There's a lot of stuff I don't know about training, and shoes and legs, and how much to do and how much not to do. But I do know that listening to your body is really important, and yet psychologically, so is belief in yourself. I will be employing both of these things to get better.
So far, this is what I have worked out, and what I've found:
1) In listening to my body, I've found that I'm addicted to running: I love doing it, and it makes me happy.
2) I often know when something is wrong - and usually I go with that. Sometimes I don't run because I'm feeling lazy, and I know I'll be "alright" on the day - alright doesn't get you PBs though. It gets you medals, and that's quite good. But doing better is exciting. Anyway, on Monday, I wasn't sure if I was listening to my body or being lazy: also, sometimes niggles go away because they need a stretch, not a couch. When I set out running on Monday, though, I got one and two mixed up. I got caught up in the love, and ended up in a destructive relationship. Come on, we've all been there.
3) I decided I can still do it.
4) I had a message from my new-found friend-of-Sally's Leeky, who asked after my calf injury and on hearing that I still intended to run the marathon, then said "You remind me of me. That's not a good thing."
5) I downloaded NHS advice on calf muscles. It seemed pretty sensible actually, (you can read it HERE) although I was disappointed to note that they said allow at least 8 weeks before returning to exercise. Overcautious. In other news, however, they do recommend wearing heals! I'd better go and buy some shoes immediately. I wonder if you can get them on prescription. It relieves the tension on your calf muscle you see. Also they recommended swimming, cycling and walking. See! Listening to your body - that's exactly what I'd prescribed myself. They also gave useful advice on doing exercises, and describing how much pain is good and recovering (a little discomfort) but not overdoing ( not moving into "pain"). Moving it and doing the exercises is really an important part of speedy recovery. 8 weeks. Pah.
6) I got in touch with my hairdresser, Laura. Oh no, wait, that was coincidental to my recovery. I got in touch with my sports masseur, Stuart (I did actually get in touch with Laura and Stuart within 5 minutes of each other). I suggested that I wait till the end of the week so my leg could get a bit better, but he said a rest day would be fine - and in effect, it had two rest days, because he came today, Wednesday evening.
7) OK, I don't think this list is really working for me.
Stuart's brilliant. In my opinion, he's the reason why my legs are perfect. Oh, you didn't know? Officially, yes, my legs are perfect. I had that from a physio after I took my running shoes back, and the shop wouldn't exchange them until a physio checked over my legs and ruled out other possible causes. Most people have something going on with tight IT bands, or hamstrings or the like, and I reckon it's an easy way the shop can avoid taking the cop. The physio gave me a really thorough check-over and could find NOTHING WRONG with my legs. This was months ago, back with the shoe-saga. But the words "Your legs are perfect" did pass his lips, and that alone was worth the cash I gave him. Of course, it was rapidly backed up by Poet Pete (AKA the Flyer Fairy) - who enjoys nothing more than making lewd comments about my legs, who said he could have told me that . Anyway, because of his general brilliance (that's Stuart, not Pete), and also because his wife is brilliant (that was not relevant to the story, but I thought I'd mention her anyway, because she's a mate and she works with me) I checked my NHS facts with him. "Well they have to say that, because people take different amounts of time to recover, they're going to be over-cautious" he said, as if scripted, by me. "Also, fit people get better quicker than unfit people" (see, brilliant). I didn't actually give him the schedule I was working to. There was no point in making him an accessory after the fact. He kind of ruined it by adding "although ironically fit people are more likely to injure themselves."
Tragically, Stuart has just left the area, and is moving up to Cumbria - you lucky, lucky people. His website still says Stamford, but trust me, if you're in the wider Kendal area and you need a masseur, drop him a line, you can contact him via his old website - THIS ONE.
Anyway, Stuart is in charge of the fine-tuning that keeps my IT band how it needs to be. But this is the kind of selfless masochist he is - today, when kneading my calf muscle, he actually said 'I'm going to stop there. The only reason to go on would be to make you go "Ow"!' - how thoughtful is that?
Of course it could be because I'd just kicked him in the face.
No comments:
Post a Comment