a half marathon.

 I was so excited about the marathon in December. But at the moment I am terrified. I literally feel sick about it. I don’t feel ready at all.

I’ve hugely reassessed my goals for it. My only goal is to get there in one piece and survive it. Sub-4? I don’t even care.
 
I just hope that taking the time now is enough. I also hope that the marathon won’t be a disaster…that taking this time off now will leave me enough time to prepare a little more.

Sorry to be so down and go on so much about these stupid niggles. Running is such a love in my life that to feel like I’m a prisoner in my own body and not be able to run, it really upsets me.

Cheer me up, tell me something great and exciting happening with you?

 

Let me live vicariously through you, how’s your running going?