Doh

Well… omfg… I now have a confirmed place. Official and all. I’m going to Morocco in April 2010.

Better start really approaching properly.

Reality bites

It’s been a summer of way too much work and stress, cancelled holidays, hospital visits and stays, but on the positive side, it’s been a glorious summer for the weather. Similarly, it’s been a pretty decent summer of running. Back up to decent distances, having put in a good 22 miles on Sunday and feeling surprisingly fresh afterwards.

The biggest shock has been my progress up the Marathon Des Sables waiting list. On Monday had  a look and I was holding the 50th place in the queue as I have been since June or so. Had a look last night and I’m now the proud holder of 16th place. Reality bit and it’s suddenly dawning that I may really be doing it in 7 months time. Still, at least training is going in the right direction so all is good. Just got to keep healthy and un-injured.

And should probably start to really think about the kit and strategies. The pressure, the pressure!!

Feet rest

A week later, a load of stretches and a complete lack of running, even in this glorious weather we’ve been having. Instead I stretch. I stretch for England. I stretch like Stretch Armstrong. Once you sneak it into the daily routine, it’s not as hard although I’d be lying if I said it was a great alternative to running. Hard to say if it’s working to be honest, but then I won’t know until I run again. Now I’m into the zone of having done a week, I may as well do another 2 to make sure I don’t mess the hip up worse than before.

So, against all my usual prejudices, I went and joined a Virgin Health gym on a rolling monthly contract. So now during the week I can go and play with their machines. It was actually quite different to go to a gym when you’re in a half decent state of fitness. Jumped on the indoor bike and the cross trainer thing, and went into over an hour of high volume exercise, throwing around sweat, scaring people away. Nice.

Hasn’t change my prejudice though. Once I can start running again, I will cancel the gym membership. There’s just something not right with exercising indoors, no wind/sun/rain/feedback/views, just a large number of rows of different machines with robots going through the motions. Don’t think I saw anyone smile. Still… it’s a mean to an end for me right now.

Neverending Story

… and not the dubious, yet classic, 80s children’s flick.

So bloody hip. wtf?

This time, I think I may have actually found a medical source of data which might help. My attempt this month is Back In Action, a physiotherapist clinic in Wakefield, UK, specialising in sports injuries. It’s somewhat comforting when the specialist takes their time to understand the problem, even making me go back a week later to run 6 miles beforehand so that the hip can be seen inflamed. Anyway, I got a proper explanation that pretty much fits into all my symptoms.

Apparently, I’m suffering from Bursitis of the hip. So, no running for 3 weeks, lots of stretching, and I mean lots. Can cycle and other ‘fun’ activities but no running for a while. I am tempted to get a cross trainer as that’s a pretty decent alternative to running and keep up the fitness.

So, hopefully, the hip will be able to be sorted and ready for all the long distances again…

Hip to be cool

Another month or 2 rolls on and things have been looking up, getting in a little more mileage, then a little less mileage but at least enjoying the sunshine. However, with a capital H, my hip still hurts. After what was a false glimmer of hope and the pain started to go away, it’s come back with anger. Any time I run over 5 miles, it kicks in. Anything less than that I can just about do without any pain after the run.

This is where I can frustrated with all the various medical specialists. I’ve now seen 2 different osteopaths, a chiropractor and a physio, to no avail. I can’t believe that I’m the first person ever to have a hip problem. I always relate this back to my day job, where you pretty much know what problems are and how they get caused across a wide wide range of topics. That’s all medicine should be. Everyone’s body is pretty much made the same way and gets injured in similar ways. So… why on earth can’t any of these specialists identify the problem.  Doing my head in.

So in the meantime, I’ve been doing a lot more cycling, up to 35 miles on Sunday rides with a fair bit of spinning other days. Just the running that’s falling apart right now. Can’t do anything with any distance. There’s nothing more frustration than being sidelined almost completely. bluerghggghhh..

Anti-medical profession rant over….

Snow, planes, trains & automobiles

What a year so far, mostly driven by interesting weather situations. After one of the biggest storms in France for the last 10 years resulting in no electricity, heat or water for 5 days, then I had to deal with the closure of airports in the UK, which itself resulted in what I now call ‘adventure travel’ – getting there any which way you can. Planes to different airports followed by train journeys across Europe. All in all, tiring and very long travel with all sorts of complications every way I look.

So, all doom and gloom sounds like… but NO no… the hip is just about better after a month of taking it easy and a few trips to a very good Osteopath, http://www.osteo-clinic.co.uk/. Enough now to start slowly and carefully ramping up the mileage again. Back up to around 20 miles a week at least. On top of that I’m back on the road bike after a few false starts and now doing a regular 27 miles every Sunday now. To keep the injuries down, this year I’m trying a whole load more cross-training while also attempting a bit more core strength, something I’ve been historically rubbish at. So, lots of press-ups and various other indoor strange positions.

So, really, it’s been bit of an adventure so far, 2009 has. And to top it… I’ve moved 14 places up the waiting list for the Marathon Des Sables… looking like I may just be doing it in 2010 after all… better start really ramping up!

trip trap, trip trap

So, yes, this year has been a sluggish start to be honest. Through a combination of a crazy start to the year at work and the on-going hip pain, exercise has been a little lower down the list of the things I’ve been doing (not that the list has more exciting things on it or anything).

Last weekend was a complete blowout as I ended up working late into the night, hence was shattered the next day and decided it wouldn’t be best to try and make things worse by going out early. This week has started with some glimpses of good things tot come however.

Finally found the new 50m olympic pool in Leeds so went and swum there, my first swim for well over 6 months. Went for a short sharp run on Tuesday morning and went and saw an osteopath on Wednesday to sort out my hip, and as it happens, my back too. Apparently it’s an ITB thing… classic overuse. Those bloody marathons have destroyed my body!

The start to this year is going to be a switch back to the cross-training that I was doing at one point while training for triathlons. Lots of cycling this weekend, with a potential start of doing core strength exercises.

Generally, I’m rubbish at that. I can never find the enthusiasm for doing stationary things in the house so I will persevere and get on with it this evening after a small spinning session. Must… do…. something….

And still mulling about entering the London triathlon seeing as I missed it last year. Not worried about training (as that would be a good driver). It’s more the having to get to London from France to do it in the beginning of August. I could always step up to the plate and do the 70.3….

2009… dah dah daaaaah

Happy New year!

And another one chalked up… another year gone and another one starting. Pretty bloody obvious I suppose. Anyway…

So, new year resolutions? At least the fitness/sports related ones:

• run marathon distance before May
• cycle 40km in under 1h20 before June
• lose 5kg

The other big one is to sort out my injuries, especially my hip at the moment. It’s going on 3 weeks now that this hasn’t gone away. It’s stopped me running regularly, so I’ve been on the bike instead. Went out this morning for a nice 1h35, 26 miles. Nothing spectacular or special really, but a good start. Main thing is that it keeps the fitness up and improves it without slamming the hell out of my legs, knees and any other random body part. It was freezing though. Very cold.

So, booking into an osteopath this week to hopefully find out what’s up with my hip. No urgency at the moment as there are no races lined up for a few months so there is time to repair properly and get back to the long distances again. The glimmer of light is that I can still put in some half decent distances after doing next to nothing, i.e. got in a good 9 miles @ 7:57 miles/min pace. Just hurts a bit afterwards.

No pain, no pain, no pain…. mantra time…

Sidelined

Dammit… <insert a long stream of random swear words in here>

The on-going malaise is given an extra hand by a dodgy hip which has all but stopped any running completely. So my exercising has dropped right down to a trickle of not much. I tried to go for a run last Tuesday, got all of 1 mile and realised this wasn’t one of those “you can run through it” type of injuries and hobbled back. Since then, no running, and the hip has been getting better extremely slowly, but getting better nonetheless.

In the meantime, got on the bike, well the indoor one. So, that’s about just under 3 hours worth of spinning this weekend. My legs were jelly down to not much cycling for the last few months. The big conundrum is that I won’t be home now until the 31st, so that’s two weeks in which I hope my hip sorts itself out considerably, or I’m going to be back to square two, not quite square one….

So now I’m generally grumpy because I can’t get out and run. Hurrrurmmmppphhhh….

December is back

After what was a tough month, running-wise at least, it’s time to try and step up a gear. The darkness alongside the coldness and the basic grimness of the weather this time of year does not make it easy to get out there. In fact it makes it really bloody hard. I’ve started to give up on early morning runs as I’ve not had the appetite to do that, especially as it’s dark until around 8am.

Luckily, running later in the day, while it’s still light, is actually a little less harsh almost back to enjoyment. This weekend got in a couple of around 7 mile runs, nothing special but something. Half the problem where I live now is the difficulty of finding routes that a sufficiently different. Lots of very very long straight roads so you always have to retread the same routes before you can go off-piste. That along with being the hunting season, you’re limited to where you can go.

Still can’t face getting the bike out on the road either… Reading this post it sounds like hell. I need an event to get ready for, now that the adventure race is out of the running due to other commitments.