My first sports therapist visit

Wednesday 30 May 2012 - I went for a session with a sports therapist to try to make some sense of my hamstring troubles.

She went through a series of massage techniques and then some stretches.

I had been warned - by other runners and the therapist herself - that the process could be quite painful, and I had gone along prepared to be in tears at some stage. However, there were very few moments where I experienced anything even remotely painful. The therapist said that I must have a very high pain threshold.

The outcome from the session was that there is nothing obviously wrong with my hamstrings.

In addition to the high pain threshold, I was also pleased to find out that I have good arches in my feet.

So the search for what is actually causing the pain/tightness/etc continues.

The candidates include:

Shoes
My trail shoes are the number one suspect here, so I am going to put them to one side and see if anything changes. (see below)

Stretching (lack of)
I'm pretty inconsistent with my post-run stretching, so I will make sure that I leave time to stretch after my running sessions.

Not enough salt in my diet (causing cramping)

I'm not quite sure about this one but I will investigate it anyway.

--

I have been going over my running log and the first instance of the issue was a few weeks after I started using the trail shoes on a regular basis. The reason that I had not really considered this before is that I sometimes have the problem after runs using standard road shoes, then again it could be a delayed reaction to a previous run in the trail shoes.

So I'll see how I get on over the next few days and weeks by not using the trail shoes, stretching religiously and making sure I eat some additional salty foods every day.

Riddlesdown parkrun thirty-seven

During the thirty-seventh Riddlesdown parkrun I...

... clocked up my 200th parkrun kilometre (that's 40 parkruns in total).
... completed 8 continuous months of parkrunning.

-----

After last weekend's double whammy, I decided to take things easy during the week. In the end due to other commitments it worked out that I took five days off training.

just before half-way

The conditions were ok. The ground was still quite soft in places and there was some wind along the back straight, but nowhere near as bad as it has been over the last few months. There was some wind in places, but again it wasn't too bad.

Only ten more weeks until I earn myself one of these shirts

The run itself was not the best, but as I ticked off each kilometre I found that old aches and pains were resurfacing. Ultimately I had to slow my pace and my splits reveal that each kilometre got progressively slower as the run went on.

Mrs7t took charge of photography during the first lap but had to hand the camera back to Nicki so we could make a quick get-away at the end.

This is what the photographers get up to before the runners appear

We were upset to have missed the post-run tea and coffee, which was back at the good companions pub - now under new management, I hope it works out ok. I'm sure I even saw homemade cakes in the event photos, looks like we picked the wrong week to make other plans!

Steve.

Riddlesdown parkrun thirty-four

Sub-zero temperatures ensured that the field was smaller than usual at the thirty-fourth Riddlesdown parkrun. We had somehow managed to get there with plenty of time to spare, which meant I actually had time for a warm-up for a change. I did a kilometre of jogging plus a bit of this and that to get my legs ready for the run.

pre-race ritual prep [photo: pete gibson]

Yet again I started at the back, I was not quite sure exactly how I was going to approach today's event. I was still faffing around with my phone as I ran along the first 100 metre section of the course. As I settled into the run I realised that I was feeling good at a slightly faster pace than I have been running in recent weeks/months.

I worked my way through the field, always focusing on the person ahead and using them to motivate me to keep the pace up. By the half-way point I had caught up with Ange, I stayed with her for about a kilometre and would have been happy to finish behind her. However, I saw David up ahead and couldn't resist testing myself to see if I could keep the pace strong enough to catch him (I haven't run this hard for months). It turns out that I did just about have something in me and I caught up and overtook him during the trail section on lap two.

trail section during lap one (hat still on) [photo: pete gibson]

By the time I reached the finish line I was completely wasted. I was handed my position barcode but my head wasn't thinking straight and I just kept walking, not realising that Mrs7t and the Baba were actually waiting for me at the finish line.

Once I had been scanned at the registration desk, I wandered over to the car park (to look for the wife) but clearly she wouldn't be there as she had been waiting at the finish line. I found a spot and had a stretch and a quick massage of my legs. Before I knew it the wife had appeared and we jumped into the car for some well-needed relief from the cold.

approaching condon corner (approx 3.5k point - hat off) [photo: pete gibson]

Next up we went for the post-race coffee with the rest of the gang! The Good Companions was closed for some refurbishments (maybe they'll do something with the taps - lol) so we went to a different pub. It was The Horseshoe, in Warlingham. A pub with very nice decor, an open fire and real coffee!

Mrs7t had brought some snacks in the form of a graze box, which we have delivered every now and then. There were different seeds, sultanas infused with cinnamon (awesome), and some with lime. Tiny rice crackers with mango chutney, and plenty of other healthy snacks. They were much nicer than our usual selection of chocolate and cake.

final straight [photo: Mrs7t]

So another week was done. The 100% attendance record still in-tact. Nice to finally be able to put in a decent run. I finished in 20:41, which was my fastest time since last October, and thus stands as my 2012 pb so far.

After the fun and games of Janathon, February is to be a month of ease and recovery. I've made a deal with myself that I will make sure that my relative recovery time outweighs my training time. We'll see how that goes, the snow/ice should help me stick to it.

c7t

The last one (Janathon day 31)

The last day of Janathon. My working title for this post was 'thank f*ck it's over'. However, now we are at the end, I don't think that title really sums up how I feel. Somehow it feels like the beginning rather than the end. However, I am quite glad that the daily blogging can end, most of the posts end up sounding the same and sometimes feel like a chore to write.

check out the runart blog for more janathon collages

I thought it would be good to end with a challenge from tribesports that I could attempt to complete throughout the course of the day.

The challenge was to perform 500 push-ups in one day.

By 9am I had completed 50 push-ups. Only 450 to go... (yay).

At lunch time I went for a run around St. James's Park. That went pretty well. I didn't have enough time to do any more push-ups so I went back to work with my total number of push-ups still standing at 50 - Not a good sign.

There was no opportunity to do any push-ups in the office during the afternoon so I left work with the huge task of completing 450 push-ups during the evening which was just too daunting so I gave up - I think this is a challenge for a day when I'm not at work.

I've really enjoyed the experience of Janathon, and have found lots of new blogs to read. The highlight for me was coming together of the ten runartists to create the janathon collages. Visit the #runart blog to see some variations on the collage above.

4.1km (21 minutes)
50 push-ups

-----

End of Janathon stats:

Distance run: 166 Kilometres (103.1 Miles)
Time spent running: 14 hours and 58 minutes
Number of runs logged: 34

Running, man (Janathon day 30)

The running man was a christmas gift from my mother-in-law.

Not much time for blogging today. Work was too busy for blogging. I did, however, find another potential piece of #runart that I would like to try to create, it should come out at around 14-15km making it my longest piece to date. More on that when I get around to doing it.

Today's run was supposed to be a 'very short' run but instead it ended up being a 'short' run. I went out at around 6.20am and it was cold, but I soon warmed up. This was definitely one of those runs where you just put in the miles and then get on with the rest of the day. Absolutely nothing interesting happened. Sometimes that it just what you (I) need.

27 minutes (5.1km)

You're having a... (Janathon day 29)

I got up early on Sunday morning and was pretty excited that I had a #runart attempt lined up. I got into my starting position and headed off.

Here is what I drew:

There's nothing like a bit of #runart before breakfast.

6.8km

Riddlesdown parkrun thirty-three and an H (Janathon day 28)

We all know what happens at parkrun, I do end up telling the same story over and over again, but it's what I do in these posts..

So for what it's worth..

I ran the first kilometre at a nice easy pace with Pete, then I headed off at my own pace.

The ground was wet and the mud was very slippery. In some sections most of the effort I put in was wasted as my feet slipped around underneath me. I caught up to and passed many people over the next four kilometres and somehow during my last kilometre I was only about 20 seconds off my 5k pb pace from last September.

I stood around chatting for a loooooong time after the run had finished and when I tried to find Mrs7t, I couldn't. She had already gone to the pub.... with the car key!! So I had to go all the way to the pub to pick the key up and then walk all the way back to the car. I say 'all the way' but it is only a few hundred metres. It was fine.

On the way to the pub I found a little lost dog who answers to the name 'Molly', she was wandering very close to the road and she looked like she was lost. I knelt down and had a chat with her and when I asked her to follow me I was happy that she did (I don't have much dog experience so this is probably just normal). Once we were back at the entrance to the downs she spotted her owners and ran off on their direction. They looked pleased to see her.

Once all the parkrun things had drawn to a close we headed off to Tonbridge, but before arriving home I had a very special task to complete.

An idea grew out of the runart project. The idea was for nine janathoners to each draw a letter using their GPS tracking so that we could spell out the word 'janathon', of course janathon only has eight letters.. The ninth was for the hashtag. I had been lucky enough to be given responsibility for creating the 'H', so we stopped off at the cemetary so that I could draw it. Once all of the letters are complete I'll put up a collage on the runart blog.

So for day 28 of Janathon I ran the following

5km (23:55) at parkrun
0.8km drawing the H

5.8km

Tap dancing (Janathon day 27)

I did't know what to write about for my blog post so I decided to scrape the barrel..

You know how you go into the toilets in an establishment and they sometimes have the taps (see photo) that you push down and it lets water run? The tap then returns to its original position and cuts off the supply. Usually it will run for 10-20 seconds - just enough time to wash your hands. Quite good really - It helps to prevent drunk people forgetting to turn them off afterwards, thus preventing a flooding incident.

However, every now and then you will encounter a set of taps where the on/off mechanism has worn out and after pushing it to the 'on' position it returns to its 'off' position almost immediately.

Some clever people will try to push the tap down and then get boths hands under the tap before the water cuts off.. this is rarely successful. What you end up doing is using the one-handed mode. You hold down the tap with one hand while trying to scrub the other hand with itself. Then you switch hands resulting in a spot of (sorry) tap dancing!

I know a place where this happens and I go there every week (I'm not naming it). I've got used to it and instead of finding it annoying I actually look forward to my weekly hand-washing-faff.

Consider the barrel scraped.

-----

Janathon
3.4km (17 minutes)

Hoppípolla (Janathon day 26)

The weather forecast for the morning of Janathon day 26 was for heavy rain. Heavy rain has never stopped me going for a run before and it certainly wasn't going to today...

some things i must not forget (i removed some personal details from the id tag - badly)

.. I stepped out onto the wet high street, the rain was not as bad as the forecast had suggested. However, it had been raining all night and was still coming down.

If the sun had woken up I could have avoided them, but at 6.xx in the morning I had to rely on luck to dodge the puddles.. and yet again it was the puddles that caused the problem. On at least six occasions I landed right in a big one and soaked the opposite foot. I may have swore out loud a few times.

My glasses had been soaked by the rain so I ran along not able to really see anything, and for some reason I kept my hands in my pockets for almost the entire run.

5.1km (27 minutes)

#runart (Janathon day 25)

On day 25 I decided that I would attempt to create a new piece of #runart. One that I could be proud of, not like the other two lame attempts!

Ladies and gentlemen I would like to introduce you to 'trafalgar (man)'....

Trafalgar (man)

We have a brand new blog in which we will upload all of out runart attempts. It can be found ---> here

Janathon stats:

3.2km (18:30)

Clinging on (Janathon day 24)

Janathon day 24 was supposed to involve me not running, but......

...as I finished work still having not done anything at all for Janathon so I hit upon the idea of running home from the station. So I jumped off the train (still dressed in my jeans etc) and started my GPS-thingy.

My intention had been to do some body-weight exercise during my lunch break. To keep a short story short. It didn't happen.

The station to home is only about 800 metres. When logging a run I usually say that anything less than 3km is really not worth it, but in these days of Janathon and sore hamstrings I am prepared to log less if required, but not 800 metres.

So I added a few loops at each end of my run jog to make the distance up a bit. I still feel that this is an extremely poor effort. But it is done.

I am now standing in the spare room typing this and doing sets of ten press-ups in-between sentences.

2.1km (twelve-and-a-half minutes)
Push-ups: 10/11/10/10/10..

... then the baby came into the room and pointed at the push-up bars.

I did 10 more. 61 in total.

seventeen minute run (Janathon day 23)

Janathon day 23 was just a quick lunchtime run.

I headed over to St. James's Park, did one lap around the perimeter. Then went inside, over the bridge and then back towards the office.

There were lots of tourists, ducks, pigeons, runners and squirrels.

3.4km (17 minutes)

Animals (Janathon day 22)

Because my hamstrings needed a rest I had already run all the miles that I wanted to run this week I thought it would be fun to play around with some GPS drawings instead of going for a real run. It also gave my legs a chance to have a bit more recovery time.

Firstly, I should explain the story behind this. A few days ago @buriyako posted a link to one of his runs and I noticed that it looked like an ant-eater. In the conversation that followed we decided that we would embark on an animal-themed GPS drawing challenge. @buriyako then posted another run where he had drawn a rhino. It was awesome.

So onto today. It was my turn to try to draw something, I had a look at the road map of Tonbridge to see if anything stood out. After a while I spotted that I could also draw a rhino (but not quite as cool as @buriyako's).

So here is my first effort at drawing an animal using the roads of Tonbridge, I know it's not great but I was working with the roads that are there..

a rhino, yes really!

As that was a very short run I thought I might as well go a little further to make it worth the effort of going out. So I headed off down the high street to attempt to draw a snake..

a snake, but I think I need to find a wider road for the body

The body is a bit too slim, but I did at least make an attempt at drawing the head (the part at the 1km mark).

I am now hard at work looking for other animals to draw on the roads. However, it would probably be better to find an large open space and try something freehand. Watch this space for more, and hopefully better, animals in the future.

1.7km for the rhino
2.1km for the snake

3.8km of recovery running (approx 20 minutes in total)

Riddlesdown parkrun thirty-two (Janathon day 21)

Sitting at home the night before parkrun, I had convinced myself that I was going to stay in bed on Saturday morning thus missing a parkrun for the first time in over six months. The evening went on and I sunk further into a self pity. I could not be bothered to move, let alone get up before sunrise. My parkrun mojo had disappeared.

Then I received an email notifying me of a blog comment from the Riddlesdown race director (@nickiclark), it was the continuation of a conversation from earlier in the day where I had said, in reference to the parkrun, 'whatever happens we'll be there'. Her words were simple but effective 'look forward to seeing you all'. After that message there was no way I could not turn up.

Saturday morning arrived and we headed off to parkrun.

(photo: Cameron Bew)

Earlier in the month I had made some very vague arrangements with @rencestar (blog: runReNcErun) regarding him coming along to parkrun to run with me during our Janathon challenge. I wasn't entirely sure if he was coming or not, but soon after we arrived he magically appeared from somewhere and we headed off to the start line.

We hadn't seen each other since long before Christmas so this was always going to be a social run. We lined up at the back and before we knew it were slowly meandering along the first kilometre chatting away. Soon we found @buriyako (blog: buriyako) who is doing is own version of Janathon, which is basically the same as the official Janathon but with weekly blog posts instead of daily.

(photo: Nicki Clark)

By the time we found the half-way point the eventual winner already had the finish line in sight.

We meandered some more, slightly increasing the pace through the second half. We finally crossed the finish line after more than half-an-hour.

By the way, Mrs7t and the baby came along as always, but as the baby was asleep upon arrival they both stayed in the car. It was probably quite a good decision. It was pretty windy out there.

With the running for the day finished it was time to head off for coffee at The Good Companions pub, which also included cake and yoga. Unfortunately both of my Janathon buddies had to leave straight after the run, so they missed my pitiful demonstration of the pigeon pose.

For Janathon:
5km (over 30 minutes)

Limits (Janathon day 20)

Janathon day 20, the last day of my commute-runs from Bermondsey.

Bermondsey. I think this is from 1918

After a weird late night on Thursday I had to be woken by my emergency alarm on Friday morning.

In the space of 38 hours I embarked on four runs and covered a total distance of 25.5km, under normal circumstances that would be fine, but it has been hard work on my significantly-less-than-100% hamstrings, and today they complained every step of the way.

I took the most direct route to work and was relieved when I finally reached Westminster Bridge.

I am going to take a day off from running over the weekend. I just have to work out which one. If I pick Saturday (the sensible option) it will mean missing the parkrun. If I pick Sunday (my preferred option) it means that I still have another 5k of running to do before resting.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to running in Tonbridge, what with its less intimidating residents and, by comparison, completely empty roads.

5.4km (29 minutes)

There and back again (Janathon day 19)

Day 19 started with rain, lots of it.

I took this photo a few years ago, alas there is no rain in it (photo: me)

As you may remember from day eighteen's post, I am staying in London for a couple of nights and my exercise will be in the shape of commute-runs between Westminster and Bermondsey.

There...

The morning run was nice enough, not too many people around. Had to stop quite a lot due to the crazy amounts of side roads and traffic lights I had to negotiate, Then there was the rain, in itself not a problem. However, I couldn't avoid all of the puddles and my shoes gradually filled with water.

I arrived at work, hung my dripping wet clothes over the radiators. Found a spot where my shoes would have a fighting chance to dry out and carried on with my day. I would be needing my kit again to run back to Bermondsey after work.

...and back again

I finished work and went to see if my kit had dried out. My top, tights, shorts and hat were all fine. After how wet the shoes were I was surprised to find that they had also dried out.

Off I went, as I had already run once today I decided to stick to the shorter, but busier route. I avoided the elephant and castle because I don't like losing my GPS signal in the subways. After dodging a loose dog on a pavement in Bermondsey (typical) and getting caught at loads of road crossings, I arrived at my destination.


Morning run - 5.8km (31 minutes)
Evening run - 6.1km (33 minutes)

Home to home (Janathon day 18)

Janathon day 18 brought with it a change of route..

Spa Road Station (Photo: Local History Library, Borough High Street.)

As I am spending a few days at my parents' house I thought it would be a great opportunity to commute-run via a few different routes. If I take the direct route between work and their house it is almost spot on 5k. However, there is also the option of using the Southbank of the River Thames for a nicer route. In total there should be four runs during my stay.

The first run takes me from work to their house (Westminster to Bermondsey). I chose the river route as I really didn't want to deal with the traffic. At first I stayed on the North side of the river, then crossed over the wobbly bridge and continued along the Southbank until I reached Tower Bridge. After that I disappeared into the dark streets of Bermondsey.

I passed what used to be Spa Road Train Station - It initially closed down over 100 years before I was born. There are still a few clues that it existed, you just have to look close enough to spot them. I only found out in the last few years that there used to be a station there. Weird that I grew up a few minutes away and nobody thought to tell me - maybe they didn't know, or maybe they wouldn't think that I'd be interested.

After that I swooped around a few more corners and finished my run at my parents' house.

8.2km (41 minutes)

By the way, check out what @rencestar did on Janathon day 17 at the exact spot he reached 100 Janathon kilometres. I'm quite jealous that I didn't think of this!

Steve.

Han Solo (Janathon day 17)

Temperature: -3

On the coldest day of the year so far, I had planned a very early morning run (official start time 06:10).

It was absolutely freezing, but in a very calm 'everything is frozen' kind of way. The sky was completely clear and moon was shining brightly. Once I was off of the main roads and away from the light polution, my eyes adjusted and a previously hidden skyscape of a million stars revealed itself to me. It was stunning.

Still, it couldn't take away the fact that I was freezing. I wore my Nike Free 3.0 v3's, which are pretty minimal, so my feet had very little in the way of insulation. My face had frozen into it's 'oh fuck it's so cold' expression - I think it is still like it!

I even managed to get to work on time, but then I went for breakfast and arrived at my desk 15 minutes late.

7.27km (36-and-a-bit-minutes)

The two towers (Janathon day 16)

On a normal Monday I would be taking a rest day, but Mondays in January are not normal, are they?

I started from the base of The Great Clock Tower...

Looped around the river (making some GPS shapes on Lambeth Bridge in the process)

Then finished at Victoria Tower.

It was a recovery run, at least the distance was, the pace was faster than I had planned. The pavements are so flat and smooth next to the river that it is really easy to run too fast - It was still in my 'easy' zone though.

21 Minutes (4.3km)

Ice age coming.. (Janathon day 15)

.. ice age coming, let me hear both sides, let me hear both sides, let me hear......

//we're not scare mongering, this is REALLY happening... happening.

I felt a bit like a toy that's been left in the attic for twenty years and then pulled out again. Not flowing particularly well. I wasn't really sure what I was heading out to do distance wise, but I knew that I wanted to spend an hour on the streets. I dialed the speed right down to very slow and plodded along with my current favourite soundtrack - Radiohead.

Everythiiiiiing.... in it's right place..

Round and round the streets, trying not to run down the same street twice - I like to keep my GPS lines from crossing on the map!

I've been waiting... patient. Patiently.

I ran past a very self-important looking runner. Clearly taking herself way too seriously and not even able to squeeze out a smile or a hello.

Give me an answer, give me a line..

It was a lovely crisp, clear morning. Having a lie-in on a Sunday is nice, but can't match running in these conditions. Once I had finished, I took some photos as the sun was rising above the houses (see above). Then I crept back into the warm house to have some breakfast and watch 'click' on the iplayer.

11.2km (one hour and one minute).