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Great North Run training: Weeks 5 & 6

Simon — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:00:23 +0000

Well, when it comes to training, the past two weeks have been uneventful. I’ve been proceeding with my recovery schedule and gradually increasing my training. It’s a very slow build-up and I won’t be able to get up to 13 miles in my training before the race. Gradually, however, my confidence is returning with every week that passes injury-free.

Also, in light of the latest advice, I’ve decided to scrap my old warm-up routine for a new one. Instead of doing fifteen minutes of static stretches (which involves moving the muscles beyond their natural range of movement to increase their elasticity), I’m doing more dynamic stretches, which helps lubricate the joints and warm-up the muscles better.

Dynamic stretches encourages more blood flow to the muscles, which means greater delivery of oxygen and improved flushing away of waste products from exercise (like lactic acid). That’s then followed by a five-minute jog to my usual starting point, where I start as normal.

Great North Run training: Weeks 1 & 2

Simon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:13:38 +0000

After the Monday training run I mentioned in my last post, my legs ached just a bit too much. Naturally I thought of the worst – that I had pulled the same muscle again – so I thought I’d better play it safe and skip my planned Wednesday run for that week. I hoped that this would give me enough time to recover for my Friday run.

As ever, I was anxious about returning to running again, however, this time everything just felt normal. No unusually aching muscles or any pain. Which made a nice change from what I’ve put up with for the last six weeks.

So I now I’m going to properly ease myself back into training and actually start following a training schedule again. It’s very mild compared to what I’m used to, but there’s no way I’m going to risk another six weeks of not being able to train.

Starting all over again

Simon — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:58:57 +0000

The last time I blogged I mentioned that I would be able to walk the Leeds 10K. Well, I decided that I wouldn’t be able to do that and that it would be a better idea to give another two weeks of total rest. The team at the Leeds 10K have even allowed me to defer my place until 2010. What nice people

I think that decision has paid off. I did a 2-mile “trial run” on Sunday and felt much better. There was the occasional twinge from my original injury (a pulled muscle) initially, but once I got going, it disappeared.

So on Monday I decided to restart my training for the Great North Run 2009. I’m using a deliberately slow, easy training program in order to gradually build up my strength again – I’m definitely not going to risk letting this injury happen again.