I'm back running (again, I think).
Four weeks off, complete with ~100 daily calf raises has helped. My first 3 km back was not pretty. It took a long time, the heat notwithstanding. A few days later I followed it up with a 6km. Sunday, in the heat I did 10km. This actually took forever, and I wished I'd had water. I hadn't run that far with water since starting running. It was a hot day though. Weekly total some 20 km.
Both Pfitzinger and Daniels (I believe) recommend holding distance for 3 weeks before adding a maximum of 1 mile (1.6 km) per weekly running day (3 days = 3 miles, etc). My achilles injury really means baby steps and I'll keep this in mind. It may even be more than 3 weeks.
Daniels also recommends maintaining this weekly mileage when adding a day. Whether 3, 4 or 5 days a week running he recommends a 1, 2, 3 split. Normal, or hard runs are a distance of 2/2 (i.e. 1). Easy runs are 1/2 and long are 3/2. So for a normal run of 10 km an easy run would be 5km and a long run would be 15km. Regardless of weekly distance this ratio is maintained.
As I'm returning to running I wasn't sure what my weekly distance would be. Perhaps I should have averaged my mid-week (4.5km average). What I should not have done was my 10km run. It still hurt yesterday. This morning's 5 km certainly didn't help. My comeback plan calls for a 6km on Thursday but we'll see how that feels. I may reduce the Sunday distance. We're camping with my running club this weekend and my focus will be on fun rather than run.
Watch this space.
Showing posts with label Achilles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Achilles. Show all posts
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Water water everywhere, but not a chance to swim
I had a nice relaxing half term with the family down in Kent. Did some running, including the Margate parkrun where I came 3rd, and my wife did her first parkrun. Then it was back to the airport last Monday for yet another flight to Germany; Munich this time.
I'd checked the weather for my destination and saw that heavy rain was predicted over the weekend, but hadn't thought much beyond this. I picked up the hire car and started to drive to Austria and then the phone rang "Where are you? Still in London? Don't travel!". The vast amount of rain had caused the Danube to burst its banks in Passau, causing a catastrophic flood, and contaminating all the drinking water. Slightly further downstream at my destination, the river had risen 8m overnight and flooded the lower part of the town. The flooded field below used to be a couple of hundred metres from the river.
I made it to my customer, who then informed me they had other panics going on, but they'd see me the next day. I drove towards town where a policeman asked me to park my car about 1km out of the town, and walk to my hotel. The rain was still heavy and I was a little damp when I arrived, but the hotel was warm and dry (just). I did feel a bit silly arriving in town when most others were trying to save their houses and livelihoods. Hey ho.
In my last visit to Schaerding the hotel had given me a running map with a few choices of distances and routes. Unfortunately most went along the riverbank, which was now 8 m below the water's surface. The green blobs below are tall trees in a back garden.
I did get my running kit on and head out for a slow jog taking in a few dead ends caused by flooding and I was shocked at what I saw. I also noticed that my Achilles was starting to hurt again. Most mornings I was stiff and walking like Robocop.
After a few busy days I ran again on Wednesday evening. By this point the water level had dropped quite a lot and the clean up effort began. The sun was out and hot and weary fire crews were sat around drinking beer in the evening sun. I found a small section of the riverside that was accessible, but it was extremely boggy and I turned back. The Achilles hurt again and I knew I had some decisions to make.
The next day I was flying to Dresden, another flooded city (nothing to do with me!), and I put out some feelers as to who may want my place at the Bristol sprint tri qualifier for the 2013 London World triathlon championships. I need to take at least 2, probably 4 weeks off from running to solve my Achilles problem. It had caused problems at Grendon and I would not be on form for Bristol at the end of June. A tough decision to make, but one that I'd been putting off for a while.
After some meetings in Dresden it was time to get some dinner and to wander around the town, where I saw the scale of the flooding. On the railway bridge there were locomotives sat equal distances apart. I found out the next day they were placed over the pilings of the bridge, to stop it being washed away.
The next day we took the kids to the local parkrun where they did one 2.5 km loop and my wife did her second parkrun.
I'd checked the weather for my destination and saw that heavy rain was predicted over the weekend, but hadn't thought much beyond this. I picked up the hire car and started to drive to Austria and then the phone rang "Where are you? Still in London? Don't travel!". The vast amount of rain had caused the Danube to burst its banks in Passau, causing a catastrophic flood, and contaminating all the drinking water. Slightly further downstream at my destination, the river had risen 8m overnight and flooded the lower part of the town. The flooded field below used to be a couple of hundred metres from the river.
I made it to my customer, who then informed me they had other panics going on, but they'd see me the next day. I drove towards town where a policeman asked me to park my car about 1km out of the town, and walk to my hotel. The rain was still heavy and I was a little damp when I arrived, but the hotel was warm and dry (just). I did feel a bit silly arriving in town when most others were trying to save their houses and livelihoods. Hey ho.
In my last visit to Schaerding the hotel had given me a running map with a few choices of distances and routes. Unfortunately most went along the riverbank, which was now 8 m below the water's surface. The green blobs below are tall trees in a back garden.
I did get my running kit on and head out for a slow jog taking in a few dead ends caused by flooding and I was shocked at what I saw. I also noticed that my Achilles was starting to hurt again. Most mornings I was stiff and walking like Robocop.
After a few busy days I ran again on Wednesday evening. By this point the water level had dropped quite a lot and the clean up effort began. The sun was out and hot and weary fire crews were sat around drinking beer in the evening sun. I found a small section of the riverside that was accessible, but it was extremely boggy and I turned back. The Achilles hurt again and I knew I had some decisions to make.
The next day I was flying to Dresden, another flooded city (nothing to do with me!), and I put out some feelers as to who may want my place at the Bristol sprint tri qualifier for the 2013 London World triathlon championships. I need to take at least 2, probably 4 weeks off from running to solve my Achilles problem. It had caused problems at Grendon and I would not be on form for Bristol at the end of June. A tough decision to make, but one that I'd been putting off for a while.
After some meetings in Dresden it was time to get some dinner and to wander around the town, where I saw the scale of the flooding. On the railway bridge there were locomotives sat equal distances apart. I found out the next day they were placed over the pilings of the bridge, to stop it being washed away.
The next day we took the kids to the local parkrun where they did one 2.5 km loop and my wife did her second parkrun.
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