Wednesday, February 28, 2007

February - A good month to be born in!

Hello,

Well this month has been eventful. At the start of the month I had a dull ache on my left hip, after a series of runs it hadn't gone away and as it had been hanging around for a while I started talking to some of the veteran runners at work. The advice was to get it checked out straight away by a professional. So I did. Off to a local sports physio in Stockport I went!. A first for me so I didn't know what to expect. After a thorough examination I was diagnosed with Trochanteric Bursitis and I also had a really tight Iliotibial band on my left leg... none of which I understood at the time! To cut to the chase though, the prime suspects for this are that it turns out I have one leg longer than the other, and low arches. After some sports massages, anti inflammatory gel, heel raise and low arch support in my running shoes, things seemed to get better. I think only the long run will tell though.

My training for this month was good, especially considering the injury. I upped the distance to 10km although I did reduce it after my injury was diagnosed temporarily.

6.2km
03/02 - 26:50
07/02 - 27:12
14/02 - 27:20

10km
04/02 - 50:29
06/02 - 50:13
17/02 - 50:04
18/02 - 50:46
20/02 - 50:16
27/02 - 48:18

The last run I did push a little on, but I still had a little left. For March, I think I'll just consolidate this months work and if I'm still feeling well, maybe try an 8 miler in the last week of March.

Andy

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

An Inconvenient Graph

Just following on from a post on Pie's blog about global warming. Here is the clip from "An Inconvenient Truth" with the graph in that I mentioned in a reply. Says it far better than any words of mine could...



I have the DVD of "An Inconvenient Truth" if anyone who hasn't seen it wishes to borrow it.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

January - The start of the hill climb!

Hi,

At the end of December I set myself the target of doing 8 training runs this month. I didn't manage that sadly. I was on course to achieve this and then a combination of not taking the opportunity early enough in the day to go for a run, and then getting rained off, and a bizarre short term injury (I think I slept on my back funny) stopped me.

Its not all doom and gloom though as it was still a good overall month

6.2km
03/01 - 27:41
07/01 - 27:11
10/01 - 27:06
13/01 - 26:21
14/01 - 26:26
16/01 - 27:13
28/01 - 25:50 - New all time PB

I probably pushed a little too hard on the last run, as its not a good thing to come back from time out and push so hard you get a PB as the odds of injury are high. I think I was lucky this time as it does not appear to have had any ill effect.

My left hip is still aching sadly. I think I'll invest in a new pair of running shoes as I've read that this should be one of the first things you consider when niggly injuries start happening and I've had my current pair for a year now. It's a shame as they still look in good condition, but that doesn't mean the shock absorbent properties are still good.

For February my aim is to complete a few 10km runs as well as some 6.2km ones. I'll set the target of 8 runs again as I've got quiet a few busy weekend and I don't know if I'll get as much time as I'd like.

Cheers

Andy