Quadriceps and more

Some recent updates, starting with the most annoying one:

1. Strained my quadriceps (or more accurately my http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastus_medialis) yesterday while running a half marathon. Took me by surprise, because this muscle group hasn't been a problem at all until now. A bit of googling tells me that "An imbalance between weak quadriceps and stronger hamstrings can also cause the injury, a condition that is common among runners". Also that it's more common for people who sit at a desk for most of their working day because the quadriceps is (unnaturally) extended for long periods of time. That's 2 out of 2 for me. I've done longer runs, but not suffered this pain before, so why now? I'm thinking that it's because this run was 11km mostly downhill, and the return was 11km mostly uphill,. And it wasn't until the last few kms that it started to hurt (at which point I switched to power walking). In other words it was more prolonged uphill than I've done before. QED. I'm pretty sure it's a minor injury, but doubtless will mean that, again, I'm going to be partially off my marathon programme and easing myself back onto it over the next couple of weeks.
2. Got my smartphone back from the repairers, so I'm back in business from a GPS / Runstatic perspective. Something very weird happened on my run yesterday though.... I'm running along, listening to music on my headphones, and suddenly the volume increases to maximum for no apparent reason. Ouch. So I dive for the volume button, bring it back to normal levels... and then it happens again. I thought maybe there was some physical pressure on the volume button on the phone, but I ruled that out. Perhaps some sweat where it shouldn't have been? After it happened about 5 times in a row, I had no choice but to unplug the headphones and listen to the sound of my breathing instead, which makes a change. Not quite so motivating, but not entirely unpleasant. I wonder if it'll happen again, and if I can work out why.
3. Moving forwards but standing still. Last week I had a full-on 100 minute interval training session on a running machine at the local gym. I don't remember ever seriously training on a running machine before. The weirdest bit was when I finished. It totally felt like I was moving forwards, even when I was standing still. Amazing how the mind plays tricks with you. Strolling back the short distance to my house it felt like being on one of those moving walkways you get at airports. Weird!

Flying Blind

My otherwise lovely smartphone, my Samsung Galaxy S3, has been playing up of late in the crashing and freezing department. Could it be the alleged Android 4.1.2 bug? Maybe.

Factory reset didn't resolve it.

The last straw was last Thursday when it crashed just towards the end of a 1.5 hour run, thereby stuffing up my Runstatic app stats for that session.

So off to the repairers for my SGS3, and I've dusted off my old HD Desire HD running Android 2.3.5. But there's a problem: the GPS on this is hopeless relative to the same on my SGS3. It has great difficulty in picking up and holding a decent GPS signal - unless perhaps I'm holding it high above my head as I run, which ain't going to happen. Therefore it's wildly inaccurate for tracking my training sessions.

Until I get my SGS3 back, all I can do is to ensure that I'm putting the right training times in, without knowing too much about distance and speed... unless I want to go pre-GPS "old school" and attempt to work it out a bit more manually and after each event. No deal!

Interview with Itomic

AN "Interview with Itomic" has just been published over on the Itomic website. Take a peek!

Ross the Boss raising money for GOSH
http://www.itomic.com.au/ross-the-boss-raising-money-for-gosh/

COMPLETE REMISSION

Yesterday, July 18th 2013, Boris' parents received a copy of letter sent to their GP and oncologist from Dr Peppy Brock. Peppy is one of the world’s leading experts in neuroblastoma, in fact she helped design the trial Boris is on.

In the letter were two phrases:

"No evidence of the disease" and "Complete Remission"

Beyond awesome.

Still over 150 doses of chemo/medication to go, the last planned for December 2013.

 

Confidence builder - speed walking

So nursing a sore back and recovering calf muscle, I decided to give power-walking a go. Here's what I learnt:

1. I'm a slower runner than I thought
2. I'm a faster speed walker than I thought
3. Speed walking feels like it 'bashes' my calf muscle a lot less.

So last Thursday I walked 8km, no problem. Saturday 9km, Sunday 10km. All very good and easy. My fast walking pace? A little under 8 mins/km versus a little under 7 mins/km for when I'm jogging.

Talking on the subject with a few others, I've learnt about people who intentionally employ a "run-walk" approach to long distance running. The idea is that while you're jogging you're giving your walking muscles and break, and vice versa. I heard that some people can "run" a marathon using a run-walk technique in around the same time - and perhaps with less strain and risk of injury - than if they were to non-stop run the same.

Historically I've associated walking on a fun run as a cop out. I've now revised my opinion on this! 

Back to Back Pain

I should have been a headline writer!

Last Wednesday I thought I'd go for a run early on Thursday morning to see how my calf muscle would hold up. On Wednesday night I laid out my running gear on the sofa downstairs so I could get up (in the dark) and get changed with the minimum of fuss.

But in settling into bed on Wednesday night my lower back felt a bit 'awkward'. During the night it got worse to the point where I realised that I wasn't going to be running in the morning - so I switched my 6am alarm off.

My lower back has been extremely uncomfortable ever since (it's now Sunday morning). What did I do to it? On Wednesday evening it was junior rugby training for two of my boys. My gorgeous girl (age 4) likes to come along with us sometimes, and I spent a fair amount of time piggy-backing her around the sidelines as my boys got down and dirty. I don't remember doing anything particularly silly with her on my back (certainly nothing that I've not done before) but I must have tweaked something - and quite badly.

If you're wondering what 'extremely uncomfortable' means in terms of lower back pain:

• A lot of pain/discomfort rolling over in bed. Pain/discomfort gets progressively worse during the night (yes, I have a good mattress and an orthopedic pillow).
• Very slow to get out of bed in the morning. Sharp, intense lower back pain if I don't do it gently and slowly.
• Eases off during the course of the day, but not totally.

I'm no stranger to back pain, more's the pity. I've had it on and off since my late teens. I can go years in between bouts, where sometimes the trigger for another bout is obvious, sometimes less so. Sometimes the pain can be gone in a week or two, sometimes it takes months. One bout a few years ago was being caused by my bicycle saddle (when I was riding to work regularly) being set in the wrong position. I adjusted the position, and months of back pain was gone within a week. More recently I made the pretty obvious connection (doh!) between giving my young'uns a ride on my shoulders (or soldiers, as we like to call them) and back pain, so I begrudgingly stopped that, despite it being my right as a Dad.

Yesterday I tried out the local thai health & wellness massage parlour in an initial attempt to reset or relax my back. No, they didn't love me long time - it's all above board :-) But it did involve an asian lady walking on her knees up and down my back, and unintentionally ripping out body hair. Result? Hmmm, no change. Just as painful last night and this morning as the previous 3.

In a valiant attempt to keep my glass half full, this back pain is forcing me to rest my calf muscle for longer than I intended. But the clock is seriously ticking now. I feel - I am - woefully under-trained relative to where I need to be to run my first marathon in 12 weeks time.

If I'm lucky - if I can sort this back pain out in record time - I might be back into running training in a week or two.

30km is a long way - on a bike

Wow - where did the last two weeks go of not doing any running training, and not posting any blog updates?!

Really troubled by calf muscle. Or rather, the rest is doing it good, and I've had 3 physio sessions, a swim and a big bike session... but I can still slightly feel my troublesome calf muscle when I walk. Which almost certainly means it's not healed enough yet to start pounding the streets again. Which means that I'm now well behind on the training program schedule, and it's going to be unlikely that I'll be able to fully get back on track.

Unless anyone has any better ideas, I've just got to do (but not overdo) lots of other exercise instead - cycling and swimming being the most accessible for me. Perhaps some gym work too. Lots of cardio, lots of leg work. My podiatrist recommended striding up and down the pool instead of swimming - so a similar action to jogging but without the pounding, and with more resistance. Must try that.

So yesterday I jumped on my bike on a very chilly Melbourne Sunday morning (forgot to wear gloves - ouch!) and cycled down the very lovely cycle path (the Koonung Creek Trail) on the south side of the Eastern Freeway towards the city, then back up the (less continuous) trail on the north side. It reminded me that where we live in Blackburn, Victoria, it's quite elevated. Travel in almost any direction away from Blackburn and on average you're going down. And what goes down, must come up. This is easy and barely noticeable in a car, but much harder work and very noticeable running or on a bike - especially when you're already fatigued.

Clocked up 30km on my bike in about 1hr40m - and felt very knackered! Which makes running 42.195km in 4hr30m in 3 months time feel more than a little daunting.