A lesson in fitness loss
Last week I watched the film 'Unbreakable' at the Curzon cinema in Richmond, it was at an event put on by Lululemon and found out about it via twitter, like most things these days.
If you haven't seen Unbreakable you really should, it's a great film about the Western States 100, a legendary 100 miler in the US and the main contenders for the winners buckle one particular year.
Anyway, after watching the film it's hard not to feel slightly inspired and invincible. I got back home and started looking at Ultra races, like you do, despite my last attempt not going to plan, and also despite the fact that since running Brighton marathon about six weeks ago I have barely run, a 10k and a few 5k. The main reason for this is that since Brighton, although maybe before but I hadn't noticed it, after running anything between 3-7k I feel like I'm running lop-sided and it feels uncomfortable, I prescribed myself a week of complete rest, not even getting back into the swimming and strength work that I had been doing before Brighton, but even after that I noticed during a Parkrun that towards the end I was compensating on one side. Plus there was that niggle in the middle of my calf that seemed to flare up at random times. Time to see a physio.
All set to see the physio and then with 3 days to go I have to change it to the following week, which now meant I would see him after the half marathon I had in the calendar for the end of May.
You will find many studies on the internet about fitness loss, the usual sort of thing says that you can go two weeks of no exercise and your fitness levels will remain almost the same, after that there is a % decrease each week until after a while you're back to sitting on the couch levels. Now running a half marathon after realistically five runs in six weeks, one of them a 10k trot and the rest no more than 5k is probably not a great idea but this race was a day before my birthday, my last race in my 30's, and also there were a few of us from Twitter also meeting up, I could have just met them and watched, but that would have been sensible, and who does that....
Two laps of Wimbledon common was all it took to make me realise I'd been a bit of an idiot, it's all well and good getting half marathon PB's every weekend in March if you're doing regular runs, cross training and some strength work but doing next to nothing and trying to run a trail half marathon on minimal fitness is just plain daft (for me, sure there are some out there for who it wouldn't be an issue). There were even hills, well London hills anyway, at no point in the race did I feel comfortable, I considered stopping or walking a few of times, especially on the second lap which seemed to take forever, but I kept going and even checked the Garmin a few times, which I've made a point of hardly doing since I came back from injury and running by feel . There is a picture from the race where I am about to high 5 a Womble while at the same time giving it a bit of a death stare, like I'm blaming the Womble for this uncomfortable run I'm doing, one for the scrap book.
Despite feeling uncomfortable the entire race and both my calves cramping in the last 300m I managed a sub 2, which in the grand scheme of things I've got to be happy with considering how little I'd been running. It was great to catch up with people from Twitter I'd met previously like Kirstie and Frankie but also meeting others for the first time such as Claire, Jen and of course Jo (@jofwise) who was running on her birthday, there was cake!
You have to say that was a lesson learnt about fitness loss, and also a fair amount of stupidity because I had cut back on running due to thinking I thought I may be injured, then running a trail half marathon, increasing my chances of getting injured.....
In hindsight I probably totally winged Brighton Marathon, in the last few weeks building up to it I had stopped swimming and stopped doing any strength work, it also could explain why the wheels fell off with 10k to go. I was relying on the great times and feeling of invincibility I had from my Half marathon March exploits.
Two days ago the physio said I wasn't injured (good news), and that the weird calf feeling was just a very very very deep knot that would require him using his elbow and god knows what to try and sort it out. The lop-sidedness was just down to imbalance, which I guess I knew but it's always good to hear it from an expert (and then having to pay the £££ for the privilege). Since Brighton I had been trying to run without the ankle brace/support as it's all well and good wearing it but it's not actually strengthening the ankle. It was quite obvious that the ankle isn't strong enough and that I was trying to do too much too soon, and not continuing the exercises from when i was injured and having physio.
So in the space of a week a few lessons were learnt, some of which I already knew but it's always good to have them hammered into your head again, with a sledgehammer.
1. If you want to do yourself, your running and your races justice you can't cut corners, stretching, strengthening, cross training and maintaining fitness are key.
2. Watching the film Unbreakable makes you think you can run a 100 miler.
3. Your ankle will tell you when it's strong enough, one way or another. Listen to it.
4. Don't tell a physio you may have a slight calf tear (when you don't), they'll laugh at you.
5. At some point you will ignore good advice you are told or read because you think you know best/ feel invincible / are an idiot.
6. I will never, ever, ever, ever be Killian Jornet.
I feel a bit like I'm back at square one from the ankle injury, deep down I know I'm not, but it does feel the hard work I did from January to April to get fit for the marathon, after such a long time out, has been undone, and it's down to being a bit daft.
The physio has told me to rest for a few days so that leaves just over a week before my next race, bizarrely another half marathon, in Wimbledon, I should really keep track of what I've entered. I may not run it based on how I felt last weekend and concentrate on getting back to where I was before. Also I've managed to enlist the help/advice/coaching of some people I consider 'proper' runners, over the next few months I'll be bugging them in an effort to get myself on track for my 'A' race for next year, which will hopefully allow me to live my aspirations of being a mountain goat and will be the toughest race I will have done, but I will only do it if I can do it justice.
No, it's not a 100 miler. I'm not daft......
If you haven't seen Unbreakable you really should, it's a great film about the Western States 100, a legendary 100 miler in the US and the main contenders for the winners buckle one particular year.
Anyway, after watching the film it's hard not to feel slightly inspired and invincible. I got back home and started looking at Ultra races, like you do, despite my last attempt not going to plan, and also despite the fact that since running Brighton marathon about six weeks ago I have barely run, a 10k and a few 5k. The main reason for this is that since Brighton, although maybe before but I hadn't noticed it, after running anything between 3-7k I feel like I'm running lop-sided and it feels uncomfortable, I prescribed myself a week of complete rest, not even getting back into the swimming and strength work that I had been doing before Brighton, but even after that I noticed during a Parkrun that towards the end I was compensating on one side. Plus there was that niggle in the middle of my calf that seemed to flare up at random times. Time to see a physio.
All set to see the physio and then with 3 days to go I have to change it to the following week, which now meant I would see him after the half marathon I had in the calendar for the end of May.
You will find many studies on the internet about fitness loss, the usual sort of thing says that you can go two weeks of no exercise and your fitness levels will remain almost the same, after that there is a % decrease each week until after a while you're back to sitting on the couch levels. Now running a half marathon after realistically five runs in six weeks, one of them a 10k trot and the rest no more than 5k is probably not a great idea but this race was a day before my birthday, my last race in my 30's, and also there were a few of us from Twitter also meeting up, I could have just met them and watched, but that would have been sensible, and who does that....
Two laps of Wimbledon common was all it took to make me realise I'd been a bit of an idiot, it's all well and good getting half marathon PB's every weekend in March if you're doing regular runs, cross training and some strength work but doing next to nothing and trying to run a trail half marathon on minimal fitness is just plain daft (for me, sure there are some out there for who it wouldn't be an issue). There were even hills, well London hills anyway, at no point in the race did I feel comfortable, I considered stopping or walking a few of times, especially on the second lap which seemed to take forever, but I kept going and even checked the Garmin a few times, which I've made a point of hardly doing since I came back from injury and running by feel . There is a picture from the race where I am about to high 5 a Womble while at the same time giving it a bit of a death stare, like I'm blaming the Womble for this uncomfortable run I'm doing, one for the scrap book.
Despite feeling uncomfortable the entire race and both my calves cramping in the last 300m I managed a sub 2, which in the grand scheme of things I've got to be happy with considering how little I'd been running. It was great to catch up with people from Twitter I'd met previously like Kirstie and Frankie but also meeting others for the first time such as Claire, Jen and of course Jo (@jofwise) who was running on her birthday, there was cake!
You have to say that was a lesson learnt about fitness loss, and also a fair amount of stupidity because I had cut back on running due to thinking I thought I may be injured, then running a trail half marathon, increasing my chances of getting injured.....
In hindsight I probably totally winged Brighton Marathon, in the last few weeks building up to it I had stopped swimming and stopped doing any strength work, it also could explain why the wheels fell off with 10k to go. I was relying on the great times and feeling of invincibility I had from my Half marathon March exploits.
Two days ago the physio said I wasn't injured (good news), and that the weird calf feeling was just a very very very deep knot that would require him using his elbow and god knows what to try and sort it out. The lop-sidedness was just down to imbalance, which I guess I knew but it's always good to hear it from an expert (and then having to pay the £££ for the privilege). Since Brighton I had been trying to run without the ankle brace/support as it's all well and good wearing it but it's not actually strengthening the ankle. It was quite obvious that the ankle isn't strong enough and that I was trying to do too much too soon, and not continuing the exercises from when i was injured and having physio.
So in the space of a week a few lessons were learnt, some of which I already knew but it's always good to have them hammered into your head again, with a sledgehammer.
1. If you want to do yourself, your running and your races justice you can't cut corners, stretching, strengthening, cross training and maintaining fitness are key.
2. Watching the film Unbreakable makes you think you can run a 100 miler.
3. Your ankle will tell you when it's strong enough, one way or another. Listen to it.
4. Don't tell a physio you may have a slight calf tear (when you don't), they'll laugh at you.
5. At some point you will ignore good advice you are told or read because you think you know best/ feel invincible / are an idiot.
6. I will never, ever, ever, ever be Killian Jornet.
I feel a bit like I'm back at square one from the ankle injury, deep down I know I'm not, but it does feel the hard work I did from January to April to get fit for the marathon, after such a long time out, has been undone, and it's down to being a bit daft.
The physio has told me to rest for a few days so that leaves just over a week before my next race, bizarrely another half marathon, in Wimbledon, I should really keep track of what I've entered. I may not run it based on how I felt last weekend and concentrate on getting back to where I was before. Also I've managed to enlist the help/advice/coaching of some people I consider 'proper' runners, over the next few months I'll be bugging them in an effort to get myself on track for my 'A' race for next year, which will hopefully allow me to live my aspirations of being a mountain goat and will be the toughest race I will have done, but I will only do it if I can do it justice.
No, it's not a 100 miler. I'm not daft......
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