We all have them, we all suffer, we are all frustrated, we all feel slower than we should be, we all wonder whether others are immune. We all have injuries.
They come in all shapes and sizes and levels of associated pain and discomfort. Some happen from a slip, stumble, bang or crack. Others creep up on you and grow in intensity. Rest they say, stretch, warm up, warm down, eat well, sleep more. It all helps, and sometimes the pains disappear, other times they linger and grow. A tightness here, leads to a pain there, leading to a weakness here, and a slip causes a tear there.
A wee knee pain on a fast training run a few years ago strained a ligament on a knee and caused sufficient pain and discomfort to miss Mr Ramsay’s challenge deadline in 2014 by a small margin. That recovered but other things developed and were managed through 7 Ultra Marathons in 2015. Of course, others have had much harder year’s racing, maybe they have a more robust physiology than me. A great, if intimidating, last minute opportunity in 2016 was busted when an innocent knee tweak three weeks before the PTL put that prospect to bed. Seeing Graham’s, Ollie’s and Jason’s presentation of this – maybe this was not such a bad thing, but it also cancelled the prospect of doing the Glencoe Skyline again that year.
How to recover? There is a long list: Cutting down on running training, pool and reservoir swimming, mountain biking, road biking, a fleet of different rollers, pilates and yoga now and then, lunch time stretches, a Nutri-bullet to up my fruit and veg intake, some tendon and joint recovery pills, new shoes, support socks, (very slow) interval training, a mix of running trails and hills building up to the Carnethy Ultra Series. The best investment – a full hour’s leg massage per month at £40 per session.
Did it work? A bit. What little speed I had is gone, but I can run ok on the flat. Hills and descents need a lot more work and will never be fast.
What next? The Virgin London Marathon looms – motivated by raising more money again for Kids with Spinal Muscular Atrophy who I did Ramsay’s Round and the 7 Ultra for. This year, the money is for Molly, a friend’s daughter, who needs a new chair to give her some independence (think junior Stephen Hawking). Slapping tarmac is not my thing but I hear London is special, and getting fit again to do this for Molly is a good motivation. Please visit the supporting others page if you want to help.
Thanks. Mark Hartree