End of swimming block

This evening was the 5th and final session of the Goodwin block. As time has gone on I've found the sessions more enjoyable and actually worked harder in them. I'm still hopeless at breaststroke as my legs do not want to go in the right direction. At least that is now clear to me. I've gained a few tips on freestyle and I suspect that when I next try a general swimming session thing will be easier.

We did a 'sprint' length of freestyle and even though I was amongst the slow group I managed 33m in 38 seconds. Ok, I was out of breath, but how come I can't manage a regular 60s per length when I'm going gently. Perhaps, as in running, some fast sections can train for faster slow lengths (if that makes any sense!?). We've also been given a little training plan for freestyle detailing the various drills we've tried. As we're able to borrow the floats at the pool there's no reason not to include the programme, or elements of it, at a general session.

The wednesday circuit is my favourite session at Fairplay so I don't think I'll be doing the next swim block but perhaps I'll try to find a way of interleaving blocks. On my feedback form I mentioned my wish for 1-2-1 coaching so I might hear something about that.

Garmin error on Dore loop

Yesterday evening I ran the Dore moor road loop that's my traditional Tuesday circuit. Before and during my knees felt fine although today the left is a bit delicate around the patellar tendon (again!). I'm going to the physio next week so I wonder if she'll advise more recovery time?

For some unknown reason the first 1.5km didn't record on my GPS so the whole trip pace appears slower than it really was. It was fairly slow though as shown by individual segment times. Anyway, I shouldn't be bothering with that. It's training, not a race, and I've a bit of an injury!

Heart rate was pretty good- less than 140bpm averaged in each 1 km and even looking at the steep ascents it was below 150bpm.

Back to the park

The knees felt OK, but rather than hammer them I went to the park to meet the not-quite-a-club and ran Porter Clough and back - via a few extra hillocks. The ascent time was unremarkable and not as good as I was doing 18 months ago. As I'm 'injured' perhaps that's not surprising. The new segment history tool on Strava is great for showing progress, or lack of it.

The icy weather had made the grass into a forest of silver shards which cracked as you ran over them. There could have been some lovely photos but I was travelling light. (The local Parkrun had been cancelled due to hazardous conditions.)

I was very careful on the steep descents (that means slow) but tried to be speedy and precise on shallow gradient. I also noticed that I was being lazy on ascents and then worked to lift my feet a bit more. It felt better.

Easy 6km on the road

I was undecided whether to run tonight. My knees felt much improved so 'relative rest' made sense. But equally they weren't perfect so should I abstain for another 5 weeks? So many mixed messages. I went for the physio's usual approach of doing less, more slowly and set off to do 6km which is half of my normal Tuesday loop. Also I dressed warmly to encourage a slow speed.

The weather was pretty foul so it was good to be warm although perhaps not necessary when running into a strong headwind. On the final descent I was aware of both patellar tendon and quadriceps insertion discomfort (although very mild) from both knees. My solution was to focus on my gait, lifting my feet more, a good forward lean and feet up behind me. That felt to improve things and I reached home uneventfully.

After rollering and stretching everything felt fine so all's well. There's swimming tomorrow which is non-impact, late working on Thursday so little opportunity for a run, thus there'll be rest for the knees for a couple of days.

Saturday swim

I hadn't swum much in November as the running miles increased but as this was a run rest week it seemed wise to do  second swim. As usual it felt like hard work but I worked at a front quadrant approach and having a tiny glide element. I also used my legs a bit more, mainly to try to stop them from sinking and acting as a brake. During the session I had to move into a 25m section and that is always a lot easier than the full 33.3m as 'breathers' happen more frequently. Conversely at one end there's nothing to push off from so you have to build up speed from a 'splosh'.

The timing was good with a pace under 4min for 100m for the first time in ages. Is this due to the swimming class, a rest week or merely a chance outcome? It might, but hopefully not, be a timing error.

Breaststroke

Last week I was content with missing the swimming class as I understood it to be the breaststroke week. I was wrong. It was backstroke and today was breaststroke. I elected to run with the class and found it hard work. On some occasions I seemed to be moving backwards despite moving my legs. I've come to the conclusion that I will not be able to do the stroke well now as my legs are just too stiff. I cannot put my feet 'like a penguin' and when I make the effort my legs are locked and refuse to fold inwards. The idea of whipping my knees together doesn't sound great either! Compared to all of this freestyle/front crawl seems to need fewer contortions.

I've had reservations about this block of classes and if there's always a week of breaststroke I'd not want to do that again.

On the walk home my legs felt a bit delicate around the knees but it soon settled. My hip flexors were painful for two days!

Is 4 days enough?

So after 4 days of non-running my knee is feeling much better. There is some slight stiffness to it when I wake up, overall I think there's a slight patellar tendonitis. Naturally I've done over 6km of walking each day just to and from work but no other exercise. I'm going swimming soon and hopefully that won't upset it.

The big thing to consider now is when to try a run and how much can I risk? The 40km per week really seems to be a threshold for me. Over 2014 I've ramped up to it twice and each time had to back off. This time I have been more gradual and included a rest week after 2 weeks of effort. I'm disappointed that this scheme hasn't worked out. Maybe this is just a little set back as my knee is not as delicate as it was in spring - I really don't want to over do it and go back that far again.

Being self-critical I know that I have neglected the leg strengthening exercises at home. At the circuit class I have been doing more squats and lunges and managing to get them a little deeper without invoking pain.

Looking online there is a lot if excitement around declined single leg eccentric squats, some articles suggest they are great (note there was 6 week's rest in this study!), others warn off. The whole business of eccentric loading is very unclear from serious literature. One of the physiotherapists I saw last year was keen on eccentric single leg squats without the decline board but then again he encouraged too much loading!

Platelet-rich therapy is up and coming and some authors claim great success. Indeed they may genuinely be successful as many innovative techniques are incredibly sensitive to operator's skill and methodological 'tricks' (indeed I went to Scandinavia to do post-doctoral research specifically to see certain techniques in the hands of experts). Unfortunately it seems that PRT does not offer a reproducible gain.

I am thinking that long term slow loading is the way to go; slower but fewer risks?