On Thursday on my way back home, I arranged to visit my Uncle's Chiropractic clinic in York. I'd spoken to him about my knee and hip problems and my concerns about my orthotics.
He took one look at me and said you are all twisted. Specifically my pelvis was twisted and tilted down and to the right I think he said. He instructed his massage therapist to massage some specific areas. These included my lower back, which even as he massaged it began to crack and crunch as muscles softened. He also massaged my right knee, behind the knee and one of the tendons on the right side of my lower leg that attaches to the bone below the knee (can't remember its name?). After he had finished my uncle came back in. He also did some massage before doing some spinal adjustments. The very first adjustment he made gave such a resounding crack I could hardly believe it. 'That was an excellent release' said my uncle. He made several more and then made an appointment for the following evening at his Sheffield practice.
At his clinic the following day, I was first seen by his sports massage therapist. A runner herself, she explained what my various pain was being caused by. She massaged my lower back first, and commented she could visibly see the misalignment as I was lying on my stomach. She also told me the cause of the pain I have been getting on the bond to the right and just below my knee was the tendon that runs down to my ankle. She massaged that too and said it was very tight. That was pretty painful, I had no idea it was that tight. I've wondered for ages what was causing the pain on that bone; now I know. After she finished my Uncle Kevin (Dr K P Burns) did more massage, and the adjustments on me again; with some more satisfying crunches. Afterwards he put me on his interferential machine (passes electric current through pads attached to the body). I'm booked in again to see him on Tuesday evening.
The following day I was amazed to find that I was walking without any knee pain. Even just walking has been hurting me recently. I could also climb stairs without pain too. Descending I could still feel a slight twinge, but nothing too serious.
So, being Saturday I planned a route. I now need to build up my multi-day experience so I planned a 15 mile on Saturday and a 15 mile on Sunday; both with 6 kilo backpacks.
The route from Saturday is posted below. It includes the hill profile as well as the speed profile. My replacement PDA arrived this week.
This route looked good on paper, so to speak, but in reality it was much trickier. I attempted to keep to the 20 minutes run: 5 minutes walk routine, but because of the terrain this invariably proved impossible. I had chosen to run off-road wherever possibly. This meant choosing some pretty obscure footpaths, which I doubt are ever often used. It was very stop/go, constantly stopping to climb over stiles into the next field. Also, I was frequently trying to traverse knee-high (or higher) grass fields. It's not easy to walk in these, let alone run! Also, annoyingly land-owners (read 'farmers') had decided the hundreds of year old rights-of-way footpaths had no business on their land and had attempted to remove all trace of them from their land. Many stiles were totally gone, to be replaced with barbed wire or even electric fences. So, trying to navigate was a challenge. Other stiles had rotted, or broken. You can see from the speed profile on the map that my pace frequently dropped to 0 mph momentarily as I stopped to climb fences/barbed wire/hedges. I was pretty annoyed and have a good mind to notify the countryside agency about the farmers in question.
I only took one photo that day; It was a warm day, around 21-23C.
I used 2 x 800ml of SIS Go electrolyte during the route, and 100g of nibbles (cashew nuts, dried banana, dried cranberries, and dried mango). The 800ml ran out after about 2 and half hours. In a warmer climate I would undoubtedly use much more than that. I would guess about 800ml per hour. In the end the 15.2 mile route took me 3:17, with an average 4.5mph. The constant stop/start and tough terrain took it's toll on my pace as you can see. About half way around both my knees were hurting and I realised I'd not put my shoe orthotics back in my trainers. I had taken them out and trained a couple of times to see if their made a difference. It hadn't, but I forgot to put them back in. Still, I'd made it round without much discomfort and was pretty happy with the effort.
I made myself a Rego recovery drink and drank it whilst I sat in freezing cold bath! I don't have enough ice to make a proper ice-bath, but the water straight out of the cold tap was cold enough. The idea here is that it reduces muscle soreness. I withstood about 10 minutes, drinking all the recovery drink, before I jumped out and tried to warm back up again!
The following day I put my orthotics back in, and got my girlfriend to drop me off in the village of Swynnerton so I could run cross-country back home. I learned my lesson from the day before and chose a better route. Below is the route along with the hill and speed profile from the effort.
You can see from the speed profile that this time I managed a proper 20 minute run, 5 minute walk pattern throughout, almost without exception. You can see my running pace appears just under the 6mph line (it’s actually about 5.5mph), and then periodically (almost every 2 miles) drops to just under 4mph for 5 minutes. I did make one exception between 6 and 8.5miles where I did a 30 minute run, before walking. My knee pain was still present, but not as acute. The left knee pain had gone now my orthotics were back in. A couple of photos I took of the typical terrain from Sunday.
Once again, I ran through Swynnerton old forest which includes sandy trails. I may focus some sessions in this forest, as the terrain will match much of what I will encounter in La Trans Aqu in June.
I completed the route which was 14.6 miles in 2:57 at 4.9mph, a much better pace. I was tired towards the end of the route, but after 2 days and 30 miles running effort I'm happy with what I achieved. It's certainly down to the work my uncle performed on me. If you ever have a sports injury or need a chiropractor in Sheffield, York, Hull or Doncaster go and see Kevin Burns. He treats British athletes and footballers, so has a lot of experience with sports injuries, I can't recommend him enough for his help. He visits all of his practices during the week, and has done for about 20 years, a real hard grafter!
I iced my legs and had one ibuprofen, just to keep any inflammation down and today I feel good and well rested. Slight niggle from my knee but nothing serious, plus today is my day off training for recovery, so that's a bonus.
Now, equipment tests: During the weekends efforts I was doing a dress rehearsal almost.
I wore my Railriders Ecomesh shirt, Hilly shorts, Asics Kayano socks, New Balance MDS1100 trainers, Raidlight backpack and front pack with 6 kilos weight, and Timex Ironman watch and GPS unit.
Railriders shirt - As always performed perfectly, definitely going to France and Morocco.
Hilly shorts - These started to chaff my thigh on the Sunday. Either I will have to use cycling style shorts or apply Bodyglide lubricant to prevent this. More investigation needed.
Asics socks - Perfect. Used in conjunction with Leukotape on my toes and soles of feet, I got no blisters. Yes for France and Morocco.
MDS1100 Trainers - Excellent - definitely for use in France and Morocco.
Raidlight backpack - This has never rubbed me once in over years use, even loaded with 6 kilos. Definite for France and Morocco.
Raidlight front pack - Useful for holding nibbles and a 1.5l water bottle to balance the weight in the back. However, I need some kind of a belt to secure it to my waist to prevent the 1.5l water bottle banging against my stomach/chest. I will use this, but the securing method needs more investigation.
Timex watch and GPS - Definite for France and Morocco so I can determine my pace. I must ensure I take spare batteries, probably 2 more.
After I got back from Saturdays run, I used my MSR titanium kettle on the hob at home and cooked up some of the rice I intend to eat for an evening meal. I also bought a Trangia aluminium mess tin to eat out of, and Titanium 'spork' to eat with. The cooking went well, and I learned a few tricks at the same time. Not putting the lid on too tightly as it's hard to get off!
Now, interestingly the rice (455 calories) didn't satisfy my hunger. I had to finish off the nibbles I had left over from the run (about 50g or 100 calories), plus I ate two pop tarts (400 calories. I'm using these for breakfast too) before I felt more full. You must take 2000 calories minimum per day for the event. It looks like I will need about 2500, probably another 1/4 kilos in weight. Still it's better to be well fed, than hungry and not properly fuelled for the next day’s effort. I will try out a couple of other meals to see if they prove more satisfying, as I want to try and keep the pop tarts for breakfast only. However, they are light and pack a lot of calories and carbs, so if I have to eat them at night too I will.
So, I've had a productive week. I’ve had some chiropractic treatment, I've clocked up 42 miles and I've done some useful equipment tests. Let’s hope after another couple of Chiro sessions I will be in totally fixed and can focus on this last 6 weeks of hard training.
Have a good week.
No comments:
Post a Comment