Wednesday 3 July 2013

Year 3 June

This months Blog will be about coming to the end (hopefully) of a long and difficult part of a section of my journey, (Injuries) which as you read will seem strange as I still have one injury for which I am receiving NHS support in the form of Physio for my weak right ankle. I am allowed to run which make it seem less like an injury and more like an inconvenience with that in mind I have to go more careful and not get carried away and make things worse. 

I have agreed with Roz (physio) that I will only run 3 miles at a time and too not run every day so realistically that means once or twice a week (shift work permitting) I can still ride my bike as well so that means I can do a decent level of training as I build my stamina back up to previous levels and beyond.

I have some good news on the work front in that I am now a cyclist at work, it has taken almost 6 months to get to this point I do despair at the speed my managers work at sometimes but we are here now and that is what matters the most. The guy who rode in my team before me decided he did not wish to cycle anymore, the timing was right as I was still struggling with my calf problems so I decided that cycling would help my legs better as less walking means less impact on my joints and will aid recovery better between training runs. 


Yesterday I went out on the bike for the first time with a colleague and also had my bike assessment to make sure I am capable of riding a bike on the road. I have to say I really loved the freedom of riding the bike and it will clearly help my training that I get some bike riding in during work time a win win situation. As you may know I like a medal or something to show my achievement sadly nothing from work I did mention to Hazel my disappointment and she clearly has too much time on her hands at work did this for me. 




I appear to have reached the light at the end of the tunnel it has been a long and dark tunnel for sure as you have read previously I still worry looking back at them that I moan too much about my lot when I know i am just recording how my journey is going good or bad, slow or fast. I have spent the past few days thinking about the content of this blog and this allows me to take a step outside the box and look in and see the wood from the trees.   

Running the duathlons was something I had set my heart on doing it was a natural progression to combine the two disciplines of running and cycling and like the marathon I don't regret doing them. Was my body in a state to complete 3 duathlons in 3 months? Truthfully not and twisting my ankle on the beach of race two did not help my cause. I believe I am a better stronger person for entering all 3 races rather than pulling out. 

So I have no regrets on taking on a remarkable challenge that pushed me to my limits and beyond and whilst I found getting injured and not being able to train properly frustrating and at the time upsetting I know that getting to the start line of all 3 races was the victory for me.

Without being at the duathlons I would not have met my sports massage therapist Amanda Fuller with respect to all the other professionals I have dealt with Amanda spoke my language everything she said about my injuries made sense everything she said about repairing my muscles made sense I understood what she was saying I understood what she would achieve this was another moment of clarity for me that I knew this would be the way forward in getting me to run injury free.

I had 3 massages in just under 4 weeks each one of them hurt and at the time I will be honest and say I expected to feel different than I did after the 3rd massage but that is managing expectations its not till afterwards when recovery has happened and you run again that you can see and feel the improvements this is shown in the last of my 10K runs and training runs afterwards Caen 10K Training Run 1 Training Run 2 Training Run 3 

Run 2 was a P/B for 5k this was achieved without any intention of running that fast it just shows that I have a stock level of fitness and that the massages did work and have freed my legs and muscles to work better its also worth noting that my ankle is still weak and will take some time to heal properly but being able to run and cycle makes all the difference, I will take heed of what the physio says about running and will not over do things. I plan on having a sports massage once a month to help keep my body in shape to do what I need it to do.

I saw my podiatrist last week and updated him on my ankle and the physio I am having he said I need a better ankle support and he recommend the Aircast A60 ankle support as worn by Andy Murray. This is a better more robust ankle support that I can wear whilst running and cycling that will offer better protection and support and hopefully aid recovery of my weak ankle. Aircast A60 Ankle Bracelet

Things are looking up, the world looks a better place than it has done in a long time, the reason for this is allowing time to pass, allowing my body the chance to recover and heal the realization     that you can not rush injuries they take as long as they take to heal, just like the weight loss injuries are not a quick fix solution they take time they need nurturing.

So at long last after all this time I have reached the point where I can accept being injured I can relax about it, take the time needed to recover and heal my body and then go out and do the hard part getting fit again because no matter how much fitness you have taking time out and starting again is hard. Getting your head in the right frame of mind to go out and run again is tough but once you do it a couple of times its like you have never stopped. 

That for me is the reason I struggled so much I was SCARED of not going back out running or cycling again that I would hate doing it again, I really am stupid like I will never run or cycle again hell will freeze over before that ever happens, yet I still doubted myself thank goodness for Thinking Slimmer and the pods because I know that no matter how bumpy my road takes me I will always learn lessons from my journey and know that I will come out the other side a better person than before. Two and half years into my journey I am still amazed that I am still learning things about myself and moving further and further away from the old me.

How cool is that!!! 

As today is the day I am posting this blog I would like to wish my Mum a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Mum Love you Loads xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx