Training Log Archive: Pooleta

My final run of the week, and I felt as rotten today as I did yesterday, at least to start. Did the same loop out to Brompton first of all, then when I got back to the leisure centre I went exploring for a new cut through. I was amazed by how much scope there is out the back of the leisure centre for o-ing, must get on with mapping. Once I got there I had settled in to my running, so although I felt tired, I maintained a pretty good pace through to the end. I even did some off-road running, firstly on muddy grass, then on a rutted farm track. I suffered no pain in my achilles whatsoever, so I think we can definitely say that I'm healed :-) Just a long way back to running feeling good and being ready to race...

It may be a bit cheeky to add a training entry before doing the training, but hey, I know I'm going to go and do the session in a minute...
Core stability training - the usual set, including all my achilles strengthening exercises - what a good way to finish off the week (and probably finish me off too...)

The roads were icy this morning, but as I still wanted to do a cycle as well as a run, and Pooley was making me very jealous again by running at Cod Beck, I decided to load my mountain bike into the car and do a circuit from there.
Interestingly, my disc brake fluid was frozen to start off with, so lots of brake pumping later, I had a bit of confidence in my brakes.
Rode up the NCN route through Cod Beck and along road past Chequers to Cleveland Way. Ascent up Cleveland Way would have been great, except there was a patch of sheet ice just at the point you needed to put a bit of power into the pedals for making the rocky ascent, so I had to push the tricky bit :-( Whizzed along the top to the bridleway descent to Kepwick, then things started getting crappy. The narrow gully is unrideable down as well as up, then it was a quagmire all the way down into Kepwick. Then on the roads round to Silton I took a wrong turn and ended up on another stretch of muddy bridleway that I didn't need to be on at all! And I'm not even going to comment on the bridleway across the bottom of Silton to Borrowby - other than it took me 30mins to cover 2km (I can walk faster than that!)

Once I had warmed up and cleaned up from the morning's mountain biking, I headed out for my 30min rehab run. My legs felt like lead and I really struggled all the way round. I also slightly misjudged the distance, so ended up running for a bit longer than I should have done. I was really grumpy and disheartened when I finished, and was feeling a bit of discomfort in my achilles, although it may have been because I had neglected to stretch and ice after mtb.

Achilles strengthening after run, same as all the other days.

Achilles strengthening - 10 x squat jumps, 20 x little jumsp, 15 x eccentric calf raises, 15 x single leg calf raises, 1min wobbling on each leg, then stretching (but no icing!)

I love running! :-) Tonight felt so good. As per instructions from physio, I started off at a steady pace, but it very quickly became a tempo run as I realised that the smoothness I had before my injury is starting to come back, and that I felt like I was floating over the ground. There was no pain at all, even up the little incline (I even pushed hard up here), with the exception of a very few occasions where I put my left foot down on an uneven surface and just caught the bruised bit slightly.
I did 2 laps of the same loop I did last night - splits were 19:30 for the first lap and 19:19 for the second lap so I wasn't even tiring towards the end of the session.

On returning from my run, I did my achilles strengthening exercises, including the plyometric strengthening for the first time. 10 x squat jumps, 20 x little jumps, 15 x eccentric calf raises, 15 x single leg calf raises and 1 minute wobbling on each leg. All fine and good.

Is it nearly time to stop ticking the injured box and close out the injuruy entry? Or is that tempting fate?

Ah, running, what a nice thought! And tonight felt so much smoother and easier than saturday's 15 minute effort had! I started on the same loop, including the little incline after 8mins (still hurt going up it, so I eased off), then extended the loop paste the doctors and through the park to make it a 20min circuit. I noticed that if I jarred or twisted my ankle in any way, there was pain through the achilles, but I attributed it to bruising rather than tendon pain. Apart from that the achilles seemed fine. I did notice however that my left butt cheek seemed very achey afterwards, so I think I might have been neglecting those strengthening exercises in favour of the achilles stretch / strengthen. Time to put that right...

Once I came back from my run, I decided to do some strengthening work. I did my achilles strengthening exercises (I can nearly do 15 held single calf raises now - only had to do 3 on both legs!), followed by a full set of glute exercises (2 sets of 20 reps on each side of each of 4 exercises - pillow shagging, clams, leg raise to rear and squats). Then I wobbled for a minute on each leg and plunged my foot into an ice bucket for 10mins!

Although my achilles still felt pretty bruised and battered from physio last night, I knew that a loosen up in the pool would be good for it and me. With screaming kids in the pool, swimming is never an option so had a little run - steady paced but not too hard. Pool running is starting to feel much easier now, so if I have to do much more I think I'm definitely ready for intervals.
Had a stretch in the water afterwards, then did my strengthening as soon as I got home.

Physio appointment - more very deep massage on my left achilles, plus right calf massage, as it was really tight as has been restricting my stretching on the left leg!
Liz said that it was all much better, and was very pleased with progress, and has cleared me to do much more running this week - 4 sessions in total, on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. We have agreed that the target is Portugal, and the Open 5 on 1st Feb is definitely off.
I need to buy a foam roller, start plyometric strengthening on Thursday and do some wobbling. She has also agreed to do a monthly leg massage for me - just what all elite athletes need :-)