Come on back, stop being sore…. or come on back to Aberdeen?
This has been a frustrating week. It was intended to be an
easy week, coming off a tough five weeks. I flew to Aberdeen on Sunday night
for another work trip, and intended to rest on Monday, have an easy run-out
with Metro Aberdeen Running Club on Tuesday night, rest/fly back to London on
Wednesday, have a short easy turbo/run on Thursday night, rest on Friday, do a
ParkRun on Saturday, and have an easy swim on Sunday, before starting into
another tough training block the following week.
I lived in Aberdeen for about 18 months and I really enjoyed
it there. If I was told that I would live and work there for the next twenty
years, I’d settle for that. I’d even be very happy with that. Anyway, despite
this trip being only 3 nights, I brought a wheelie case containing my training
gear, my food supplements, and all the work-related items I needed. Again, I
put a lot of effort into minimising my chances of picking up a cold or an
illness, but it’s still frustrating to be put into non-ideal situations which
are beyond my control.
Anyway, Monday went according to plan and I had an easy rest
day. I even treated my muscles to a hot bath in the hotel. I went down to the
running club on Tuesday night and saw a couple of familiar faces, I had a good
chat with my first coach, met some new people, and was somewhat dismayed to
find that the session wasn’t going to be the usual 9-10 mile run that I could slowly
run around. Instead the session was 9 x 800m repetitions – not what I wanted to
do. My philosophy for Ironman running training is not to run sessions like
this, as there is no need and they are too risky in terms of getting injured. Nevertheless,
I did the session, and although it was tough, I ran well and it was good to run
with Metro again. I munched down a protein bar straight after the session and
although my legs were sore and tight after it, I felt like I had gotten away
with it. Indeed, coming off this session I felt like I was in shape to run 10K
in under 33 minutes and started to think about trying to find a 10K race to do
in the next month or two.
My Metro running jacket
I’ve had this jacket for ten years now. It used to be
totally waterproof and fluorescent yellow, but now it is totally permeable and a
faded, translucent washed-out colour. It has clocked up a lot of miles of running and
cycling, and has also clocked up a lot of airmiles, having been worn all over
the world. It has also clocked up a lot of washing machine spins, which is
probably why it isn’t waterproof and fluorescent any more…
On Wednesday I flew back to London and had to carry my case
up and down several flights of stairs. I went to bed on Wednesday night feeling
like I had “survived” the Aberdeen trip – I had kept my discipline, kept my
diet under control, seemed not to have picked up any colds or bugs, and I
seemed to have gotten away with the tough run on Tuesday night.
Things started to derail on Thursday morning when I couldn’t
bend over to get my porridge out of the low cupboard and when I couldn’t bend
over to put socks and shoes on. My back felt tight and it seemed like it was
going to be another horrible episode of back pain. I went to work and it
loosened slightly as I began to move. After a couple of hours at work, I tried
to stand up to go to the toilet and I realised I was in big trouble when I
couldn’t get out of my seat. My back had completely seized up, I was really
struggling to move and in excruciating pain. Having just recently gotten over a
bout of back pain, I really didn’t need a repeat.
Lunchtime was spent phoning round local chiropractors and
osteopaths to see if anyone had available appointments at short notice. Later that
afternoon, I somehow shuffled to my emergency appointment and was fairly
shocked to see in a full-length mirror just how crookedly I was standing. My back
had locked and the muscles were totally rigid, and after five attempts to free it
up, the osteopath called it quits as he felt he was doing more damage than
good. He said it was a very bad case. There wasn’t much more he could do other
than advise anti-inflammatories, stretching, ice and heat treatments, and he
suggested I return when the back had loosened slightly. He could then perform a
full diagnosis and treatment. He suggested that perhaps my problem from earlier
this year hadn’t been properly cured and that he would be able to tell me more
when my rigid muscles had loosened. I feared another 3 or 4 weeks of debilitating
and restrictive back pain, hugely compromising training.
I went back to work, and stayed late to make up the hours
lost at the osteopath. By the time I had struggled home it was nearly bedtime
and I couldn’t fathom how I would cook anything as I couldn’t bend over or
reach out. So, disgusted with myself, I resorted to a microwave roast chicken
dinner. The cooking instructions told me to remove the stuffing ball from the
tray, heat for six minutes, place the stuffing ball back into the tray, and
heat for a further six minutes. The stuffing ball looked like a pickled
testicle, and to say it also tasted like a picked testicle would probably be an
insult to picked testicles. The rest of the “dinner” was about as appealing and
tasty as a plate of damp sawdust. Then I went to bed and (honestly!) had a
nightmare about having a rear wheel flat tyre during the Ironman. A rear flat
tyre will ruin my race because of the integrated hidden rear brakes, rear
derailleur, and valve extenders. It’s a time-consuming and stressful job to fix
a rear flat tyre at the best of times, never mind under race conditions.
It’s fair to say that Thursday was a bad day, and a big
contrast from feeling so good at the end of last week.
Friday dawned and the back felt slightly easier. I kept
taking the anti-inflammatories and did some stretching exercises. I used ice
and heat on my back, and went to bed early on Friday night, sleeping for 13
hours. Saturday dawned and it felt easier again and I continued with the
stretching, ice and heat treatments.
My heat pack: This goes in the microwave for 3 minutes, and then it goes on whatever part of me hurts, and theoretically it relieves pain. It's very versatile: it can also be frozen and used to ice painful areas too.
I spun the bike on the turbo trainer for 30 minutes on
Saturday evening and got away with it. Then I had dinner with my housemates and
in a lapse of self-discipline stayed up until 3am drinking wine (my first drink
for 4 months) and eating cake with Rolo yogurt desserts (my first, second and
third desserts for 4 months). Yes, I am ashamed to say I had three Rolo yogurt
desserts. Diet-wise, this was a terrible week: wine, Rolo yogurt desserts, and
a horrible microwave roast chicken “dinner”. When combined with the sore back, it
has been a bad week. And this should have been an easy week…
Today I swam an easy 3K and tomorrow I will see the
osteopath again and hopefully he will actually be able to cure my problem and
get my back sorted. So hopefully it won’t turn into another 3 or 4 weeks of
agony like last time.
The frustrating thing is that I have no idea why it happened
all of a sudden. There was no trigger. It just got bad overnight, and got very
bad between 8am and 10am at work. I can speculate that the 9 x 800m run on
Tuesday night was too tough a session and one run too many after such a tough
five weeks. I can speculate that standing around in Aberdeen didn’t do my back
any good. I can speculate that carrying my case up and down stairs and on and
off public transport didn’t do my back any good. I can speculate that maybe I
slept awkwardly on it. I can speculate that a combination of all of these
things was too much for my back. These are the margins and this is how
highly-strung my body seems to be.
That said, it does seem like my back is a lot easier now
than it was on Thursday and hopefully my osteopath will put it right tomorrow
and I can get back into another training block from Tuesday. Hopefully next
week can’t be any worse than this week.
On the plus side, Ireland won their 6 Nations rugby match
against Italy and today the temperature hit 20oC, the warmest day of
the year so far, and I hope we are through the winter.
Never give up…
Training this week as follows:
Monday 3rd March: Rest
Tuesday 4th March: Run 9 x 800m (approx.): 2:32, 2:17, 2:15, 2:15, 2:14, 2:14, 2:17, 2:15, 2:20 (1:20 recovery)
Wed 5th March: Rest
Thurs 6th March: Rest
Friday 7th March: Rest
Saturday 8th March: 30 minute turbo
Sunday 9th March: Swim 3K
Tuesday 4th March: Run 9 x 800m (approx.): 2:32, 2:17, 2:15, 2:15, 2:14, 2:14, 2:17, 2:15, 2:20 (1:20 recovery)
Wed 5th March: Rest
Thurs 6th March: Rest
Friday 7th March: Rest
Saturday 8th March: 30 minute turbo
Sunday 9th March: Swim 3K
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