Reconditioning and Strenthening Programme

Here's the training programme I've decided on to recondition and strengthen whilst taking time off running to beat the shin splints. This will be an eight week programme with a view to having me out running again by September.

Monday
Swimming 30-40 minutes

Tuesday
Resistance training (weights).

If you've ever attended a Les Mills Bodypump Class then basically that is what I'm doing in my garage with the music blaring from the cars CD (well not blaring as I'm doing this from 5.30 to 6.30 in the morning).

If you don't know what Bodypump class is, click here.

Wednesday Rest - Coaching Jack's Soccer team.

Thursday Deep water aqua running - 30 minutes

Friday Weight training.

Moderate weights 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps, two exercises for the larger body parts,
one for the smaller parts per body part 10-15 reps.

Alternating each week between these two work outs;

Workout 1
Quads, Shoulders, Biceps, Calfs, Abs/core

Workout 2
Chest, Back, Hamstrings, Triceps, Calfs, Abs/core

Saturday/Sunday

Bike ride - 60 minutes.

In addition to the above I'm continuing with 30 minutes of stretching each night.

Also I just found a bunch of new exercises at www.pponline.co.uk specific for treating shin splints. This website could well be the most informative sports training website on the Internet. It's a virtual online encyclopedia full of articles on all sorts of sports, training tips, injury prevention tips and much more.

Here's the shin/ankle strengthening exercises I'm doing.


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Enjoying the Rest

Who finds it difficult to get into a new exercise routine when you're changing things around a bit?

I must admit I have been a bit lazy this week and apart from one 30 minute aqua running session on Monday, I've done absolutely nothing. I could come up with all the usual excuses like, a busy week and work, crap weather, too tired etc, but really I just haven't got my butt into gear yet and committed to any sort of routine. Often when I'm changing things around it can take a week or two to settle into a routine so hopefully I'll get organised shortly.

I've pretty much told myself that there's no running until September, so in that respect a week or two off now is probably not going to hurt me too much.

If I'm going to come back stronger in September though I know I need to keep cross training, keep working on maintaining what flexibility I have (which isn't a hell of a lot)and improving it if possible, and fit in some strength work.

When I do come back to running I might take it real slow and try the routine that Mark wrote about in this article. It seems a little bit like learning to walk again, but right now I'm almost prepared to try anything if it's going to keep me from getting shin splints again.

So seeing as I've got no running news to update you with I thought I'd share a bit of something else. Us Kiwi sports fans have got a huge double header to look forward to this weekend in the shape of two highly anticipated sporting clashes which have and will capture the attention of many New Zealanders.

In the early hours of Sunday morning (NZ time), Emirates Team New Zealand take on the the Swiss defender, Alinghi, in race one of the Americas Cup, arguably the most sought after trophy in yachting, in Valencia, Spain. The excitement has been building up in recent weeks as the Kiwi challenge firstly overcame the twelve other teams from around the world, culminating in a 5 races to nil series win over the Italian challenge, Prada to win the right to challenge for the Americas Cup. The Kiwis will be doing all they can to get the cup back of the Swiss team who took it off us in Auckland in 2003.

At the same time as the yachting is getting under way, the nation's favourite sporting team, the All Blacks, take on South Africa in Durban, in their Tri-Nations match. These two teams have one of the most famous rivalries in international rugby and they are always hard fought and tough encounters. We expect nothing different on Sunday morning.

Down south in Queenstown and Southland they're 'enjoying' the first big dump of snow for the winter. Here's a television news clip on the big snow.

It's been a wet week up in Auckland with more rain forecast for much of the weekend. Jack's Soccer has already been cancelled. The boys each have another birthday party to attend this weekend.

Finally, good luck to those running in the Western States 100 mile race this weekend. That's gotta take some guts.

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Facing Reality, Kids Soccer, Well done Canada

I said a week or two ago that I was in two minds about whether I should keep running or take another lay off to rest and recover from my ongoing shin splint troubles. I decided on giving myself three weeks to see if I could shake of the shin splints with some light running over short distances, in addition to my ongoing stretching.

This last week the shin made my mind up for me and now I'm facing the reality of another lay off. This time I'm thinking I'll just take an extended break of maybe six to eight weeks rest, while at the same time continuing with other forms of cross training and strengthening work to hopefully enable me to come back fitter and stronger.

The week started with a 7.7 km (4.8 mile) easy run at around 5:30 pace. Right from early on the shin was feeling a little sorer than it has been in the recent outings. The other common nuisance of mine, the numb foot, also reappeared at about the 30 minute stage again to add to my problems.

Two days later I was taking to the roads again, but I pulled the pin within minutes as the shin was just too sore. I could not imagine that I would be doing myself any favours by continuing on. I new then and there that my time was up and that I would again be confined to the pool or the bike.

I need to figure out some sort of training routine over the next few days or week, that will get me back onto the roads by September. As much as I find swimming to be a drag, I'll fit in one swim a week, one session aqua running, one or two bike rides. I would also like to start some weight training again (weights have been sitting untouched in the garage for months). I keep reading that Yoga is good for assisting runners with their flexibility, so I need to look into that as well.

On the family front, we have all been crook this weekend, Jack as had a cold for several days now, then yesterday Sam , Michelle and I all come down with a stomach bug. Fortunately while we were still not 100% today the worst is over.

It also seems to be the season for birthday parties. I took Sam to a friends 4th birthday this morning and Jack to his mate's 6th birthday this afternoon. Next weekend they are both off to another party each. Theirs come up in July and August and the planning has already started. A bouncy castle on the front lawn apparently?

Jack's soccer is going well. The team has a record from their eight games so far this season of two wins, three draws and four losses. Yesterdays result was a 0-1 loss with the opposition scoring in the final minute of the game. Our team is a mixture of kids who have good amount of skill to those that just want to get their foot on the ball no matter what direction it goes, to some that show little interest and spend half the game in a day dream. Jack is not our most skilled player, but he tries hard and he enjoys it. The challenge is to get the kids to play in some sort of formation and think about playing as a team and looking for a fellow team member to pass to if they are in a better position. We keep on practicing this and slowly we are getting there.

Finally, well done to the Canadian Rugby team who put on a brave showing against the All Blacks last night in Hamilton. The All Blacks were the victors by 64-13 but given many in the media were predicting a 100 point spread Canada did well to limit it to half that.



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Banking the Miles - Week two

Got in three runs this week as planned totalling 11.5 miles. This was week two of the build up programme, which I'm following to ensure I don't be increase my mileage too fast too soon and thus risk further shin splint damage.

The three runs were each of about 4 miles and should be at a slow and easy pace given I'm only two weeks back from my lay off and the shins have been a little tender.

I have to admit to sometimes having trouble holding back the competitor in me that just wants to race. I had wanted to run a 10K race today, however given my lay off and lack of running recently, I instead considered just running the 5k race. On Thursday's run, with the 5 k race in mind, I thought I would test the body with some intervals and did two one km intervals at my five km pace (around 4:35-4:40 pace).

This was probably a little foolish so soon after my lay off and with my shins still not 100% and sure enough what had been a comfortable and pain free easy run prior to the intervals, ended with some shin pain by the end. It was quite noticeable that the intervals brought with them the shin pain as my stride lengthened from the slower paced warm up to the faster paced interval. Tesso made an interesting comment on my last post, suggesting that shin splints can be brought on by over striding, so that is something that I will now keep an eye on also. It did seem that this could have been the case on Thursday's run.

Anyway, though I guess I could have entered the 5 k race and just treated it as a slow training run, I decided against it. Turned out to be the right decision as the weather at eight this morning was shocking. We also had had little sleep from 2:00am onwards with Jack having an upset stomach causing some vomiting.

The details;

Monday
Distance 6km (3.73 miles)
Time 30:47
Ave pace 5:08 min km (8:15 miles)
Max HR 173
Ave HR 152

Tuesday
Swim 1200 meters 33 minutes

Thursday
Distance 6.5km (4 miles)
Time 32:44
Ave pace 5:00 min km (8:04 miles)
Max HR 173
Ave HR 155

Sunday
Distance 6 km (3.73 miles)
Time 30:55
Ave pace 5:09 min km (8:17 miles)
Max HR 165
Ave HR 145

This week will be much the same with no real increase in mileage planned for another couple of weeks.

Have a good week.




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To Run or not to Run?

Thanks to everyone for the well meaning advice concerning my shin splint problems. I really appreciate it. I must admit I'm still a bit in two minds about where to from here.

Several of you including Eric and Phil suggest a longer break from running might be needed followed by a slow and gradual transition from walking then to running, others including Ewen, and my Podiatrist is even of this opinion, that a little running now should be okay so long as I don't increase the mileage too fast too soon.

In fact the Podiatrist commented yesterday was that a little soreness once I've started back running after a lay off is not unexpected as the muscle gets used to me running again? I explained to him that the soreness was nothing major during the running but just the usual aching afterwards. He seemed happy for me to continue running three times a week but to keep the runs to about 30 minutes at this stage for the next few weeks.

Therefore this is what I've decided;

- I'm going to keep running three times a week, around four to five miles each run for the next three weeks.

- I'm doing a range of stretches and strengthening exercises every night for about 30 minutes to work on increasing my flexibility and muscle strength.

- I'll keep icing the shin when needed but particularly after each run.

I'll reassess things at the end of June and see where we go from there. If there is no improvement then I might seriously need to take Eric and Phil's advice and take a decent amount of time off. As people rightly have pointed out I've got plenty of time ahead of me to reach my goal of one day being in a position to run a marathon. If I need to take some more time off I will but first I want to give it one more shot at overcoming this while still keeping up some running.

Thanks again.


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My Shoes

On this page I'm just going to keep a record of the running shoes I've used, the mileage I ran in them, how I found them etc.

June 2007 - present

Adidas Supernova Control




A control shoe not as structured as the Adistar. My Podiatrist thinks its a good shoe and one that I should be happy with. Been running in them for a week and it feels good. I've done away with the cushioned soles and the orthotics and am just running in the off the shelf shoe. Without the orthotic the shoes seem more roomy that I've been used to so perhaps that will help with the numbness I had been getting?


August 2006- May 2007

Adidas Adistar


.

Total Milage

550 km (342 miles)

General comment

Generally a good comfortable shoe. Did a lot of experimenting however with different insoles/ orthotics so never really 100% happy from one week to the next. Probably wasn't the shoes fault however just what I was putting in it. As it turns out my Podiatrist doesn't think that bio-mechanically my gait is that bad that it warrants an orthotic.




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Back Running

After a three week lay off to rest my shin splints, this week I took my first hopeful steps of what will be a slow build up of mileage over coming months. I'm looking forward to a gradual buildup which with any luck will help me to avoid repeating the same old mistakes leading to the same old problems which have dogged my running to date.

Tuesday's run was a 3 mile run around the Auckland Domain. Even after three weeks rest the shin was not 100% and I could still feel it's not totally right. This is a little disconcerting as half of me does wonder that if it is troubling me a little now its likely to get worse as I pick up the mileage, ending in yet another frustrating lay off. The half wonders whether I just need to accept that as a runner I have to learn to live with these niggles and just harden up.

For the time being as I've got another check up with the Podiatrist this week, I will just see how I go until then and see what he thinks about continuing on or what further treatment options might exist.

Fitness wise, I found that I've lost very little condition.

Thursday was a 4 mile run, again around the Domain. The shin actually felt a little better on Thursday during the run. It's the aching afterwards that's still a problem. Back to icing it each night it seems.

Saturday was another 4 mile run, this time around my neighborhood in Albany. For something a bit different and fun, my eldest son Jack (5) tagged along on his bike. I chose a pretty flat out and back route to minimise the hills Jack needed to climb and although the pace was a bit slower than normal it was great to combine something that I really love doing with something that he really enjoys as well. He had a great time even if I did have to give him a bit of a helping hand up a few of the hills that we couldn't avoid.

Yesterday I actually ran in some new shoes which I picked up at sale some months back. I've been keeping them back because I have only run about 550 km in my old shoes and I had heard that you should be able to get up to 1000 km out of a pair of running shoes. The new ones felt good though and the shin was again not too bad. So it might be time to make the switch.

Here's Jack and Sam on their bikes today, enjoying the wet roads after a shower;





Also this week I went for a 1300 meter swim which took about 35 minutes.

This weeks numbers;

Tuesday
- Distance 5 km (3.1 miles)
- Time 25:15
- Ave pace 5:03 minute k's (8:06 miles)

Thursday
- Distance 6.5 km (4 miles)
- Time 33:30
- Ave pace 5:07 minute k's (8:15 miles)

Saturday
- Distance 6.75 km (4.2 miles)
- Time 39:00
- Ave pace 5:47 minute k's (9:07 miles)
- Max HR 159
- Ave HR 145

I ended May weighing a shade over 85 kg, a slight increase on last month.

Have a good week.

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