Enforced rest

It seems things aren’t going so well currently. After struggling through the last 3 weeks (which in itself included a week of non-running to rest my hip) I’ve now been advised to rest some more. I’ve been to see the physio about my knee and been working on some exercises to remedy a biomechanical imbalance which seems to be working. However, she’s now more concerned about my right hip (as am I) which is now painful to run on and uncomfortable to walk on resulting in a slight limp. So I have more exercises to do to try to stretch out the hip joint and see if it frees up.

I’ve got another appointment next Wednesday, but I’m thinking that if it’s no better (which after a week of more or less no running (I did a few miles to work on Tuesday and it was really quite painful) it doesn’t seem to be) I may go to the GP to see about some other form of remedy.

Either way, my running is not going quite to plan at present which is annoying as I feel like I approached the build up nice and steadily and have been rewarded with a succession of niggles and injuries. I’m rather looking forward to being able to go on a long run and not be worried about which bit is going to be sore for the whole run. Maybe at my age I’m asking too much, but I hope not.

First Race of 2010

It’s been touch and go whether I’d make it to this Sunday’s Sheffield Half Marathon but it’s looking like I’ll be lining up with 5,499 others for the 13.1 miles through Sheffield’s streets.

My last post before Christmas promised more effort, more focus, more training. In the immortal words of Meatloaf, two out of three ain’t bad. I’ve certainly been pretty focused, and it’s seemed like a lot of effort but as for more training, well……..

It all started so well with regular runs to and from work in January, despite the snow. I took it nice and steady, with a good slow build up, and then in early Feb something happened inside my knee which meant I was unable to run for a month. Trips to physio, GP and knee specialist determined it’s most likely a meniscal tear. I’m awaiting the results of a recent MRI scan on it to determine the next steps (excuse the pun).

Despite this, a long weekend of snowboarding, a bout of tonsillitis and further winter ailments, I’m back running and hoping for the best. There’s no pain as such now when I run (not in the knee at least) but it feels a bit odd, kind of tight and a bit tender. I gave it a real wallop when snowboarding too which hasn’t helped so I’m not sure if it’s the aftermath of that, or something linked to the original injury. I’ve only stretched the training runs to 75 mins max so far so the half marathon should be an interesting test – I’m certainly not aiming for a PB.