Weekend woes to weekend wonders

It occurred to me on Saturday morning that a subtle change in approach had taken place.

When weighing daily the results on the scales would warp my self image so that, for example, if I appeared heavier than expected I would look in the mirror and see a flabby physique whereas if the scales suggested loss or that I was ahead of target I'd be happy at how lean I looked. To some extent the mirror maybe did reflect the scales but not to the extent I felt.

Now, starved of weight feedback, I have to look more carefully but perhaps what clues I find are all the more reliable. So, on Saturday morning I felt my stomach certainly looked pretty flat, I felt I looked a little less flabby and was pleased to find when putting on jeans that I've gone back to the tightest notch on the belt.

Mind you, the second half of Saturday might have undone some of that!

I did a short (2.6 mile) jog with a few strides thrown in on Saturday lunchtime and found even that to be tough, but again I suspected that I was poorly hydrated despite making more of an effort to drink more water rather than the Rooibos or 7up Zero that had been mainstays of previous days.

Late afternoon I headed to Bradford to meet the family as Charlotte's dance club had been putting on a show at the Alhambra theatre and with Saturday having both a matinee and evening performance she had 2 hours off in which we'd all eat and then watch her in the evening show.

I knew this would mean high calories as we'd agreed to walk up the hill to one of Bradford's many curry houses but wasn't too concerned as I was happy to have plenty of glycogen in the muscles ahead of Sunday's relay race. In the end I ate more than planned though - Charlotte wanted a starter so we all had (unplanned starters) then she couldn't eat much of her curry so I felt obliged to eat some of it and finally the others wanted to order a naan bread (that the particular curry house is famed for and are the size of 5/6 ordinary naans put together) and then ate very little of it so I again felt obliged to eat until full to make more of a dent in it.

The theatre also contained challenges. Its custom to get sweet and/or an interval ice cream and I ended up with my very own over priced box of Smarties, though mercifully no ice cream. On getting in I had 2 pieces of unnecessary toast.

Yesterday, I needed to meet at the running club at 12:30 so Peter (my team mate) and I could sort out transport and logistics, and then was due to run about 1:50pm. I had a bowl of Special K in the morning along with many, many drinks of water and was thankful that it appeared to be breezy and overcast outside.

By 1:30 that had changed to sunny with occasional breaks and it felt warm as we stood and waited.

Bang on time the preceding pair came in, I took the baton and off we went.

I knew the route very well for the first 3.5 miles and by the end of that section, and for a half mile beyond, we averaged 8.0 minutes a mile. I was pleased with that. Not that it was particularly fast but I hadn't run much, it was an undulating route and it was hot and sunny (with all clouds now having gone). Moreover, I'd seen the team's performance from the last 2 years and knew that our leg had taken 1:28 and 1:25 and so an average pace of 8.30 and 8.50. We seemed well ahead, although Peter my team mate had warned that the second half is tougher than the first.

He was right. As we crossed the Harewood estate at the 4 mile marker we left some shady woods and set off through a gate and up a steep rough track. I'd ran the reverse in a trail race and thought there would be 1/4 mile uphill followed by 1/3 mile flat before we reached the road. In the end it was a full mile of uphill by the end of which Peter was a fair way further back.

As part of the relay rules the pair have to finish together so there's no point in one getting too far ahead of the other. For the most part I'd ran 5-10m ahead so far acting as a sort of pacemaker and Peter, who hadn't done too much serious training for a few months, was able to hold on to what, at that stage, felt a comfortable pace to me.

The end of the uphill was marked by the busy A61 and sod's law being what it is we arrived about 2 seconds too late to run straight across and had to wait well over a minute eventually finding a half gap to sprint through in the two streams of traffic.

The hill and the crossing, along with the 2 gates meant we'd lost a fair chunk of time but mile 5, along a trail once more, wasn't far from 8.0 minute pace despite containing 3 more gates.

The gates became a very regular feature from there on and one of the reasons why we steadily lost time. If running together a gate would mean 10 seconds lost in stopping, opening and closing but typically I was a little ahead so I'd stop, open and wait but the net loss would be about the same. Some gates were more difficult though. There was one that had been tied together with twine half way down so we spent 10/15 seconds working this out and then had to climb over (probably losing half a minute), at another a horse rider had opened it and left it for us to close but having not opened it we couldn't see where it closed again giving an additional 15 seconds or so before we figured that it just hooked onto some barbed wire.

As well as the gates there were a few stiles to clamber over and all these obstacles (I'd guess at 4-5 per mile from mile 6) took time and disrupted rhythm.

They weren't the only challenge. By mile 6 we had other problems. The heat, for me, had become quite oppressive and whilst being fully hydrated when we set off and getting a cup of water at 7.5 miles I flagged a bit in the last two and realised later from colour and frequency of toilet trips that I'd got dehydrated again. Navigation was also an issue. Peter knew the route but I didn't so he tended to shout an instruction for where the next turn was but there were times when I'd need to stop and beckon back for guidance and two occasions where I took a wrong turn in one case assuming a gate was the one we wanted and another where I turned left about 5m too early and merrily headed off on the wrong track before being called back.

The other issue was the hills. There were some downhill sections but the uphills seemed longer. There were two uphill road sections that were steep and baking, including 1/4 mile to the finish, but two that skirted recently ploughed, rocky fields stick out for their length and gradient, and by the end of one of these I felt shattered struggling to get back into rhythm quickly on the short flat section that followed.

The downhills too seemed difficult. Firstly there appeared to be fewer and they were shorter but they frequently seemed to take place over rough ground or on narrow twisting paths regularly punctuated by stiles or gates and so giving limited opportunity to speed up and make up some time.

By 9 miles I felt less able or inclined to be a pacesetter as the lack of recent running began to take it's toll on me and in the last mile we were often running together again and in the end we finished in 1hr 27 mins - pretty much on track with the last 2 year's performance. Bearing in mind the weather and our recent running history I think we did OK.

Immediately after I felt fine but after an hour I was shattered - very much like the aftermath of a gruelling long run feeling tired, hungry yet not hungry (difficult to explain that one)and by 7.45pm I was struggling to stay awake as I lay on the bed reading.

Happily though I felt no groin pain during the run nor since and even the back/piriformis pain and Achillies pain that have greeted me on getting out of bed most mornings of late don't seem evident today. That being the case I feel pretty good about things.

Saturday update

Thursday's run was tougher than expected and got progressively slower from the 3rd to 6th mile, and I didn't feel there was a whole lot I could do to prevent that. It was along the canal so flat barring the set of locks (pictured a few posts below) so it shouldn't have been difficult but it was still warm and sunny and I suspect (judging from the colour of my wee after!) that I was poorly hydrated.

Still, I've had enough bad runs not to be worried and overall 8.0 minute miles was OK considering I'm a little out of shape.

Yesterday included a trip to the physio to get some advice on groin, Achilles and back. It was to a new physio as the original is on maternity and her replacement has since left.

All in all she seemed to know little or nothing of the groin injury but tested my engagement of the core muscles and felt I engage them well and appear to have good strength and stability as a result. she also tested if my glutes 'fired' well and felt they did. Cautious optimism.

For the Achilles she could find no tenderness which suggested the stretching of the calves is helping but felt I had a hint of plantar fasciitis, but seemingly nothing too much to worry about.

For the back she massaged and found a fair bit of tightness but whether this was cause or effect it was impossible to say. Overall though she thought it was probably more to do with overstretching the piriformis (which figures as I'd been stretching 3 times a day rather than the prescribed once) and suggested I stick to a gentler stretch until that eases.

That all seemed a bit of a result but by lunchtime I had a little bit of groin pain, whether from the previous day's run or the manipulation at the physio I couldn't be sure but this got a little worse after 40 minutes on the cross trainer at the gym in the evening. The latter also seemed to trigger some Achilles pain which was present again this morning.

Diet wise Thursday was good again and yesterday was so so. I went over by 570 (or under by 430 depending how you view it) partly because I was home alone in the evening, partly because the bulgar wheat/quinoa based salad I made had more calories than I expected and partly because I used the http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/ estimate of calories burned on a cross trainer - which is only a third of what the machine tells me I've burned with the truth possibly lying somewhere between.

Importantly though, I logged everything meaning that know I'm still 56 under for the week!

Today I'll aim to go 'over' by about 500 again, mainly because of tomorrow's race, but can do so without a fear of what that will do to Sunday or Monday's weigh ins. In other words, its an example of how the focus on the process rather than the immediate results allows me to eat more sensibly relative to activities.

Not that a 10 mile run should really have me in need of doing anything special but recognising that I'm not in the best shape I suppose I feel I need to give myself every little bit of help!

So, today's plan is to tentatively restart the core stability work, go for a 3 mile jog with a few strides thrown in, go out for a curry early evening and make sure I drink water regularly throughout the day particularly as the forecast for tomorrow is disappointingly 21/22c and sunny.

So far, so good.

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things.

Yesterday I logged my food intake and stayed within target - in each case for the first time in nearly 2 weeks. In the evening I did my first run with the club in around 7 weeks. 5.4 miles ran at a very conservative pace with the slower runners but importantly no groin pain.

Not that I think I'm out of the woods on that front. Far from it - I still get the odd twinge and haven't done any core exercises since the 20th August - but its still progress and tomorrow I'll begin to do core exercises again. Bear in mind that the physio felt I would be ok to run and even race as long as I kept up the exercises, its just that I'm starting to keep up from tomorrow...

The back pain is no better nor worse than since Sunday. It feels tight when I first get out of bed but eases with movement and doesn't seem to impinge on running at all. I'm hopeful that it'll just get better slowly but on Friday I have a physio appointment to double check and get some advice on both back and achilles pain (did I mention that yesterday?). Whether I did or not, that's slowly easing too, presumably thanks to the calf stretching I've been doing the last few days.

I stuck to calorie target again today despite it being a rest day. That's good too.

Plan for the remainder of the week is to run again tomorrow, go to the gym Friday (but probably only for cardio) then rest once again on Saturday.

Are you impressed by my steady, level headed, conservative approach to getting back in the swing of things and not over stressing a recently injured and as yet not fully recovered body?

If so, then be content and read no further.








(As I've also agreed to run a leg of the Leeds Country Way relay on Sunday - a little over 10 miles cross country. Sorry.)

The Dirty Dozen

That’s my last 12 days. Very little exercise and horrendous over consumption.

On the afternoon of the 20th August I was able to look back on a pretty solid couple of weeks in terms of weight loss and exercise, and my mirror image and feeling of energy confirmed the good news the scales were telling me. So where did it go wrong?

I suppose it started that evening with a trip to an Indian buffet and an unsurprisingly large and difficult to calorie count meal but the problem really set in on the Saturday morning following a short run with Beth. I’d felt a slight twinge in my back the previous day while doing a side plank exercise. The pain was to the right of my spine, very low down where back blends to buttock and an hour or two after the run it was considerably worse with bending or twisting very difficult.

I have no idea how I did it but the cramp like pain was unpleasant and pretty soon the whole area tightened up so that any sort of movement was as painful as it was difficult. That ruled out the planned trip to the gym on Saturday afternoon as well as Sunday’s run, so I found solace, as ever, in eating.

By Monday it had eased a fair bit – still there but far from debilitating - so I ventured another short run with Bethan and if anything it helped loosen things up. That should have been the end of that but maybe because the core exercises had ceased as soon as the back went my groin now started to give a few twinges of pain and tightness. I continued to seek comfort in food.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were similar. I didn’t feel I should try anything at the gym or do core exercises until the back was completely pain free and didn’t feel I could run until I could do the core exercises to ease the groin...so all I managed was another short jog with Beth.

I was frustrated and continued to eat with a vengeance but added excessive amounts of chocolate to the daily shopping list.

I think Saturday was then the worst day when I managed a large Dairy Milk, a large Milky Bar, a small Milky Bar and a bag of jelly beans AFTER a Chinese takeaway. Some going huh?

Saturday had been especially difficult as we had been due to go camping for the weekend but by Friday evening my back seized up again and there was no way I could pack the car let alone put a tent up. Saturday morning felt similar but after a hot shower, then a hot bath and 400mg of Ibuprofen I was able to keep my back moving and it seemed to respond well to that and eased off hugely.

Trouble was I’d had the expectancy of meals out on Saturday, Sunday and Monday which not only made it feel difficult to think anything other than ‘Oh sod it’ during the week but also meant we felt we needed to go out at the weekend in the absence of camping- particularly as it was Sue’s birthday weekend. Result being that Sunday meant a trip to a pub for a huge gammon and chips followed by sticky toffee pud and Charlotte’s leftover chocolate fudge cake (with a box of Milk Tray – of all things – consumed when I got in...), and then Sunday was another trip to the Indian buffet for an enormous meal.

At least on Sunday I did manage to fit in a fairly gentle 4/5 miles walk on the moors and showed marginally more restraint before and after the evening meal than I had in the previous days.

Ouch

OK, three things to update about today: the run, weights and physio.

Actually, make that four: I continued my controlled eating throughout Thursday and Friday (though I, admittedly, went over my 1000 deficit target yesterday by nearly 400 but that was deliberate to aid recovery...).

The run. It was awful. Absolutely awful. Not from the perspective of groin pain though.

I set off and glanced at the Garmin after 1/4 mile and was at 9:15 pace so pushed a little harder. It felt tough though and the first mile still took 8:49 so I stopped for a stretch. Carrying on it felt somewhat easier at 8:22 and 8:25 with another stop just before three miles where I turned round but it still felt a good 30 seconds faster than that. Mile four was grim. It was like the end of a marathon: my legs felt dead and I couldn't help but slow. I stopped 3 times in the last mile and a half and slowed down to close to nine minute miles again.

I think it was down to two things. First up my hammies felt shot from weight training the night before and I was fairly knackered still overall (more on that later) and also I hadn't really ran for 16 days if you ignore the very slow plods with Beth.

The plus though was my beloved groin. Made a point of engaging the core and suffered no big ill effects during or after. In fact the feeling of stiffness I'd had in the adductors was eased by the run.

So, onto the physio at 8am yesterday morning. The regular physio went on maternity after my last visit in May and passed me on to a colleague (hence the trip to Harrogate). Unfortunately it was her last day yesterday and they'd lost all my notes. That made it a more difficult appointment but the upshot was she thinks a few things combined to bring back the pain:

• I stopped doing the daily exercises a couple of weeks too soon
• I was probably not quite doing enough each week for maintenance
• Its likely that I'd got lazy on form and was treating it as a numbers game just to get through
• I'd possibly not engaged the core consistently through the last runs (where the pain came in)

However, she thinks its probably controllable again by going back to basics:

• Daily exercises for the next couple of months
• Maintenance of 3 times a week thereafter, increasing to 5 times a week if training volume/intensity raises e.g. marathon training
• Be mindful of form - always - starting with pelvic floor exercise before each set

She even thought racing could be OK too. I'm not as convinced of that though.

The discomfort hasn't completely gone and in order to race next week I'd need to feel daily exercises were eradicating this and that I could run on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday with a bit of zip. If I can't run a potential PB I don't see the point in taking the risk. we'll see how the week goes.

Lastly the gym. By Thursday evening my traps, lats, hammies were all very sore with some discomfort also in my calves, glutes, triceps and forearms. The new programme obviously works! Even yesterday I was still sore in lats and hamstrings so I pushed the weights back to today and opted for core, cardio and alot of stretching. Forty minutes on the cross trainer helped the hamstrings and ten minutes rowing certainly loosened the lats. Stretching also helped as my hamstrings were particularly tight.

Today I'll take Beth for a run, go to the gym and cook a curry. Champion.

There no posts for 5 days then 3 come along at once...

I had planned to be at 11st by the ‘racing season’ or close to it. In other words by early September. At the moment my target date would be 24th October, though that could easily drop by a week or two if this week were to give a larger than normal loss due to water retention and food in transit issues being reversed - which is likely.

I wouldn’t be unhappy with that based on where I am now.

Training wise the groin is niggling and whilst I hope repeating what I’ve done before will fix it it’s certainly a risk and could easily be exposed by tomorrow’s club run – but if I don’t test it I’ll never know.

However, that means I ought to be looking to moderate demands over the next few weeks.

To manage rehabilitation there’s a few measures:

• Wear support shorts for the next month or so
• Do the daily core exercises
• Engage the core muscles throughout runs
• Cut back on long run distance
• Reduce racing/speed work
• Reduce overall mileage & number of runs
• Increase weight training intensity and gym cardio work to offset running reduction
  

That’s all sensible stuff but I need to factor in racing ‘commitments’.

At present I’m due to do Birchwood 10k on the 22nd and then do the Paras 10, a tough 10 miler, 3 weeks later on the 12th September, then there’s another 2 weeks off until the Horsforth 10k. Then there would be another 3 weeks until Turbo X and Wistow 10 on consecutive weekends, Hellrunner 2 weeks later and the Abbey Dash 10k a fortnight further still.

However, if I dropped the Paras 10 the first longer run wouldn’t be until the 17th October meaning I could keep the long run mileage down to 8 miles or so for some time. That would be a big help in managing recovery. It would also mean 5 weeks of no racing after Birchwood and would fit nicely in terms of projected rate of weight loss.

That’s decided then.

However, what isn’t decided is whether the projected weight loss timetable is what I could/should be chasing. Thanks to Alison for putting that idea in the mix.

On the ‘yes’ side is the fact that there is no holiday or other distraction (barring August BH weekend) on the horizon; that it’s a time of year I tend to do well in in terms of weight loss; that reduced running will be more than offset by additional gym work.

On the ‘no’ side would be the less tangible thought that perhaps I ought to be chasing some sort of stability, maybe with a few weeks maintaining weight rather than losing or gaining. I’d expect that to happen in the 8 weeks or so before marathon training started and throughout marathon training but maybe I need to spread that 8 weeks into two 4 week blocks?

What I’m not prepared to do is maintain at current weight. I want to get closer to 11st 7lb at least. So for the next 4 weeks it’s definitely weight loss but do I then have a ‘breather’? Or adopt a 3 weeks on one week off approach kind of like a running plan, maybe with more calories available in cut back weeks? Or would having a pause when within 4 weeks of final goal be crazy and I should keep up the momentum? Or do I just stay flexible and make a call on it depending on how things are a month from now?

On this element I’m really not sure.

Day One (again)

Suitably chastened by Allison's stern rebukes I decided to cancel yesterday's club run and just test the groin with a 2.6 mile jog with Bethan.

I made a point of focusing on engaging the core muscles - (semi) specifically the ones you'd clench if you were desperate for the loo but not yet near one - and suffered no discomfort during the run. It took a bit of concentration to keep that up. Its something I found hard at first but then more or less got in the habit of doing it every time though I suspect that recently when I've tired either at the end of longer LSRs or during races I've let slip.

Afterwards there was no great problem and certainly no lower abs discomfort at all, just that feeling of the left hand side of the groin somehow feeling slightly 'misaligned'.

By this morning even that had passed.

However, I'm going to be cautious as I've been here before - chasing miles or times while it gets progressively worse and have come up with a plan:

1) Start on the core stability exercise program again
2) Cut back on mileage this week by just running once more with Beth and doing 6-8 miles at the weekend
3) Replace this week's runs with cardio & weights at the gym
4) Cut back LSRs to 10/12 miles max for the next couple of months
5) Really concentrate on engaging the core at all times during runs

With luck that will keep me on track without anything getting worse.

To kick that off I revised the core programme today and did the first set:

• Plank
• Side plank
• Swiss ball hyperextension
• Bridge
• Static lunge
• Walking lunges
• Single leg dips
• X-band walk
• Supine hip extension
• Lying hip adduction
• Piriformis stretch

All lovingly tabulated into an Excel plan in the colours of my favourite Adidas Adizero kit. I really need to get out running again soon don't I?

D-day

Perhaps I'm being just a tad melodramatic in comparing today's run with the Normandy landings but it doesn't feel too great a leap to me this morning!

This is a post about my groin. You have been warned.

To re-cap:

• First started getting pain in lower abs late August last year. Ran through it and it got progressively worse while also being misdiagnosed by physio.
• By late October I'd virtually had to stop running and was getting twinges through the day too.
• Went to see a consultant early in March who diagnosed Sportsman's hernia and referred me to a sports physio he recommends.
• Began series of core stability exercises while gently starting running again.
• also began trying to engage core muscles while running.
• After about 6 weeks there was no presence at all of pain before, during or after.
• After about 12 weeks I slowly started to drop the daily core stability exercises.
• Still no recurrence even with speed training and racing, and long runs up to 13 miles.

However...

...for a few weeks I've felt a hint of 'something' - difficult to pinpoint, not pain as such, short lived and possibly imaginary...

...then on Wednesday last week I could definitely feel it after the Castle Douglas race - a pain in the lower left abs towards the inguinal canal, that stayed for 3 days. Since then the pain has eased off but the left groin area feels loose or disjointed a bit.

Its a worry. A big one. Last year gave me 4 months off and left me feeling depressed and having the prospect of £2.5k's worth of operation to fund.

I'm really hoping this will just be a warning and that if I start the core exercises again, after a week's rest, and engage the core muscles during every run it'll disappear again and can be held in check permanently by these actions. The fear is that there's still an underlying weakness that will just get worse as pace or mileage increase. Last year a week or more of rest didn't make any difference at all.

Tonight is a 7/8 mile tempo run with the club and this morning a very gentle 2.5 mile jog with Bethan. I'm really hoping to get through both pain free and will know by Thursday morning - no pain by then means its nipped in the bud.

I'm a Guinea Pig

I'm going to make the uncommon (for me) move of updating a couple of days into the week.

Monday was a rest day; just a bit of caution after Saturday's difficult feeling run and recognition of some possible groin discomfort.

Not sure whether the latter is real or not. In a response to Alison's excellent blog (linked to on the right) I stated my belief that marathon training is as much a mental challenge as a physical one i.e. one that's filled with obsessive introspection, doubt and phantom concerns. I think training harder after a long injury is similar. I probably get little niggles all over my body and think nothing of them but if its in my lower abs I take the slightest twinge to be a portent of doom.

Whether real or imagined I'm starting to do the core stability exercises that I have largely, but not entirely, neglected since the middle of May. If it is real I hope they'll nip it in the bud.

Back to Monday. I certainly embraced the rest and refuelling principles, as having been good all day I weakened and allowed myself to go through half a dozen slices of bread, a 9-Bar and two Club biscuit bars in the evening to take me comfortably over calorie target. Its tough on 1250 kcals without any exercise calories to burn and, perhaps, I needed it.

Yesterday I reclaimed half of the excess. A long trip down to Essex and back during the day along with a planned run in the evening limited my ability to eat (though even then the diet Gods looked down kindly on me as when I stopped at a petrol station I decided to get a chocolate bar to help keep me awake but found myself at a 'pay at the pump only' pump). Then, in the evening, I headed up to Fewston & Swinsty reservoirs, north of Otley, to recce the three relay routes for Friday's relay event with a group of Abeey Runners, most of whom were faster than me. In all I covered 9.6 miles, with the first 3 miles at 10k pace and the remainder at half marathon pace. I'm happy with that, particularly as it was largely off road in the pouring rain and featured several short, sharp inclines.

Overall, despite being about a stone heavier than where I want to be I feel I'm running better than at the equivalent weight last year and possibly better than I was when racing half a stone lighter.

I found out yesterday that I've been accepted to take part in a trial at Carnegie Sport College that'll consist of 2 hours running to exhaustion in a VO2 max test and then a second test a couple of days after. The second of these is the day after the Pudsey 10k race I've entered, and as a result I'll pull out of the 10k. I'm not too bothered by that. Its a horribly hilly route that wouldn't really tell me anything much about my condition or form; probably more an invitation to injury than anything else.

A real breakthrough!

If Thursday's run was a disappointment, Saturday's was the complete opposite.

On Thursday I just couldn't get going. I got through the distance ok, I just felt a bit unresponsive.

On Saturday I decided to do a little over 7 miles, heading out from Apperley Bridge to Shipley and back.

I felt far better from the outset and stopped after an 8:12 opening mile to spend a minute doing some dynamic stretches. This is something I'd got out of the habit of doing but both the injury prevention workshop and the latest book I'm reading expound on the virtues so I've decided to quit being lazy and bring them back into the running routine.

I felt good as I set off again and decided to focus on just one thing - engaging the deep abdominals and keeping them engaged. This has been a key focus of the physio work - preparing me for identifying and using these muscles to help stabilise my pelvis - and is also regarded as something that takes alot of conscious effort to maintain while running. Previously, when I'd dabbled with Chi running it was something I'd think about but within 20 seconds my mind would wander and I'd relax them without realising.

That didn't happen this time. Instead, I was able to keep them gently but noticeably engaged for the remainder of the run. From a proprioceptive point of view the run felt noticeably different - I felt a little more solid, more upright in the torso and more 'together'.

That last bit is difficult to explain but if you think of the body as machine made up of a series of connected levers, at times, when injured especially, my body has felt like some of the levers are slightly misaligned but this time it felt like all the levers were perfectly aligned and well oiled. That made the run feel more efficient and sustainable.

By the time I reached Shipley and the 3.7 mile turnaround point the average pace had reduced to 8:01 a mile without my realising. I ran back feeling equally comfortable and with the aid of a couple of short downhills at the locks on the way back, speeded up a little more still so that when I finished the average had reached 7:51 a mile. That's only about 10 seconds a mile over half marathon race pace, which based on injury, lack of training and current weight is pretty good.

However, the most important factor was that I had no groin pain during the run (which is common enough now) but also no pain at all later in the day or the next day (which although reducing has still been occurring each run). On the basis that the distance was greater than I'd recently been allowed and the pace was the fastest since the autumn it wouldn't have been too worrying to have had a little more than of late but this time there was nothing!

So, without wanting to get too excited, it feels like I'm definitely on the mend and that by following this approach I'll certainly get a more economical gait and prevent pain.

Its dynamic stretching every run and for the next weeks a conscious effort to concentrate on engaging the deep abs for stabilisation throughout every run in the hope that it becomes second nature.

Its coming down like stair rods...

...and the sky is the colour of slate. Really mixed weather - an hour ago there was a thunderstorm and 10 minutes ago it was sunshine and white cloud. Should add some variety to tonight's run anyway!

Physio appointment last week brought good news. Firstly I seem to be a little less tight and a little stronger, secondly I am doing the exercises properly (though there are a couple I could sharpen up by slowing down) and finally my aims of a 'racing season' in the autumn should be achievable without too great a risk of injury.

Carrying on with the same exercises and with the addition of 3 more for the next 3 weeks then its back again. Running wise I still should try to stick to the 5.5 mile limit, at no great pace and not on muddy trails but the physio did say I'd be ok to start going out on club runs again - as long as I run with one of the slower groups at first just to limit distance.

And that's where I'll be tonight. In the rain!

The runs for the last week have been fine except for last Friday's fall. I'd never fell while running until earlier this year when I slipped on a rock but I've now doubled my tally.

I went out in road shoes, not really appreciating how wet the towpath was from a couple of days of rain but fortunately also wore a long sleeved top. At one section of path there are a number of pieces of brick/hardcore poking through and somehow I very slightly caught the toe of my right foot on one and went hurtling forward. It seems I tried to land on the inside of my left instep and fell onto my right side - leaving some slight scratching to my calf and hands, bruising to the thigh and left big toe and a bloody lump just below my right elbow - all hidden by mud until the post run shower. Funnily enough I didn't feel a thing until I got back into the car a mile later (at the time I was more annoyed that I hadn't thought to immediately pause the Garmin!) but it did break my rhythm for that last mile.

Beyond that I did 10k on the Concept 2 on Saturday (as well as a bit on the cross trainer) and then did another canal side 5.5 miles on Sunday followed by the latest Dales walk - Kettlewell to Starbotton and back via a climb up Cam head - about 6 miles.

Weight still fluctuates within the week but is generally falling - 2lb off last week overall. Definitely feel and look better for that.

Its still chucking it down though...

I smell bacon

Yesterday I had a binge and this morning the tempting smell of other people's bacon cooking is wafting up from the kitchen.

Sounds terrible huh?

Its not so bad.

After 4 weeks of pretty much universally clean eating the bacon doesn't have too much effect on me and whilst last night I went overboard (a bowl of all bran, 2 wholewheat granary bagels and 2 bowls of granola, nuts, yoghurt and dried fruit) it wasn't anything like the chocolate and toast centred mini binges of the past. This morning's weigh in may be a bit on the high side due to 'food in transit' but by tomorrow it'll all be gone.

Weight loss wise things have slowed a little. Week one gave the huge loss of over half a stone, week two over 2lb, week three a fraction under 2lb and week four just over 1lb. I'm happy with that. I certainly look noticeably slimmer and clothes are looser. To some extent that's what its all about but I do want to lose 'weight' too - purely for the running times. I'm relaxed enough to feel I'm very much on the right track and it'll all happen in time though.

Running wise I've been sticking to the physio's limit of 5.5 miles, and no muddy trails but if anything I've been a little less frequent than her limits. I ran the day of the appointment on the 11th and 4 more times since. I'll also go out later today. The runs themselves have felt pretty good - no great advance in pace but I'm increasingly feeling comfortable with faster pace (if that makes sense?).

They don't seem to have caused any major pain either. I tend to be a bit sore afterwards but that has pretty much gone by the following day.

I've also been to the gym fairly regularly and have started to row again as a supplement to the cross trainer. I used to use the rowing machine a fair bit and actually owned a Concept 2 for a couple of years until 2005 but haven't done anything since. Again, it feels like progress - I'm doing something 'new' and pain free and its noticeably easier now than it was 10 days ago.

The physio's exercises have been mixed. There's one that I can't do - it requires a step I just don't have and there are a couple of others where I'm not certain that I'm doing them right as they feel strangely easy. I've missed 2 days where I should have done exercises but work/life got in the way - or more accurately I've allowed work or life to get in the way - but overall they have got easier and I've tried to add in elements of them to runs or walking (such as clenching glutes and core as I go) and doing some supplementary exercises I've found or have been told about on a few days. I feel like I'm a little stronger.

Its back to the physio tomorrow and I'll have a number of questions - what's the long term plan and prognosis, am I doing the exercises right, should I be feeling any pain during or post run, exactly when should I feel the correct muscles fire and does clenching them while active actually help? She's going to love treating me!

Lastly, we've also been walking in the Dales the last 3 Sundays. Nothing too arduous but enough to add a bit of variety to the exercise regime.

Last Sunday was climbing up Pen-y-ghent, which was surprisingly easy to climb (as in my legs felt no great challenge) but a bit hairy in the last bit when you literally climb on hands and feet up the last hundred metres of steep, wet, and occasionally loose stone with a significant drop behind you, all the time buffeted by quite a strong wind.

The verdict

I did 2 more runs before going to the consultant: 8 miles on Saturday and 9 miles on Monday, sandwiching a walk in the dales and an hour in the gym on Sunday. No major ill effects from any of it. In fact, not much impact from the 9 miles (or 31 miles in the 7 days before the consultant appointment) at all.

The appointment itself was relatively uneventful - no need for scans, a basic Q&A on symptoms and a less unpleasant than I expected inversion of my scrotum! In and out within 10 minutes - which equated to about £20 a minute. Nice work if you can get it.

Consultant's view was that it was a sportsman's hernia but that it wasn't yet bad enough to require surgery so he referred me to another physio in the hope of correcting it that way. He said he didn't know the physio who had initially treated me but recommended me to one that he used "when I want it doing properly".

Managed to get a swift appointment and spent an hour at the physios yesterday morning. I've got to say she was excellent. She was experienced in the condition, clearly understood biomechanics in relation to sport and was the first person to truly explain what she found and what the impact would be.

First half hour was spent in assessing muscular imbalances, comparative leg length, checking for flexibility or tightness and so on. After 10 minutes I thought I was fit for the knackers yard: my glutes didn't readily fire (especially the left), my glutes were relatively weak compared to related muscle groups, I had tightness in the left hip, core muscles could be stronger, and my left side was generally far weaker than the right.

Having said all that in some areas I had excellent flexibility and good muscle length - just that this was juxtaposed with areas of weakness and tightness.

All this meant I was recruiting the adductors and muscles around the groin, especially on the left, far more than I should and that was causing the problem - they were being asked to do the work of bigger muscles. This was seemingly triggered by the change in running gait with the toe off point now being behind my centre line (though in fairness to Chi running it does say posture is vital, including fully engaging the core, and I hadn't really done anything other than speed up the leg turnover).

The physio's view is that I'm ok to carry on running but must have a day off in between runs and go no further than 5/5.5 miles for now as she doesn't feel injury wise that I'm strong enough to do more. I also need to stay away from twisty trails or mud under foot.

Looks like I need to go back fortnightly and will move through a plan to get the correct muscles operating, strengthen them, and stretch them, starting with static exercises before moving on to running based ones as, again, she feels I'm not yet strong enough to do more without risk of aggravating the injury.

The exercises I have are fairly tough. The piriformis stretch is painful, another difficult to tell if I'm doing correctly and collectively they all left me feeling quite sore in the left groin by yesterday evening.

I also did a 5.3 mile run along the canal that was quite brisk compared to those I'd done in the previous days, so I do feel my running is starting to come back.

Overall - pretty optimistic.

Injury update - running again

Well, its a sort of injury update anyway!

I had an ultrasound scan in January but all that showed up was that I didn't have an inguinal hernia, which I pretty much knew anyway, and my groin remained sore.

Once the icy weather passed (we had thick snow on the ground from 15th December to 17th January constantly) everything settled down with the pain largely gone, though I wasn't doing any running.

I had managed to get a temporary gym membership which helped me start to get back into the exercise routine by sticking to the cross trainer and avoiding irritation but its really not the same appeal as getting out running somewhere - despite the increased opportunities to stare at the lycra clad bootys of attractive lasses.

I digress.

Once the scan's results were collected the GP referred me to an NHS physio. The guy I saw was great and genuinely wanted to help but the intervention of the pysio team seems to be mainly a way of delaying people joining the very long queue to see a consultant and he advised me that it would be late May before I'd get an appointment.

He couldn't confirm Gilmore's Groin but accepted that I showed the symptoms and also felt that I possibly had an accompanying adductor tendonopathy and attempted to treat the latter with some simple exercises. After a few days these restored some flexibility and didn't aggravate anything too much so I was advised to try running.

I managed two easy paced 4 mile runs which gave mixed results. On the one hand they felt really hard work (like a 10 mile race) and my quads were sore for a couple of days after; but on the other they didn't give a terrible response pain wise and at least I was running!

That meant alot. For pretty much 3 months I'd felt a fraud describing myself as a runner or seeing others out running, and to actually get out there again was fantastic.

The physio suggested I try to run 'as normal' and see whether the problems were fading away or if they would come back once I ran more typical mileages or with greater regularity. I felt hopeful.

I couldn't test that hope for another week as a virus/ear infection/sinusitis left me struggling to sleep and feeling really rotten. Once that was over I started again and in the last 8 days have ran every other day doing 4 miles, 5.25 miles, 6 miles and 7 miles.

Unfortunately, since after the 5.25 and particularly the 6 mile run I've felt rather more sore and I'd expect that to get worse the longer I carried on and especially as speed and distances increased.

Looks like I'll need the op. I'm generally getting to grips with that idea (despite spending the last couple of months petrified at the prospect of a general anaesthetic) and now my only worry is that the op wont work as there only seems to be a 90% success rate.

Still, I've dilligently (or anallly depending on your view point) typed up my own full 'case history' and I'm off to see a consultant privately on Tuesday.

I'll run twice more ahead of then and will keep you posted!

I duly went to the doctors 4 days after the last post. I tried to run again on the Wednesday, but struggled, and dropped the physic’s letter in the same day.

The appointment was a bit of a farce. The letter had been mislaid at the surgery so she hadn’t seen it and hadn’t heard of the condition but agreed to refer me to radiography anyway, and advised me not to run and despite the arrival of some weird compression/support shorts which might help, I did as I was told and wallowed in self pity for the last 2 weeks; predictably finding comfort in food.

This means I’ve only ran 10 times in the last 9 weeks (with 2 of those being aborted with pain) and my weight is a little over a stone heavier than it was in mid October.

That’s left me bouncing between two extremes of outlook.

If I’m feeling positive I compare myself to this time last year. I’m nearly 2 stones lighter than I was then, have ran slightly more in the last few weeks than I did in the corresponding weeks last year and I’ve ran better as a whole during the year. Even the cautious and flabby 4 miles I did yesterday (after 20 days off) was at a comparable pace to tempo runs at the start of the year, and it’s left me without any great increase in pain.

On the other hand, if I’m feeling negative then I compare myself with where I was on target for reaching by now, only a couple of months ago: I’d expected to be some 22lbs lighter than now and have a solid base of 30 miles a week running since May to set me up for training for a 3:30 in Paris.

I’m hopeful that whilst I can’t expect to do any races, hills, speedwork or long slow runs for the foreseeable future (and that injury resolution could be several months away) I should be able to do 3 or even 4 short easy paced runs a week if I wear the support shorts. If I can that might just be enough to help get rid of a little weight in the new year.

At present I’m hoping to drop a couple of pounds before Christmas, easily rediscover them during a week of festive gorging and then do as I did this year and hit the new year with a bang.

Realistically Paris isn’t going to happen for me next year but there’s an outside chance I might make a May marathon or, more likely, an autumn one.

Oh bugger

The whole groin/lower abdominal area felt ok yesterday even with day 2 of my new stretching routine and I managed to get a same day appointment at the physio, pleased to be able to get treatment underway immediately.

The news though wasn't too good. Looks like a psoas injury should have responded to stretching and also to rest and as this has been around for 3 months the physio suspects something else is the culprit.

She did a series of tests, most of which caused no pain whatsoever, and asked some questions about when and where pain kicks in. Net result is that she can't be certain what it is but suspects a condition called 'Gilmore's Groin', and has given me a letter to take to the doctors later this week asking that I'm referred to a specialist. If her suspiscions are confirmed I'd need surgery followed by 6 weeks rehabilitation before running properly again.

On the basis that it could take 6/7 weeks before I see the specialist and another couple of months after that before an operation she's given me a series of resistance band strengthening exercises to do in the meantime. If she's wrong then they may help treatment and if she's right they'll help strengthen things ahead of the op.

If its surgery Paris is definitely out. If its not then hopefully the exercises and stretching will help resolve things ahead of training but starting training itself will be a severe test.

Oh, well. Who said these things were meant to be easy?

These DIY temporary fillings are good...

...its amazing how much you can eat with them :-s

Managed to get in at the dentists on Wednesday but they can't fix the tooth (which is painless) until 7th December. Oh well.

Another mixed week for me.

Didn't manage to get out on Monday or Tuesday but did manage to fit in a short run on Wednesday. A very short one. A very, very short one. The Ronnie Corbett of courses in fact.

I set off along the same route as I've been doing lately - along the river Aire - but the recent heavy rain meant the trail was very muddy and slippy and often hidden beneath long puddles. In itself that was fine but for much of it I was one slip from the fast flowing, swollen, debris filled river and whilst I'm not a bad swimmer I didn't fancy putting my skills to the test. That put me on edge a bit and even had my imagination going into overdrive when one 'lump' of debris looked to me like a bloated corpse. Nice.

What shortened the run though was that at just under 1.5 miles the trail and river merged where the latter had burst it's banks. It wasn't over by much - not much above ankle depth on the trail - but I knew that even if I picked my way through that the path further ahead would probably be worse as its virtually at river level already. I turned and headed back to the car.

No run on Thursday - work again - but I did get out in the torrential rain on Friday. That was an opportunity to test my new Gore Running jacket - it passed. I took a cross country route across fields to the canal, along the canal for half a mile or so then a mile and a half through the woods before heading for home. About 5 and a half miles and (I counted) 24 stiles and/or fences and lots, and lots of mud.

Yesterday I decided to try a long slow one so did a little over 12 miles along the canal from the edge of Leeds to Shipley. Like the week, it was mixed. I'm pleased I did it and pleased that the pace was as quick as many of the shorter runs of recent weeks but the downside was that I started getting groin pain from before 2 miles. This got imperceptibly stronger until about 9 and a half when it then became really difficult just to keep my left leg lifting and moving.

That's a worry as I've had quite alot of disruption of late and I'm only 4 weeks from marathon training kicking in. Didn't seem too bad through the day yesterday but this morning, as I waited to carry out my marshaling and t-shirt distribution duties at the Leeds Abbey Dash, it was horrendous. I've kept 800mg of ibuprofen on the go since and done quite a long stretching session this afternoon.

Will get off to the physio asap this week and book a few sessions. Really want this right before the mileage and LSRs go up dramatically.

Oh, and I'm toying with the idea of doing Windermere marathon 5 weeks after Paris...

Back on track

So far this week I really have been back on track.

I've logged everything on www.weightlossresources.co.uk and kept comfortably under the target for the week to date.

I've also started running again but its amazing how quickly your fitness goes.

I ran Monday, along the canal to Apperley Bridge and then up onto the road to Woodhouse Grove school and around the fields onto the riverside path back to Rodley: 4.85 miles.

Its a nice route along the river: peaceful, scenic, muddy and quieter than the canal towpath. I did the same route on Wednesday and on neither day did I see another soul along the river. Maybe its the mud that puts people off or maybe they just don't know its there but in certain stretches you feel like you're in the dales rather than between two large industrial cities.

On Monday I stopped twice during the run and felt worn out despite a very modest pace. I was also extremely sore afterwards in the psoas to the point where I struggled to walk the kids back home from school that afternoon. That was worrying as I'd hoped 2 weeks of rest might have cured it.

Wednesday was better. Hardly any quicker but only one stop and it felt slightly easier. Most pleasingly there was no real psoas pain during or after. I'm hoping I can stretch my way through that now.

Marathon training starts in five and a half weeks. If I can finish this week on about 20 miles, then nearer 25 next, then carry on into the upper 20s for the remaining 3 weeks but do that fairly pain free that'll be the best I can hope for.

Neither that nor the likely weight at the start of training will be what I'd planned for but the weight wont be too far out the running won't be too bad as long as the psoas is settled enough to allow a big ramp up in frequency and mileage once training begins.

I guess that all remains to be seen.

The downward spiral continues

My newly invigorated commitment at the end of the last post didn't quite live up to it's billing. It lasted a day and a half.

For the first couple of days of that week I managed to half heartedly stick to the diet and on the Wednesday I forced myself out for a run. Instead of going to the canal I ran from home which meant a long downhill followed by a long uphill back again. The route I took lasted only 3.45 miles and I found it slow and very hard work, even on the downhill. That knocked me a bit and I found solace in more fatty, sugary, sweet foods for the remainder of the week - and no more runs.

The Saturday was the first of 10 days off for me and we headed down to Northamptonshire to see the in laws. That meant having dinner at a local pub (where I had the enjoyable but uncharacteristic choice of a mixed grill followed by treacle sponge pudding) and then an enormous Chinese buffet cum banquet for Sunday dinner.

I did run on the Sunday morning, along the Grand Union Canal from Foxton Locks near Market Harborough. It was a good run even though the towpath was nowhere near as good as that near Leeds. It totalled 15.1 miles - the longest since Paris - but I found it very hard work after the 11 miles point, underlining my feeling that its stamina I'm lacking.

You'd think that would have energised me for the week ahead with its opportunity to run wherever I wanted each day and cook some healthy meals, but it didn't. Instead I spent the week pretty much indoors, cooking meals each day, cooking other meals for the freezer ahead of Christmas, and having lots and lots of sweets along with ensuring Sue made a pudding most days.

I can't point to a single reason for that but I suspect its a combination of factors:

- The time of year made both of us crave 'hearty' foods. The clocks had changed and there was a definite feel of winter being on the way.
- I had the vicious circle of not running because I felt bloated and sluggish then over eating because I didn't have the discipline of running...
- I turned 40 on the final day of my holiday and, daft though it seems, I felt pretty down about it in the lead up and on the day.
- Job insecurity and reduced pay lead to money worries and I guess I comfort ate in response.

That meant that by the 3rd November, the second day in my forties :-( , my weight had leapt further to 12st 7.2lb. That's a stone heavier than I'd been less than 4 weeks earlier.

That was depressing - to have been so close to goal and then so far away again - and that led to a week where I didn't quite stick to plan but I did cut back on my 'bad eating' and had a couple of day's genuine dieting. I still didn't run though. That all led to a modest loss of 0.6lb in the week. Not quite the heavy early loss I'd wanted but enough to break the cycle of weight gain.

Wow. Just spotted that last week was the lowest mileage week since the end of April/early May at only 14.49 miles, yet I feel fairly knackered right now!

During the 13.2 miles last Sunday I had some groin/lower abs pain that I'd had a hint of during the 2 races the previous week. By Tuesday morning it still felt a little sore and 'Fizz' one of the Paris veterans who is a Physio suggested it could be a sore psoas muscle. I looked it up and it matched the symptoms, location and cause so I've been doing stretches for that through the week.

I felt a bit below par during the day on Tuesday and by evening fleetingly considered not going out for the club run. I did though - mainly to test the psoas - which held up ok and I felt much better afterwards. It was a fairly easy paced 5.51 miles but it included the hill on Spen Lane that I'd last ran in March and found tough. On Tuesday it felt pretty easy.

On Wednesday I'd normally run with Bethan but we've got out of the running routine since the holiday in France and I'd decided to rest alot during the week anyway so that didn't happen.

Similar with Thursday - 5/6 miles planned but I dropped them for the pesky psoas and because I still felt under the weather.

I did do a short run on Saturday though. I joined the Virgin Active gym on Friday and did 2 x 1 mile on the treadmill. I found it hard work and couldn't do more than 1/4 of a mile at 10k pace. Between that and still feeling just a little ropey I toyed with the idea of skipping the Great Yorkshire Run 10k on the Sunday.

I didn't though, and duly parked up in Sheffield at 8am yesterday.

I'd been delighted with 46:33 at Birchwood a fortnight earlier and had decided that with no weight loss in the intervening fortnight I should go for 4:35 a kilometre to nose me under the 46 minute barrier. To that I added the proviso that if I didn't feel I had it in me on the day through muscle soreness or general malaise I could just trot round the remainder.

It was essentially an out and back course. The first kilometre was downhill fairly steeply and then there was 500m of undulating followed by 7km that was pretty much flat before 500m undulating again then a final kilometre that was relentlessly uphill.

I found it quite tough from the off. After the first downhill I had 26 seconds 'in the bank' as it were and didn't eat much into that as the race progressed but it felt harder work than it did 2 weeks ago - not that I was out of breath or anything just that I didn't feel too peppy and frequently felt negative.

The course wasn't exciting and the pace pretty even so little to report until the Garmin bleeped and I began the 9th kilometre, by which time I still had 24 seconds in the bank. I'd been warned the final hill was a bit of a killer but from 1500m to go I found I couldn't speed up and struggled to even hold the pace. I just about held the effort constant on the hills in the second half of that kilometre but i'd dropped half of the banked time.

The Garmin bleeped again for one kilometre to go and with me 12 seconds to the good and a strong finisher all should have been well but just getting up the hill felt really draining. I managed to speed up in the last 50m or so but it was hardly a sprint finish. Mentally I'd set my stall just to hang on in the final kilometre and when I looked at my watch as I crossed the line I felt deflated to see 46:04 - missed it by 4 seconds. I'm sure I could have found those seconds somewhere.

Interestingly the Garmin measured it long - with the first 10 kilometres being completed under 46 minutes but the additional 65m was what cost me. Splits were:

4:09 (6:40 per mile)

4:34 (7:21 per mile)

4:36 (7:24 per mile)

4:39 (7:29 per mile)

4:39 (7:29 per mile)

4:29 (7:14 per mile)

4:36 (7:25 per mile)

4:34 (7:21 per mile)

4:47 (7:42 per mile)

4:43 (7:35 per mile)

Then the last 65m at 6:02 per mile pace.

The official time rounded me down a little to 46:03 and as thats a PB by 30 seconds I should be pleased - especially as I didn't feel quite in tip top condition and the course had an extra 450ft of climb & descent compared to Birchwood, but having been on course all the way until the finish to breaking 46 minutes and running within the pace target on the Garmin I can't help but feel dissapointed not to have got under that barrier.