"Everything is hard before it is easy." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Great news to report at last..... I am finally getting back to my training!
It seems a while since I have posted anything other than whinging and moaning..(sorry!) ...but that is about to end.

Since July I have been working really hard on Core exercises to strengthen up some weaknesses I have. I have also been doing lots of stretching and strengthening - yawn yawn. I have been fastidious with this and spend about 80 mins a day doing a set of circuits and exercises to help. Yes it is boring, yes at times I really do not want to do it, especially at 530 in the morning! But it has to be done if I want to run so it is worth it.

My amazing physios (Andy and Duncan) at Athlete Matters in Worsley (www.athletematters.com) have been looking after me once again and getting me back on track. Over the past couple weeks I feel like the clinic in Worsley has been my second home but it has been time and effort well spent. My progress seemed to be a little stuck at about 30-40 minutes of running pain free, which isn't a lot of help when your good training runs are meant to be few hours in duration.

19th October - I had my first pain free 5 mins of running since July.
28th October -I was up to about 17 mins of pain free running.
11th November - I was getting about 35 mins pain free running on roads.

I spoke with Duncan and Andy about seeing them every other day or so for two weeks to see if we could try and get a bit further with the rehab and we gave it a whirl........

Physio sessions in November...

Wed 13th,
Thurs 14th,
Sat16th
Mon 18th,
Wed 20th
Fri 22nd

With steady progress being made throughout......

Saturday 23rd was a BREAKTHOUGH day!

I had been "treated" or rather "tortured" by Duncan and his "tool" - a Fascial release tool to help sort out my tight fascia.  The bruises I was left with were fantastic although I will not share the photos......and it was rather a painful experience but it seemed to have the desired impact! Duncan also did some excellent Rock Taping work on me which really seems to decrease the pain I suffer.

The Saturday morning after seeing Duncan on the Friday I had a run planned. I must admit to feeling a bit worried before I went, I get quite wound up with the thought of going for a run, because if I go and it hurts I come home in a bad mood and sulk.

72 minutes (9.5 miles) of pain free running made me a very happy bunny!

This was followed by another 75 minutes (10 miles) of pretty much pain free running on Monday evening too.

Tuesday night run was again OK- not quite as good, as it seemed to be tightening up a little.

Physio again on Wednesday which followed a couple of days that were not quite as pain free, I had a rest day on Thursday and this seemed to allow things to seize up a little. When I ran again on Friday my hip and back gradually eased off again - my body likes running not resting. Also we hadn't reapplied the Tape on Wednesday and this may have been helping more than I realised.

A visit to see Duncan again on Saturday 30th Nov for some more treatment and taping left me feeling great, ready for a successful 12miles run on Saturday morning with Andy and Callum.

So 90 mins of pain free running is an amazing increase and I am delighted. Huge thank you to Athlete Matters for looking after me and for putting up with my whinging and moaning too.

Looking back over my mileage for last week, I was really pleased and surprised to have clocked up 48 miles. That makes it an almost normal training week and I am back to eating copious amounts of 9Bars for my training fuel.

So.....the plan for now is to keep up the physio, keep up the core work, strengthening and stretching and keep my fingers crossed that the progress keeps on coming.

The next big plan is Kielder 50k at the end of April......so hopefully I can start getting back off road this week and keep the mileage creeping up......although must not get carried away.....

"Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast." Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare