The physio, various runs, Weekly Results 16 September…

Well it has been a while, so the last couple of weeks’ activity will be summarised in this post.

After Kastelløbet, I took time off. The leg seemed fine, but having had a close shave with injury, I took advantage of a long weekend at my brother’s wedding, and did not return to Denmark until Tuesday evening.

Wednesday morning saw me at the door of the physio – Anders Madsen. Now I have a suspicion of all things doctor / physio / whatever related, as I am not ill. Going to such people means you are sick! However this one had been recommended, and having incurred the same injury several times over the last year, it seemed worth a shot. We went through the ‘symptoms’ and concluded it was a strain deep in the muscle – not tendonitis, shin splints or stress fractures. Anyway it was massaged, ultra-sounded and finally acupunctured.

These treatments are all pretty alien concepts to me, but Anders was busy explaining them. Ultrasound can assist in breaking up scar tissue, though it didn’t seem like there was any. If it got worse, there is a more serious version available. Acupuncture tells the brain to release cortisol, which helps to repair muscle. It was all in the price anyway so seemed worth a shot. Finally I was shown some stretches to build up strength in the calf, and told that I could carry on running if it was comfortable (well I knew that!) and that I should start off by taking it easy, and gradually build up.

So that was that. I can thoroughly recommend it!

It was time to start off by taking it easy. That evening, I warmed up and went for a long lap of the lakes. Waiting to cross the road between the 4^th and 3^rd lake on the return trip, with 2k to go, a runner set off at a fast pace. I was stuck among other people crossing the road, and when I broke free of the crowd was some 20m behind. I went to catch up.

The runner sped up accordingly. ‘Take it easy,’ I reminded myself, and sped up too. Near the ‘near end’ of the 3^rd lake, I drew level. The runner said something in Danish, and after clarifying my non-Danish speaking status, I asked if he was training for Berlin in a couple of weeks – the Danes are the largest non-German contingent at that event. He was, and was aiming for 3.15 – inline with my record. We ran on, fast. At the first lake, I opened up for my final 800m; the other runner didn’t quite match it, but we both did a very quick finish, and I broke my record for the approx 2k distance, in under 8 minutes. Nice to run with someone of similar standard, even if I was meant to be taking it easy.

I ran 3 more times last week – 6.1 km around the first 3 lakes on Thursday, and the 10.8km Injury Run on each of Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s was a ‘hangover run’ and my slowest yet – combination of strong headwinds in one direction, and my pounding head meaning I did not take advantage of the downwind legs, gave me a time of 47-odd minutes. Much better on Sunday, when I was only 10 seconds behind my record at 43.35 after what felt a comfortable run.

Not sure if all that is qquite taking it easy, but I have to do a certain kilometreage if the Dublin marathon is going to be a good one…this coming week I am aiming to get a good distance in, as the last week of September I have a business trip to West Africa and will not be running much. That can be the ‘taking it easy’ part.

Weekly results to 16^th September – this covers 2 weeks:

Distance run this week: 42.2km

Distance run to date: 354.0km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 139km

Distance rowed this week: 12km

Distance rowed to date: 77.3km

Normal updates will resume this week…