Sports & Fitness The Running Thread (All Abilities)

You're smashing it mate @Hodor been great watching your progress on Strava.

I'm taking a break. Topped out at just under 1700k for the year, not a single one of them was pain free with this toe issue.

It came to a head on my last trail run just over a week ago, I'm officially over running in pain. My knees are also now shot, presumably from adjusting my gait as I run to try and minimize the toe pain.

I'm waiting for a surgical consult, it seems there's bone growth on the outside of the joints which is rubbing the main nerve and causing the issues, may have to have some bone ground away.

I'm dreaming if I think I can do the Archie in 6 weeks, so I have withdrawn.

I'll give it another week then get back to some easy regular 5's, as long as the knees have calmed down. Don't want to smash them completely.

Mean time, I'm back on the bike and enjoying it again now the bike fitness is coming back.

Pretty demoralized to be honest, after coming so far and going through a few injuries, this toe issue has been going in for 14 months now and looks like it's bot going to go away unless I see the surgeon. I'm more concerned about my knees though, they're not getting better as yet even though I haven't ran for coming up 2 weeks. Bit worried I've shagged them now too.

Hope everyone else is having better luck!!

 

How is everyone going with their running?

With many working from home due to the current virus situation, i'm starting to see a bit more people around my area going for a run.

Same same here, sticking to the usual running routine and really excited weather is getting colder in Melbourne.

Stay safe guys and hoping everyone will come out alright from this crisis

 

With all the time saved in not having to commute to work it looks like a lot more people are exercising. I've never previously had to wait to get out of my driveway but today.... all of these dang joggers!!! (really should be a first world problem).

Looks like we'll have a change of lifestyle and improved fitness levels as some of the upsides to this health emergency.

 

I've "ran" a grand total of 23 painful k's this year.

Been having physio on my knee for the last 6 weeks, slowly starting to jog a few k per week and start loading the knee back up. Still painful but at least physio says I can start light jogging again once or twice per week (pain depending). Seems I've got Patella-femoral Syndrome or some such.

Physio reckons it'll come good but can take months and months, then aside from that there's still the stupid toe issue (which seems to have got worse from not running believe it or not)

Got surgical consult on the toes 21st April.

The flip side is I've re-ignited my love of cycling and been doing tons of big, awesome rides. Did a couple of beauts recently with the Melbourne Audax club. Weekend before last we did 160k gravel/dirt loop from Yarragon, Balloora, Mirbu North and back. Craking ride, amazing scenery and over 3000 meters of combing.

I bought a smart trainer and hooked up an old bike to it and got into Zwift (virtual riding/racing), it's awesome. I;m 10 weeks into a 12 week training program on it at the moment and has really helped get my riding fitness back up to where it was in a much more condensed time frame than had I just been heading out for a few random rides a week.

Hoping I'm on the good side of the knees now and can start increasing my weekly distance, gong to keep the riding up too through and try and find a good balance this year.

Hope everyone else is going well?

 

Most of my running friends have lost all running motivation. Local races cancelled. Overseas races cancelled. parkrun cancelled. Group training sessions cancelled. Group runs cancelled. Gyms closed so no weight training.

I'm trying to keep up running once per day to minimise loss of fitness and 2 workouts per week to maintain threshold. Can't be bothered with weekend long runs, but I should.

 

I'm lucky in that I'm fairly anti-social anyway (either that or just no one likes me?...) I prefer to run alone and at my own pace, where and when I want to go, especially exploring trails, so in that respect the social distancing wouldn't have impacted my motivation to run all that much. It's the damn injuries that are stopping me!

 

Well, that sucks.

Had the appointment with the specialist yesterday about my toes issue. I went in expecting to need a bone shave to free the nerves up around the big toes, but came out having been told that I have Stage 3 Arthritis of the big toes (it only goes up to stage 4).

Quite unusual to be so far advanced at my age she said.

At some point I'll need my big toes fused, involving putting plates and screws in so they can't bend anymore.

Initially, they are going to make me some carbon fibre shoe inserts to limit the ability of the toes to bend, then from there I can have an injection in the joints to relieve pain and keep me mobile (no reason I cant still run she said, until the pain becomes too unbearable).

Then, once the pain is too much to even function day to day, let a lone run, it'll be time for the fusion, happy days.

So, looks like my long run & trail run days are done, I've been muddling through a couple of 5k treadmill runs a week to keep the legs turning over, but anything more than that's just too uncomfortable.

Was a bit bummed out last night have to say, but, what can you do. Concentrate on the biking instead and find other ways to enjoy the outside.

 

Sorry to hear @Propagate and don't let it hold you back. As you said, at least you can ride.
If walking isn't an issue, maybe flip from long runs to some challenging hikes in the future.

 

Cheers @paulF - saw the podiatrist again yesterday, going in next week for a full bioemetric scan to have some stiff oothotics made, stop the big toes from bending. She reckons you can adapt to running in them, so we'll see. Mean time, my knee is still completely shot so can't really run anyway! Falling apart it seems.

 

Running, specifically constant long distance is really not the healthiest thing for the body. It's really hard on all bodily systems especially joints. Sucks but it is what it is I guess.

 

Sure is tough on the body, especially starting it so late in life and being a bit, shall we say, "structurally delicate" to begin with. In two minds as to whether I'm glad I started, or wished I hadn't. Wind back 3 years I couldn't run a flat 400 meter slow jog and hated it, 18 months ago I ran a 70k mountain marathon in blizzard conditions and LOVED it. As hard as that was, and as low as some points were, the thought of not being able to go to "that place" again is pretty crushing to be honest but I am thankful that I got to do, and and experience, it.

I love the bike, I've always ridden and I've had some awesome bike adventures, I've set up an awesome smart-trainer set up at home and smashing it on a Zwift training plan, I'll come out of this lock down bike-fitter than I've ever been, even back when I used to race a bit, but as much as I've loved my riding adventures there's just something different about them than the long, solo trail & adventure runs. I'm probably as enthusiastic about my riding as I've ever been, but in honesty, given the choice, I'd give all my bike stuff away and never ride again if it meant I could still do the long runs.

Still, aside from a handful of my joints starting to fail early, I do know how extremely fortunate I am to be in good health generally and to have the ability to be able to go out and ride and enjoy the outdoors, I do try not to be a whinger generally, but this last little while of not being able to run and, more or less just being told I'll likely never run the way I want to again, has probably hit me a bit harder than I'd like. I'm still holding out a glimmer of hope that the orthotics will let me get out and do some middle distance distance trail runs in the future, but I'm not delusionally hanging on to that hope. If I can, I can, if not then it is what it is as they say.

So, you lot will have to keep running and sharing your progress and adventures on here so I can run vicariously!

Meanwhile, I'm trying to live by one of my favorite sayings, "If you cant do what you want, do what you can...".

Cheers.

 

Hi All,
After an injury resulting in ankle surgery in February, I re-started unicycling around my local neighbourhood on the weekend,
and found I had big issues with cardio on a hill.

So I started running up and down a hill right next to my home. (By the way, with my ankle, sometimes still doesn't feel quite so loose as it should, but I can run on it).

This hill is 14 degrees (25%) at the steepest section. Anyway, on Saturday I ran it 3 times, just under 4 minutes, it was really hard going. Last uphill was probably little faster than walking pace.

Next day my quads were so sore!
Even Monday too! Anyway, I did it again today, this time I did it 4 times, took 5 min 14 seconds.
An hour later my heart rate is still elevated.

Another thing.
With this unicycling up a hill and running uphill, my right arm goes numb. I hurt it at Easter, I put the root cause down to doing the ninja warrior backyard set with very tight traps from working at a desk the wrong height at home.
Neck and shoulders currently feel fine.

 

If you decide to keep on running @Gockie then put the Couch to 5k or Couch to10k app on your phone and follow it, the trick for new runners is slow and steady, not adding too much too fast (whether that be speed or distance). Running is very hard on all the little interconnecting muscles and joints that don't get used, your aerobic base and primary muscles will adapt much quicker than all the little stabilizer muscles. You start feeling good, pushing harder but without realizing then start to create issues as the bodies bio mechanics adapt to allow the body to do extra speed/distance with compromised secondary muscles that aren't ready yet. The result, usually, is you go fantastic for a several weeks then suddenly have a crippling injury like calf, hip, knee, ankle issues that then need weeks of physio to address. In my case, almost all my injuries early on were related to bad form and running too far, too fast then needing to go back to basics with things like targeted glute strength exercises.

Best advice is just keep it up! Slow and staedy, no more that 10% increase in load per week and plenty of rest days in between early on, (like don't run back to back days), your body adapts and get stronger during rest not work. Work breaks the body down, rest builds it up. Hitting it every day just builds up a fatigue load with no rest period for adaptions to take place during recoveries.

My hands sometimes go numb on long runs, I think as I tire I hunch up my shoulders and run stiff, I'm probably pinching something and restricting blood flow to my hands.

If you want to track your progress, speeds and distance stick the Strava app on your phone and use the GPS activity tracking. You 'll be able to look back over your runs and see how much faster your average speed gets over time. You can also track your unicycle rides on it.

 

No idea what the arm is about, but it sounds like maybe you need to focus more on aerobic conditioning rather than anaerobic work, which it sounds like you have been doing. This will help with your "cardio" fitness (endurance) and probably give you more of what you're looking for. I imagine that doing some lower body strength work would be beneficial for you too, allowing you to produce the same amount of power with less effort, though what you would do would obviously depend on what your ankle can handle!

Does one have to give a disclaimer about giving out fitness suggestions in the same way as (not) financial advice? Anyway, if you have a look around on the net you will find plenty of articles from varying sources discussing the differences between aerobic and anaerobic training. The reality is that to be a good endurance athlete (if that is what you want), you need both, but aerobic in much larger volume.

My apologies if this is all known to you!

 

Started running a couple of months ago, out of quarantine on Friday and keen to get back to it! Very slow and not that steady yet, but things were improving. Trail running is definitely my jam, so looking forward to seeing what the red centre has to offer

 

@Gockie, good advice from @Biggbird and @Propagate, keep it slow and steady.

Keep the heart rate in your aerobic zone and walk/run if need be, the aim is to build your base first and work through flexibility exercises for your ankle.

 

I'd say what I'm doing is HIIT but without the repeating it.

I went for another run with the hill this afternoon, only went up and down it 3 times, (just in case I was to end up on a call with my boss soon after) and my recovery this time felt quick!! No dying

Ankles are feeling good too.

 

On more thing. I did a free Pilates class via Zoom thanks to Sydney city council yesterday. Today I could feel my side abs from doing it
There was a lot of Glute work in that too.

 

Been doing the run just now, 4 times up and down the hill, 5 min 19 seconds. Didn't feel like dying today either, but fitbit says I had 3 minutes in Peak, 2 minutes in Cardio, 0 minutes in both Fat burn and below zones. Interesting. I usually have very little time in peak. Wonder if the tightness of fitbit (which band strap hole) comes into it? Anyway, I feel good after that run