Diary Of A Road Runner

Hip Injury Update 2 - Saddlesore!

Well it will be 3 weeks tomorrw that I bust my hip, and it’s only been this week that I’ve started being able to walk more or less normally. The pain subsided a lot earlier in the week, but I’m not counting any chickens yet, as I went walking around town yesterday and the more ground I covered, the more I started to become aware of a little discomfort around the area - so had to slow my walking pace.

So it looks like a while yet until I can run again. In fact running is becoming a bit of a distant memory and I almost don’t think of myself as a runner any more

I’ve been doing some work on the exercise bike but need to work hard to get my lungs going at anywhere near capacity as the leg muscles need working up. I did manage to do 5 miles a couple of times, and much faster the 2nd time, but ended up with huge sore welts on my bottom from the saddle So having to give that a rest for a little while now as well.

I guess all I can say is that sporting challenges very finely focus human motivation and the ability to triumph, but these are traits that nonetheless can be repeated in every aspect of our lives. Sometime the challenge is getting a PB on a race day, or running further than ever before. But at times the challenge is just getting through the day, or staying mentally strong to get over an injury, or coming through any of the other 100’s of trials and perils we face on a daily basis.

Hip Injury Update

After sleeping on the hip (not literally!), it hasn’t flared up as much as I feared it would, but it’s clear I am going to be off the road for at least a week - I can still barely walk, and am on the good old mega painkillers, as it hurts to put any weight on my right leg, although not as much agony so far as yesterday.

Because it suddenly came on during the run, I am hoping it’s an acute condition rather than a sign of something more serious/chronic - so hope it goes away as quickly as it came! Ah well - running and injuries - you run and learn!

10 Mile Long Run - Adventure, Mishap and Disaster!

My enthusiasm got the better of me today, as I wasn’t feeling in the mood for a 10 miler but watched the Great North Run on tv and was suddenly raring to go! I got my trail shoes on after banging the mud off them from my last canal side run, and set off walking to warm up. It was cold, but the sun was out, so I had shades on! I set off at a nice slow pace and by the time I had got to the hill down into Haughton Dale I was feeling quite comfortable and good. The hill up to the canal was a bit slippery and tough, but settled back to a sedate rhythm, planning to get past the long tunnel at Woodley, and turn back at 9 or 10 k so the ten miles would tick over near home. The real fun began on the canal path, which was deep puddles every few footfalls after the heavy rain yesterday. Some of them were pretty deep, and where I could I ran to the side of them, which sometimes involved running at an angle or runnning through slushy mud and trying to keep my balance near the edge of the canal.

After the long tunnel, my feet and legs were soaked and numb with the freezing water! I was still feeling good though, and turned back as planned. On the way back I started to feel quite heavy legged and felt I was tiring - but with only 4k to go to reach the 10 mile mark, I knew I could do it. Shortly after that my right hip started to twinge a bit, so I slowed, and just decided to make it back to Hulme’s Wood so I could then walk home. I passed what I thought was the right marker before my entry back into Haughton Dale via the waterfall, but soon I was approaching the cobbled footbridge on the way to Hyde, so had to turn back. This was when the real problems began - I headed into what I thought was the right path, and this ended up being a dead end into bushes. Out again, and I tried the next one - this looked more promising, but was very unfamiliar, I thought if I followed the path it must lead back through to Haughton Dale - I had no idea where the correct path had gone! There was a treacherous path, wet and unstable, over a deep drop, and then the path went down a very steep hill covered with tree roots, and I ended up at the side of some kind of river or stream, with no further way forward - now I was at the bottom of a huge hill, and looking up it I couldn’t make out where the “path” was I had just come down, so I had to make my way up and it was almost vertical; I had to grab tree roots with my hands to drag myself up at some points! Finally I got back to the canal and the next path I tried, although unfamiliar, did lead through to the waterfall. I had expended a lot of energy for a 10 minute kilometer and was feeling really dead now, but managed to tick over the last k and by 16.1 at the foot of the hill back up into Haughton Green I could hardly pick one leg up after another.

It was a struggle to walk home, and the hip started flaring up more and more. After sitting down to check a few emails, etc, I stood up and almost fell over, wincing with the pain of putting the slightest weight on my right hip. I had to take mega painkillers to be able to do a couple of things I needed to do. In all, I think the atrocious underfoot conditions are what caused both my hip problem and unusual tiredness - there was a lot of slipping and sliding, running at odd angles with weird impacts and over such a long distance/time this took its toll. The Indiana Jones excursion into the wilderness didn’t help either, as I was already struggling by then!

Ah well, it is a lesson learned, that 10 milers over rough underfoot conditions are probably not a good idea, at least for me. Maybe 5 miles next time, and when the hip is better I will try a long run on the road.

Aborted Run due to ribs injury - Frustration sets in!

Smashed ribs stumbling on boat at weekend - so this was first attempt at run. It’s been hard to breathe in really deeply, as it causes pain, so that was a worry.

Anyway, barely managed 200 metres - felt good in myself, but the jolting from running was causing the ribs quite a bit of pain/discomfort - which got a lot worse when I started breathing deeply, as it seemed to put pressure on the rib from 2 angles at once. I felt I could continue running through the pain - but knew that it would not do me any good in the long run, and it wasn’t worth sacrificing the next 2 months for the sake of one run, as the aggravation to the ribs was only causing more damage and doing no good at all…

Only option now is to rest as much as possible - will try some work on exercise bike to see how breathing affects ribs without the jolting. Am keeping fingers crossed some enforced rest will mean the ribs heal fairly quickly and I don’t lose too much fitness in the meantime.

So - 2 months before Great Manchester run, was flying, then got injury swimming.

Month before City of Manchester 10k - was going great - then get injury on a boat.

All feels a bit annoying to say the least!