Bottoming Out

The art of getting to the unfittest point of injury before you start to re-build fitness again.

Funny thing about getting injured is as you restart, generally on fresh legs, you actually initially feel worse as you start to increase load. As you reduce capacity (through layoff) the worst point is when you bottom out. That's when you really start doubting yourself and probably worse, doubting you can be arsed to keep thrashing yourself for this at 46 years old !!

My aim at the minute is to plot the perfect comeback. In the rarefied position of having the benefit of masses of time on my hands before any racing starts in earnest, there really is little point in going at it like a jack hammer.

This time, I am building from the ground up. Properly conditioning my body to be able to handle the increasing load and properly fueling my body to take on board 100% of the effort.

Strength

I am shocked at how beneficial this has been. OK that's a lie. I am shocked that I have spoken about wanting to properly use S&C training for year but I have been too lazy to actually do it. This time I have fully embraced strength work. If it's sore or tight then strengthen it. 

My back, which has always been tight has been a revelation. The strength set I have been doing for about a month, probably 4 x per week has been a game changer. No more painful, tight and achey back. Sitting or laying with aches and pains. All gone.

My calfs (never know if it's calves or that's just for baby lambs) are really feeling the benefit. My left achillies and my right calf have serious problems and they are starting to take on the strength work. If anything, I need to lay off a bit so that recovery and adaption can fully take place! My calf set is both boring and painful but since I've started running easy, I can start to feel that strength. My legs feels stronger, my calf is starting to produce lift and a little bounce is coming back.

This all comes from wanting to steeplechase again. To do that I need to address my criminally poor plyomentric strength. I can't hop without a pause on each leg. I can't push off a sprint start without hurting my achillies. I tried skipping rope last week and nearly collapsed in agony! How the actual fuck can I steeplechase without this strength and power?! It's possible that this goes nowhere BUT it feels like it's starting to work.

I'm starting to bring in plyo work. Box decelerations to load the lower legs, driving up to power the hips, dynamic lunges to power the hamstrings. It's all part of the plan.

This is the building blocks for a return to running track. I need very strong lower leg muscles to handle the forces of sprinting in spikes. Rather than try and ease them in and manage the stride around comfort. Be strong enough that sprinting is way below the level of force the calf muscles can handle.

Diet

As mentioned previously I have been diagnosed as coeliac. This makes eating shite challenging! Not much bread (GF bread is horrific) so I start to look at better alternatives rather than bacon sarnies. The food choices I start to make need planning - just going to the fridge is less of an option. Giving myself a bit more time I can make healthy choices. Today's lunch - spicy tuna salad with a fried egg on top. Couple of GF flap jacks for carbs. 

Having Ange being on top of her food now also helps as she's focused me on mainly getting enough protein and also fibre. All of these things mean that I am starting to get the proper diet in to fuel my rehab.

Don't get me wrong, I'm having a curry and 4 beers tonight (GF beers I might add) so I am not going without good food BUT day-to-day my choices have improved.

Running

Started running again. Sunday was definitely the bottom out. Cut short run because calf ached. 7.24/mm felt painfully quick. It was the point of asking the question - can I be arsed! This week, 30 mins slow on the treadmill and each day things have improved to the point of zero pain and almost (maybe 5%) no tightness. Easy running on treadmill all week is on the cards, it's actually feeling too slow and short which is a good sign but I have to be patient.

Next week, all being well I am to do a full weeks training BUT keep a very tight lid on paces. So sessions for example being at not even tempo pace for short bursts. I am hoping that the gradual return and the strength work mean that pushing things along slightly does not aggravate anything.

Being patient is the second hardest part of any comeback. You start to feel like you need to make up for lost time. Even though I would struggle to just run 5k at tempo, I'm actually fitter than I think I am. December I was in really good shape (forget the 17.09 lol) that's still in there somewhere. Even 2 weeks ago i hobbled 6.12/mm avge for 6 miles after popping my calf at 3 !!

The third hardest part of a comeback is not comparing yourself to previous fitness. As I have just done !! It's tough, the lack of conditioning makes an extra layer of toughness. You can't actually run as fast as you can because your legs won't let that fitness out. Be in the moment.

So next stage is to start actually training at the correct paces. I'll use Daniels VDot to estimate based on what I think I could race at and extrapolate the paces out.