Sports & Fitness The Running Thread (All Abilities)

Thanks for that. I have been working (unsuccessfuly) to increase my cadence so it will be interesting to see if it works.

 

Spewing, injured again! I thought the hip had come good after my long run the other week. Had only ran once since (about 10 days ago, Fartlek oval laps), and it held up fine but then I got a cold so have had a week+ of no training. Went out yesterday for the first post-cold run, just an easy trail run, and the hip went again at only the 3k mark, hobbled back to the car. It's very sore this morning. Pretty fed up to be honest. Hope everyone else had a better weekend.

 

That sucks.. especially when you intentionally go out easy?
Had you been doing yoga over the past week or so too?

I upped the k's a little bit and did 11k on Saturday morning.. happy with the pace, just sneaking under 6min/km. I've been keeping it easy at about 6-6.5min/km getting back into it. Might stick with this another week or two before getting back into intervals.

 

Yeah, disappointing @vbplease for sure. I did Yin Yoga last Monday, which is a very gentle stretching one. I skipped Tuesday's Vinyasa as I was in full-cold by then. I did Thursday's Iyenga though, oh, and I had a crack at indoor rock climbing on Saturday afternoon so that might have contributed (overstretched the hips reaching for a foot hold maybe?). Everything felt fine when I set off, just got to about 3k and it started to get sore , then within about 200m of that I had to stop, it just got too painful.

I'll leave off a few days now then just do a few slow laps of the soft track at the oval for the next few runs, take it very easy and play it by ear.

 

Well I have run my Altra's in and I must say that I am extremely happy with them so far. They have been incredible comfortable from the start and have a great toe box. For the past few months i have had cornes develop on my little toes that give me a lot of pain while running along with a sore right ankle which I am sure was from my last pair of shoes NB 880's. The Altra's give me no pain in the toes and the pain in my ankle has dissipated also. I am hopeful that I have finally found my shoe!!!

 

They sound the goods @Mick Butterfield , will have to test drive a pair next time I need to replace mine.

My hip is still shot, went out for a cruisy 4k on Wednesday and was limping by 2.5k mark. So frustrating!

 

Hang in there @Propagate
Persist through your injuries and you'll overcome them.

I had a hamstring strain a few weeks ago, then it spread to a glute strain a week after that.
Had my first run back yesterday doing 10 x 100m repeats working down to a comfortable strides at 14 seconds with no issues.
Was expecting the glute to fatigue or deteriorate, but it held up well.
In the past 2 years I've gone through anterior shin splints for 6 months, Achilles issues for 12 months and a few hamstring strains, but getting better all the time.

I signed up for stretching classes 3 times a week starting from next week, which will hopefully loosen me up a bit.

 

Thanks @Ace in the Hole sounds like you've had a couple of rough years there, hopefully you're through it all now.

I think what's happened with me is that as I've got a bit stronger and faster I've become complacent with form. Goinf from a very minimilst shoe to something a little more padded has meant I'm heel striking a little bit without realizing. I've let my right foot splay out again instead of watching to maintain a mid-foot neutral strike, consequently, most of the impact and indeed most of the propulsion is coming from my hip/piriformis muscle and not from the right glute.

I noticed it from Yoga actually, suddenly realized my right foot was really wanting to rotate out naturally again all the time and realized my right glute wasn't activating at all in the alignment poses whereas my left was.

Time to wind the speed right off and really concentrate on activating the right glute wen running, stop relying on the hip to carry the work when fatigue and laziness creeps in.

 

All this stuff is a great learning experience to learn about how our bodies function physically.
Any running or activity and getting injured is still better than being inactive like the majority of the population, they don't know what they're missing out on...

 

Far out @Propagate I am hoping you can get your hip sorted out asap.It may be going back to a minimalist shoe will help with you injury. From my end my last round of injury coincided with a change in shoes.

 

Totally agree. I always cop "you know running is bad for your knees" and I come back with I would rather have sore knees then heart disease in my 50's. Bring on the fish oil tablets!!!

 

It's great to see everyone finding a way around their obstacles...

I missed on a few days of exercising for the first time in six month due to visiting the family in Sydney(Lots of food and alcohol but wasn't too bad this time...). Feels awesome getting back into it even after such a short period of rest(4 days).

The new Mizuno Sayonara 4 test run yesterday was pretty good. Very comfy and looking forward for my next longish run test but still will be making an effort to do more more soft surfaces running.

I never found running comfortable and always had some kind of discomfort somewhere but that's a part of the appeal of running and pretty much the only way to get better at it.

Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable is a must when it comes to any form of exercise especially running.

 

So true @paulF i think running can build a particular internal strength that you can use in many other aspects of your life.

 

Great quote, and true of so many things in life. Indeed, it's one of the things one of our Yogi's says every week, use you breath and get comfortable in the sensations of the discomfort.

Just got back from a 6.5k flat run, working on technique again. Wound the pace back to 5 minute k's and watched the core, glutes and foot strike. Got to about 4k before any hip niggles, by the time I got back it was pretty painful again but still, it's 1.5k further along that it flared up last time. I think I'm on the right track watching the form.

As soon as I stop and stretch it's gone, (comes stright back though once it's flared), so I don't think it's structural damage, I think it's weak stabilizing muscles just reaching fatigue failure from poor form. Got to keep working on that technique!!

 

Tone
Are you icing after each run?

 

I haven't been, I'd read that the current consensus was it did more harm than good, (in that it makes you feel less sore but arrests the strength adaptations from the training?).

I think I'll try it for a while though, until I get on top of it.

Cheers.

 

Maybe I'm a bit old school!!!!!
Might work you never know

 

I'll give it a shot, I've got some ice packs at home in the freezer, I'll bring one to leave at work for next run.

 

So frustrating! Just did a slow run around the soft sand track at the oval. Wound the pace right off, watched the form. Hip started playing up about 4k, wound back a bit more, it eased off if I did sort of side-side steps and stretched it out then came back straight away.

Pulled the pin at 7k before I made it any worse. Felt cack too, I felt really slow and heavy today.

Did a few hip stretches on the pavilion deck in the sun, that eased it straight off and was pain free walking back to work so I guess it's a slight improvement over the last two runs. Jut frustrating.

Will keep up the easy oval ones and the stretching for another couple of weeks before pushing the k's back out again.

Anyone have a good run over the weekend?

 

Yeah Tone
Had my Saturday road run 25ks in 2hrs 15 min. Happy with that.

Regarding your hips - I coached a guy in footy many years ago with hip problems, he used to train in wet suit shorts - kept his hips and groins in good nick. The compression of the shorts kept everything steady as well as the muscles warm all the time. So you may try this - the shorts were thicker than bike shorts but not as heavy as a full blown wetsuit.