Ongoing recovery

I've noted that for the last 8 months there's been a steady increase in my running distance. This comes after stopping in April 2019 when it seemed that some discomfort around my left heel/ankle/achilles was getting worse. After some rehabilitation work I started to swap in walking instead of running, keep up with circuits and limit bouncing loading.

Unfortunately the increase in running has occurred with a reduction in swimming but there are only so many active hours in a week! Now I need to keep this level for a while, a goal of 120km a month is probably right for while.

Pickering 2019

One again we've spent a week in Pickering.  The access to moorland, coast and in foul weather, York and Malton is a great combination for a break close to home. The weather was mixed, mostly changeable with occasional heavy showers until Friday when it was quite warm. Unusually there wasn't a day which was very wet and so we didn't visit York,

Running

Regular readers will know that I'm gradually re-starting running after an achilles tendon issue and so I didn't do any major runs. I went out briefly early evening twice and was glad of the flatness around the town as that gave me an easy time and allowed me to run  for a few minutes longer,

Swimming

I managed to fit in 3 swims. A basic internal session at Ryedale Swim and Fitness Centre which was great (for me) due to being nearly empty. I also managed to be at Helmsley Open Air Pool at opening time. The pool is freshly relined but the changing facilities are basic. Nonetheless it was lovely to swim under a blue sky in pleasantly warm water. Whilst I was there the pool became progressively busier and it became hard to swim repeated lengths as they don't have a lane system.

Finally we drove out to Northallerton and Ellerton Lake. The lake is a great resource and unlike most swimming lakes it's open practically all day, every day. I find the buoy layout very confusing but I suspect that is my problem and no-one seems very bothered about traffic so long as it's clockwise.

I managed just over 1500m, supposedly three full laps is a mile, with a fair few breaks to work out where I was going and due to being tired! I'm out of practice at swimming into the wind.

Hiking

We did a variety of hikes including a short one on Sutton Bank and a longer one through Dalby Forest. We walked a fair way along Filey Beach, a few youngsters were paddling but even though the wind was slight I wasn't tempted as the sea is susceptible to poor quality, especially when there is heavy rain.

Tired legs

I've run both days this weekend, just as I have for many weekends before. Even the same routes! Both runs have felt very hard work, my legs have been heavy and lacking power whilst overall I've felt simply tired. I pushed on, walked as necessary and both days I've completed at pretty much the usual pace.

I wonder if I can blame swimming for my lethargy, at least in part, as this is the first week that I've swum for over an hour in the week since May. Some of that swimming was done with the ToyBuoy but it was still exercise and I have been trying to 'engage the core' and 'lift my legs' throughout so it will have had some impact on me. It is notable that my faster Sunday runs tend to be when I haven't done a run on Saturday; the back-to-back arrangement is tiring.

It's also been arduous at work and I've even had to do some tasks over the weekend, which is quite unusual for me, so I suspect my 'stress bucket' is overflowing.

Gardening

On previous saturdays over the last month or so, I've done a swim in the morning and a short run in the afternoon. Today I opted out of the run having spent an hour in the garden. I was tidying up after a gardner who is clearing some bushes. He'd left some timber for the poor burning stove and that needed trimming and moving into the shed.

There was also a small tree to remove that he'd not wanted to bother with, being too fiddly for a chain saw. Easy with a bow saw though.

A decent long run at last

I've been able to build on last week's 20km and today managed to do 23km and thus exceed a half marathon distance comfortably. Of course the pace was slow as I was working on limiting my heart rate but it felt great to be out for over 2 hours.

The route was my Blacka Moor half marathon as described in the (almost 3 year old) video above. The day started a little cool but with the ascent onto the moor the sun came out and I was plenty warm enough for the rest of the trip.

Last week I complained of feeling tired as soon as I left the house and today it was apparent that I was on the cusp of being ill last time. Today I was negligibly faster but found the run far less 'work'. It's also been an easier week physically as I've not done a swim at all.

A rather sparse week due to feeling lousy

Out and about

This morning I had the chance to do a morning run before the predicted wet weather arrived. Perhaps the morning was warmer than I expected as within half an hour I felt over-dressed, but I do prefer being a little too warm than a lot too cold! The light and warmth during this week have given an impression of spring arriving and that possibility was supported by the first bluebells that I've seen this year.

The ascent up Limb Valley was muddy, near the top as is so often the case but really in such a lovely spot one can't complain. I had hoped to continue up to Oxstones but unfortunately I didn't have enough time and headed via the scenic route back home.

At 13.2km this is the longest run for a month. I'm definitely feeling ready to get back into running now.

Morning runs again?

Nine weeks ago was the last time that I ran on a Saturday morning and although I managed 14km it was too uncomfortable to want to try again. Now my gut disturbance has been much improved for 6 days such that I've not suffered from pain at all.

Today the Cofield pool was on 9am opening with 9am children's lessons  so I'd have had no chance of a decent swim. My arms and shoulders still feel a little tired and achy from the last 2 weeks of hard work so perhaps that was a good thing.  So, with supposedly pain-free guts I ran around the woods. I had been tempted to do a half-marathon route but that would have been stupid after not managing anything over 10km, and nothing before 17:00 for literally months. A longer run can be done another week when I'm sure I'm a bit more in training and not going to take a step backwards.

Ecclesall Woods are always lovely so I completed a 9km loop, including a slight extension as I was feeling fine!

From Alcatel Pop D1 Android phone,

I wasn't rushing and took the opportunity to trial the Alcatel Pop D1 a little further on both Tracking and photography. The camera isn't great, it does get the essence of a scene but nothing more. The GPS worked a little better than previously and I'll write about that elsewhere.

Nothing to worry about

This evening I've been assured by Kim that my ankle niggles are probably down to a bit of fatigue/damage in the peroneus muscles. These run from the lateral border of the fibula to the outer border and sole of the foot - this probably explains the slightly 'odd' feeling of my middle toes. The two major peroneus muscles have ligaments that run around the lateral malleolus and this is a common site of referred 'trigger point' pain even though there is little muscle at that area. These diffuse areas of referred pain help explain why I have found it hard to say exactly where the pain is.

Trigger point around ankle from website

The physio checked for nerve tightness & trapping and muscle weakness and felt that there was no clear underlying damage. It is likely, as I suspected, that I have slightly overloaded the peroneus longus on Tuesday's faster run by inversion whilst running on the uneven roots and stones found in the woods. The observation that there is no tenderness around the malleolus helps to confirm that the connective tissue isn't unduly inflamed. By the common classification of sprains my niggle is a lot milder than a Grade 1 on the 1 to 3 scale.

So, I need to keep it mobilised to prevent scarring and increase the strengthening exercises. I already do wobble board single leg balance exercises which I find quite easy but I've been encouraged to add single leg calf raises to the programme to help reduce the risk of future injury.