Discussion: road running

Speaking as someone who has learned far more about achilles tendonitis the hard way than they ever wanted to, I would be really nervous of pacey runs on tarmac when trying to recover from it… I basically had to stop doing them to get over AT – they are quite a lot of achilles aggravation for not a whole lot of training benefit. It’s noticeable from your log that your tendonitis is better shortly after a couple of weeks of running off road…

When I got back from AT (at about the 20th attempt), I did just achilles-friendly training until I had found some level of regular training that was sustainable indefinitely and then started mixing in one proper session a week. That seemed to work.

Am intrigued by the ninja walking – is that helping?

Yes, I need to get more organised, and plan training so I can run off road more. I tend to go when I can just now, which is from work, and I am struggling to get to the offroad HW loop in my lunch hour as it is 10k, so you have to be going quick to do that, and eat lunch, and have a shower. I love a bit of road running anyway. Nice, uncomplicated, trainers don't get muddy etc etc. Getting to the stage when I an run to work and back is the holy grail. Nice, time efficient running training...

The ninja walking logic is that your legs have four springs (calves, hamstrings, gluts and either back or foot, fk). Anyway, if one of your springs isn't pulling its weight, the others get overloaded. So my gluts are pretty non-existant, and my calves suffer over-use injuries. So one part of it is the gluts exercises, and the other part of it is stopping to walk like a ninja for 30secs every so often (softly, in a springy fashion, soft-footedly) to remind your body to use all of its springs when it is running. Its interesting logic that I am happy to go along with for now.

And for your back, I had lumber spine problems for over a year. Lying on my front at night, it was pf painful in the morning. This was helped by having a pillow under my hips, or one under my feet.

I eventually got rid of my back problems by doing drills, and one of my physio exercises that I do regularly. You know the one where you sit, knees bent at 90 degrees, against a wall. 3 x 1min most nights. I think it helped that we moved from a top floor tenament flat, where I carried a baby up the stairs, and bags / food shopping etc every day.

Interesting about the ninja walking. So many injuries seem to be due to imbalances it's frustrating that it's not possible to go to a physio and get imbalances sorted out/spotted until they've actually injured something.

I know what you mean about road running being convenient - it is difficult to find places to run offroad and I keep finding myself running around parks. Changing shoes frequently might help with tarmac - I've got into the habit of having a newish pair on the go for intervals/races/tarmac and one or two older pairs for slower or offroad running and the only reason I do that is for achilles tendonitis management.

Of course, any enlightened HR department will consider the lunch hour not to start until you leave the building and eating back at your desk while getting on with work doesn't count as part of the hour either, honest...

I'lll try that exercise for the back, partly because I want to make sure I don't start getting regular back problems and partly because I really need to start doing some proper quad strength exercises so that would do both... Have never really tried drills.