My journey from injured crock to marathons

My Dad was always a runner for as long as I could remember. ( I use 'was', not because he's no longer with us; he's still going very strong in his 70s; but because sadly, he no longer runs) After years of seeing him head out the door for his long runs, I asked to go with him. For a while I regularly accompanied him on his short jogs around our local area, although I would stop and cut off a large corner then wait for him as he ran the longer route. I'm really not sure if that was for his benefit or mine.
Different sports then took over as I got older. I represented my city and county at rugby league, swam for my school and played football on and off amongst other things, but I always returned to running having managed to pass the point of needing to motivate myself and finding a place where I simply enjoyed getting out there.
When I was 23 and a student nurse, I developed a hernia. Men generally get inguinal hernias and women femoral hernias, so of course, mine was femoral. The NHS waiting list meant that from diagnosis to the operation to repair it, was 9 months, which I considered pretty good at the time. As I didn't want to aggravate the condition I stopped any training until the operation. Probably the only time in my life when I wasn't doing anything.
By the time I had the op and was ok to start training again, I couldn't wait and threw myself in to running and training with the local rugby league team. Within a few weeks my shins were painful, but I ignored it and carried on. The only injuries I'd ever had in my life were due to trauma from things like twisted ankles and big tackles, so a gradual onset pain was a new experience to me. Eventually I was referred to a physio and that's where it all went wrong for a very, very long time.

The physio gave me some truly terrible advice and some truly terrible treatment.

"As soon as you feel shin splints coming on, you should stop running for 6 months"

This is, of course, utter nonsense. The term shin splints is a description of a symptom- shin pain- and not a diagnosis or a cause. Shin pain can be caused by a whole multitude of problems and it very much depends on the cause as to what treatment you need. A blanket "Stop training for 6 months" is just rubbish. Sadly, I believed this piece of advice for many years afterwards. He went on to "treat" my condition with ultrasound and magnetic treatment. Neither, I believe, has any basis in science or research whatsoever. Even the seriously wooly thinking behind these treatments only really claims to treat acute pain and not solve the cause. Unfortunately, "therapists" are still using these techniques.
After a few week's rest and "treatment" the pain had all but gone, but unsurprisingly, it came back pretty quickly as soon as I started training again. Remembering the physio's advice, I stopped running again. Without any decent or correct preventative treatment for the cause of my shin splints it was unlikely to ever go away.

For the next 10 years I did very little running. Occasionally I would try again and soon the shin splints would return, at which point I would remember the advice and stop. Numerous times I gave up all impact training for 6 months and more, only for the shin splints to return as soon as I took up running again. Eventually I became resigned to the fact that I would never be a runner again and began going to the gym instead and using non-impact cardio machines.

I longed to don a pair of trainers and get out there

About 4 years ago I became so frustrated at not being able to run I decided to give it one last go. My father has marathon medals and my brother half marathon medals and so help me, I wanted a medal too! At that point you didn't really get medals for 10k races, so I knew I would need to run 13.1 miles to win that illusive medal. I determined to start it up very, very slowly and see how it went. I started with literally 2 minutes on the treadmill each time I went to the gym. After a couple of weeks I tried 4 minutes and a couple of weeks later 8 minutes. Over the next few months I worked my way up to 20 minutes. Buoyed by this limited success I went out for my first run outside in a decade. And it actually went well. Tentatively I continued over the next few weeks until the next problem hit. After around 20 minutes running I would get a short, sharp pain on the inside of my knee. Off I traipsed to the GP again who referred me to the knee clinic (Who knew they existed?!) After a CT scan the surgeon diagnosed a torn meniscus ligament. He offered me an arthroscopy (A camera into the knee to try to identify the problem and possibly some treatment, a "clean up")
I decided I may as well go ahead as I had nothing to lose. I could tell he was "managing my expectations" as he explained the procedure to me playing down the possible benefits and that it might in fact, have no affect.
I seem to remember he casually threw in that physio might be able to help, but he seemed so unconvinced I thought nothing of it.
Whilst waiting for the arthroscopy, I got a new job and moved to Leeds so I never did go under the knife. I decided, that as I could run without pain providing I was wearing a knee support, that I wouldn't pursue the op with my new GP, afterall, it seemed likely that the problems would recur and I'd end up having to have it done again. I did decide, however, that I would put down some serious money and go see a proper specialist sports physio.

And that's when my whole life changed and very much for the better.

Searching on line I found prosport physiotherapy . To my surprise it wasn't as expensive as I feared and I went off for the initial assessment with Martin, one of the directors. In that first session I remember him asking me what my expectations were, what did I want?

"I want to run marathons" I said. Never really believing it to be possible. I had entered his treatment rooms at the Leeds Rhino's training ground in Kirkstall with a whole list of pains and injuries. Starting from the bottom up:
Plantar pain (Pain on the sole of the foot)
Ankle pain
Shin pain
Hip pain
Knee pain
Lower back pain

I honestly gave him no chance of fixing me. But then, for the first time ever, a physio gave me a proper assessment. He looked at me as a whole, not just at one of my individual problems in isolation. I had seen many physios over the years, but each one had treated only one symptom at a time (I should point out these were NHS physios, apart from the initial one who gave me the worst advice, and as such have very limited time)
He assured me there was nothing mechanically wrong with me, no misplaced knee caps or swollen bursars and that he would get me running marathons. I can't say I really believed him, but it certainly gave me optimism.
"How many sessions will I need?" I asked. He basically replied "Depends" but in slightly more words. I became a little more sceptical, every therapist I had been to had told me how many sessions I would need. I asked what knee support I should use as I found them uncomfortable and difficult to keep them in place. I remember clearly that he said, "You won't need one"

Oh

I decided I had wasted my time and my money. I had a torn ligament- the surgeon had told me that, how would physio be able to manage that?

In the next few sessions Martin ran through my problems and gave me exercises and stretches to deal with each one. My ankles had no mobility, so he gave me stretches. My knees turned inwards as I hit the floor, so he gave me exercises to strengthen the muscles. My IT bands were almost entirely solid so he gave me painful deep-tissue massage and showed me how to use a foam roller. My over-sized thighs controlled my gait, so he gave me exercises to activate my glutes. (It's a weird experience to have physios prodding at your buttocks)

Foam rollers are evil implements of self-torture, but nothing compared to the hockey-ball-in-the-buttock torture

Two weeks after the first physio session, I stopped experiencing knee pain and have never had it since. The shin splints eased pretty quickly and thanks to Martin's advice I no longer worried that I was doing myself serious damage each time I ran. The pain moved around my body over the following weeks and the exercises changed and became more intense and I continued to receive the deep-tissue massage. Things improved immediately from the initial session though and I became convinced that I would, eventually, become a runner again.

There were set-backs of course. I developed hip pain and we struggled to get to the bottom of that one, until it turned out to be the very expensive Asics gel trainers I had bought on the advice of a shop assistant who had "gait analysed" me. (More on trainers and "gait analysis" in a later blog)

The only problem that Martin did not manage to solve was the plantar pain. I had followed all the accepted advice to try to solve the problem (rolling a can from the freezer under your foot, etc) and had even had a steroid injection in to the foot, all to no avail. Martin gave me exercises to improve the muscles in my foot and strengthen the arch which helped, but did not completely relieve the symptoms. The odd thing about my case, was that the amount of running, or walking I did, seemed to make no difference to how much pain I did or didn't get from it. I did however, eventually find a cure and have not suffered from it for probably 6 months now. Martin had recommended that I see a sports massage therapist once a month as I tend to suffer from tightening muscles so I began to see Jim Mason. I mentioned to Jim that I suffered from this condition and he casually mentioned that sometimes a tendon in the sole gets a bit tight and massage can help it. And I thought nothing of that either, until late in to session, he decided to work on it.....
A searing, burning pain shot through my foot as Jim's thumbs dug in to the sole of my foot. The pain was excruciating, but it was over as fast as it had begun. I have not suffered a moment's plantar pain since. I still go to Jim around once a month to keep my muscles from seizing up.

So I realised that Martin's reluctance to tell me how many sessions I would need was entirely correct. You just can't guess that. It all depends on how well you respond to treatment and if you bother to do the exercises and stretches that you are given. I did mine obsessively. I was very short of money and needed to spend as little on physio as I could. At that time, most of my spare cash was going to the physio and I have never spent better money in my life. It gave me back my running life and I will be forever grateful for that.
Martin is very keen to teach you how to manage your own body (and thus creating less work for himself, but what he loses in you requiring less sessions, I am sure he gains in recommendations) So now I feel that I can handle most problems that come up.

As time went on I managed to run more often, moving from two 5ks a week, to four 10ks. I had eased my way up to 11 miles when I lined up for the Great North Run last year. I was nervous as I hadn't got up to the full distance in training, but my brother eased my worries when he mentioned that he only ever trained for his halves by doing 10ks and I remembered that I had spent a long time training for 10ks with 5k runs.
 I won't go in to the actual race too much as I will probably write a full blog entry about the GNR some time but suffice to say, the run went far, far better than I could ever have hoped for, and I crossed the line in 1:34 smashing my expectations by some way. The crowd had carried me along. I was very proud of my winnings and here they are:

My journey to the marathon is not yet complete. My first marathon is booked and paid for in just 5 weeks time. Just 3 months ago I had worked up to 20 miles with no problems the day after and was feeling very happy to be well ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, I then spent 2 months being ill, culminating in a very nasty flu that knocked me back a long way. When I started to train again, I found my chest was terrible after the illnesses, but worse than that, I suffered from tightening calves again, a problem I had successfully got over a year previously. I thought back to how I had treated it and after a few weeks they got better. I went out for 11 miles and arrived back with no problems. Then I got cocky, and decided to go out for a run the next day, forgetting that it's usually sensible to rest at least a day or two after your longest run (another valuable lesson learned!). The calf tightness came back immediately. Having another think, I remembered that Martin had been very keen to get me to do more glute exercises when I had had the calf problem before, so I got stuck in to a few of them

And this is where I currently stand. My glutes are very sore from the exercises (proving to me I obviously was in dire need to work them as clearly they had got lazy from 2 months on the sofa!) My calves are still sore, even more so from the massage session on Friday that specifically worked the sore spot on my right calf. And the Manchester marathon is 5 weeks away. From hereon in, my training has to go exactly to plan
or I am in trouble.

Wish me luck!

Update: I have since learned more about plantar problems and that the popular term: plantar fasciitis is a misnomer; it's not caused by swelling so the traditional treatments, most of which are based around reducing swelling, don't work, which explains my story and the success I've found with massage.

Snow running

No, I'm not sure what's going on with maniacal smile either

I am very used to being called a nutter, strange, mad and all the rest for being a runner, but this is usually from non-runners. Last week, however, I experienced the odd experience of having fellow runners call me similar names. Why? Snow running!

Leeds experienced some bizarre weather on Wednesday. I woke up at 11am (I'd done a night shift, before you judge/feel jealous) to see the beginning of a snow storm. There was a very light dusting of snow on the pavements outside. By the time I left for work 3 hours later, there was around 4 inches of snow on the ground. An hour after that and one abandoned car, I trudged in to work 40 minutes late. By the time it stopped snowing that evening something like 6 inches had fallen.
One can tell when one has become an adult when one sees snow and doesn't think "Yay!!" but instead, "Oh dear, that'll cause some traffic problems" and also, when one starts referring to oneself as "one".
The only upside for me, was that I would be able to go for a run in the snow later. When my friends found out about this, I got the usual incredulity from the non-runners, but I also got it from the runners too!

A walker on Skiddaw in the lake district a couple of years ago

I arrived home from work and excitedly pulled on my bright orange trail runners. I have become a huge wimp when it comes to running in cold weather these days, so I also pulled on a long-sleeved compression top, a t-shirt, a soft shell jacket, full length tights, hat, buff and gloves too.  And off I set. Once again I quickly returned to the sense of childhood joy as the snow squeezed and squelched under my feet making wonderful crunching and flatulence noises depending on whether I was hitting hard snow or the rapidly thawing stuff. I felt the trail runners gripping in and enjoyed the extra challenge of controlling the reduced friction under my feet.

The trail runners, in warmer times

So why do most runners have such a fear of running in the snow? They think they're going to slip and fall. Pretty simple really. Same adult voice that warns them about the traffic chaos coming because of the snow.
The fact is though, most runners have never tried running in the snow. Fear stops them, but is it really so hard?
Well.....no, it's not.

In fact, I run on ice too. I used to do it before I had fancy, extra grippy trail running shoes too. So here's my theory:
You hit the snow/ice much harder when running than you do when walking, thus the ice/snow that you struggle to walk on, can be run on. Sure, your feet skid a little from under you, but it's more than doable. Don't try to stop or change direction or stop too quickly though, obv, for that way lieth disaster.

The next day the snow was all but gone and the traffic was moving again. Shame, I thought, I won't get to do another snow run.

I'm not saying snow/ice running is for everyone, I've got a pretty good sense of balance and my feet skidding under me doesn't faze me too much, but if you can lose your fear and go for it, then it can be a wonderful feeling.

Here's my snow running tips:

1) Run with confidence
2) Trail running shoes will help, but they're not actually essential
3) Don't panic when you feel your feet slipping a little under you, it doesn't mean they're not gripping at all
4) Give yourself extra time to stop and change direction, take extra care at road crossings
5) Buy decent cold weather running gear if you're a wimp like me - keep yourself comfy!
6) Enjoy it!

Why do you run?

I've lost count of the number of articles I've read where lyrics are waxed about why the writer runs.
So I thought I'd best give it a go.

When people ask me the eternal question "Why do you run?" I can go off in a variety of directions and I am sure none of them are anything you've not heard before. I could probably write out a list of around 10 reasons people run and 99% of runners would fit in to one or several of them.
Here's my quick list that applies to me, in no particular order:

1) The challenge
2) Fitness and health
3) It's fun
4) To keep the weight off from the beer and pizzas I consume
5) For the feeling of breaking my PB
6) It's fun
7) To see new places and experience new things
8) It's fun

Of course, none of these reasons are very romantic, apart from maybe number 7, but as with most things, there's more to it than that.
When the "Why do you run?" question is asked, more often than not there is the unspoken "because you seem like a nutter for doing it" thought behind it. Or if you have my type of friends, it isn't unspoken, it's in your face.
To begin to answer this, here's a great thought from Ann Trason, a legendary ultrarunner, as described in every runner's bible "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougal.
"Of course her friends didn't get it because they'd never broken through. For them, running was a miserable two miles motivated solely by size 6 jeans: get on the scale, get depressed, get your head phones on, and get it over with."

And this is where most of these discussions begin, with someone telling me that they're just not a runner, that they've tried, but it's just too horrible. They get too tired, too sore, they feel silly, they get such a short distance before needing to stop it's demotivating, everyone else is better than them, etc, etc ad infinitum.
I always start by telling them, that they have to push through that and get to the point where that all stops, and other motivations take over. They are the pinnacle of millions of years of evolution, what do you mean you can't run? You can, you've just forgotten how.

When I started running seriously again nearly 3 years ago, it took 4 months before I ran comfortably. Of course I started from a much different position from a lot of people who have barely moved from the sofa since school, I have a residual level of fitness from years of swimming, cycling, hiking, rugby, football and all the rest. However, I have the added psychological disadvantage of seeing myself as athletic. That means I am not really very happy to bimble around 5k with my feet not lifting from the ground; if I'm not running, running, I'm not happy. So for 4 months, I went eye-balls out each time I ran. Trying to shave seconds off my record each time.
And then one day, I didn't have a race coming up in a week or two to train for, and I just went out for a nice easy run. And what a revelation.
I eased lungfuls of fresh air in to my body instead of hungrily gasping it down. I looked around, instead of seeing through a waterfall of sweat, heard the sounds around me instead of rushing blood in my ears.

I enjoyed it.

Much has been said of how it is a return to childhood joy when running sinks in to you. I recently found the muddiest bit of one of the local country parks, a 100m quagmire under the trees. Sprinting through it I laughed and giggled like a child, my feet sinking deep in to the mud and water. The adult in me didn't remind me what I was doing to a £100 pair of trainers, or that my feet were getting soaking or that I could twist an ankle here. The adult was quiet. I like to think he looked on like a parent enjoying their child playing in the box of the expensive toy they've just been given instead of the toy. Just smiling at the sheer joy it was producing.
I can't remember the last time I had that much fun. (Well, whilst wearing shoes, anyway)

As for the rest of the reasons in my list. Health and fitness, keeping the weight off and being able to pretty much eat and drink what I like, are happy consequences, but they're not the motivation.
Running has sunken deep in to me now. Call it primeval instinct maybe. That said, on a day-by-day basis, I use the pursuit of my PB as motivation in the main. Last year was spent trying to regain my fitness after injury,  for an assault at my 10k PB. I finally achieved it at the Abbey Dash in Leeds, punching the air (I am sure to the amusement of the spectators) in a flood of relief, happiness, joy and a wonderful sense of achievement.
After a season of near misses, never-closes, horrible disasters and blood, tears, toil and sweat I took a shaky, blurry shot of my GPS watch with my time, posted it to Facebook and went for a coffee.

Target achieved.