The Comeback Continues: A Pain Free parkrun

The third trip to the physio mid-week confirmed that I am now able to start running again, albeit a gentle reintroduction. College was unexpectedly cancelled on Thursday evening, so what better than a cheeky 2 mile assessment instead to see how things where. The two miles turned out to be quite tough going. I tried to keep a steady sub 10 minute mile pace and found it difficult on the return leg of my route back up the incline. But I did it and that was the main thing.

So Friday night came along and with a healthy looking volunteer roster, Saturday would be a parkrun day for me! Number 3 of 2012 - target for this year is 18 parkruns (compared to just 7 in 2011). Martin Hancock was the day's Run Director, so my job beforehand was to make sure that the finish team were up to speed. Target today was to complete the 5km route in one piece (and not lose my St Patrick's Day hat or choke on my newly acquired ginger beard). A steady pace would be required and a sub 30 minute time would be a bit too much for me at this time.

Photo by Kev Baldry

The run began with me at the back with a slow start. Once the 1km marker appeared I then thought about upping the pace a little bit, looked at my Garmin and no display - it had died on me. Oh well, not to worry, I'm not after a time anyway. So off I plod at a comfortable pace. All was going well until I got to dodgy corner on lap 2 - a car was working its way through the runners en route to the Parkridge Centre. The driver looked rather worried, so I stopped running and marshalled him through, costing me 60 seconds on my time. Anyway, off I went again, thanking the marshals as I went through as a good parkrunner does. With 400 metres to go there were about half a dozen people only 25 metres in front of me, so I started to pick up the pace a lot more and then at 200 to go turned it into a full sprint and took the lot of them - very satisfying (sorry!).

Overall a successful run, but no idea of my time. I thought it was about 32-33 minutes, but the official result was a surprising 29mins 28s. So I am very surprised how well I did - I felt really good on the run and felt no discomfort. Hours later there was no after affect or sore hip to notice. A great day indeed - the comeback continues.

With the success of my parkrun on Saturday, Sunday had the temptation of another run. But that would be too much too soon, so to satisfy my need to do something a trip to the bottom of the garden and a 500 stroke row on the rowing machine was the non-impact exercise to keep me going.

Turning a Corner

The trips to the physio seem to be paying off, the exercises are certainly making a difference. At the second visit to the physio, the magic word 'run' was used when giving permission to proceed. Yes, the full rest is officially over and now a gentle running phase can now begin - can't go mad or for too long a distance, but a gentle run/jog is now on the schedule.

So what better opportunity than the Fradley 10k. Another event that I had booked pre-injury; I was praised for my approach to the last 10k (jog/walk), so a gentle jog was the way to go in Fradley. Shame really as this is where I set my 10k PB back in 2010 (57:23) and today was supposed to be the day when that record was broken. But that will have to wait until another day. Plan was to start at the back, jog slowly at the beginning and take it from there, I'm in no hurry (though sub 75 minutes would be nice - sometimes you just can't help yourself!). But times soon went out the window, I just wanted to run comfortably and that's what I did - I found a nice pace, just taking me along, no pressure.

I didn't look at my watch, no point really, too focussed on wanting to run comfortably. But I soon warmed up and found I was having to hold myself back - no need to push it, just enjoy it. The last thing I want to do now is have a set back. At 4 miles I did have a sense that the hip injury was there, so switched to a walk every half mile or so. By 6 miles that sensation had eased, so for the last 0.2 miles I ran, just to get the satisfaction of overtaking as many as possible on the way to the finish. I stopped my watch on the line and hey - sub 63 mins for a non-running 10k! 

After the run I did a few stretches and then stretched more before driving home. No real effects from the run for the rest of the day (just tired legs) and then no worse the next morning. Fantastic, it couldn't have gone much better! Who fancies a cheeky short run in the week?

Let's Get Physio!

After the half marathon in Wrexham, I felt sore for the rest of the week, so no running took place. Then Friday came and my appointment with Kerry at the Studley Physiotherapy Centre (but located in Redditch rather than Studley!).

The main thing was that wearing shorts was the correct attire, so I was off to a good start! I described my running - how long I had been running, number of miles per week etc etc. She asked whether I had bought new trainers recently, changed running surface and so on. There's been no change really, so not much information. Then came the physical assessment - first the gait, then a few stretches and then to the hip problem itself. Onto the couch and my leg was moved into different positions with does this hurt? 'no' and then one was 'Does this hurt? 'OMG YES! That is excruciating!' The conclusion quickly arrived at is my hip-flexor is the problem.

The good news is that it is not damaged, the issue is more that all of my leg muscles are too tight and this is leading to this kind of problem. So the remainder of the 40 minute session was to establish the initial stretching regime I am to follow - three main stretches to start with, including one for my forever sore shin which is that way because the muscle in front of the leg is overdeveloped for the muscle behind it.

I left fully reassured that recovery is on the way - it would take a few weeks and proper running is out of the question (a few gentle cheeky 2 miles here and there are allowed).

Armed with this information I decided to go ahead with the Hotelympia 10k in London Docklands featuring Steve Cram. This is a flat as a pancake course and the second fastest 10k I have ever run (57:51 in 2010), but my 2012 time would be 1hr 31 - a PW because I did a jog/walk, but I felt OK after 2 miles and brilliant afterwards. A worthwhile day and the next morning I saw Jedward at breakfast in the hotel.

The following weekend was the Centurion Grand Prix. I'm not ready for that yet and the uneven surface may not be a good idea at this time, so I gave it a miss - favouring a cheeky 2 mile run near home. I started off at a steady pace, but after one mile the hip was giving me a few reminders why I had not been running properly for the last 8 weeks, so from 1.5 miles I did a walk/run. I'm pleased with that, progress is being made and more importantly, a few hours after the run, I am not in pain. Next physio appointment is on Wednesday.