Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on December 23rd, 2006 in Training
As I claw my way back from injury, I find that I’ve been hitting the cross-training hard. I’ve been doing the elliptical, but for example, I spent 4 hours on the elliptical last week and I’m at 4 hours, 20 mins this week so far and I still plan to do 40 mins today to bring it to 5 hours for the week.
I don’t know if this level of cross-training is required, but it makes me feel better about not losing any fitness.
I’ve started back running and did 4.5 miles today. I think I’m well on my way to getting back to my 25 mpw level by the New Year. I’m ending this week at 9.7 miles. I’m hoping to do 20 miles next week and then hopefully 25 miles for the first week of the year.
All I need from Santa now is a body that can hold up to the running I want to do.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on December 20th, 2006 in Injury
I have a lot of running books and since being injured, I’ve been reading what they all say about injuries. I came across a section that Dr. Tim Noakes says about responses to injury in his book “Lore of Running“. I thought I would share that section….
Typical Response to Injury
All athletes, regardless of personality, will go through a similar pattern of response to injury:
- DENIAL: At first, the athlete refuses to accept that the injury has occurred and simply denies its possibility. Examples of runners who ran to their deaths, denying that they could possibly have heart disease, are detailed in chapter 5
- ANGER (rage): When the injury can no longer be denied, the athlete becomes enraged and blames either the doctor, a spouse, or some third party for the injury. Occasionally, athletes will blame their bodies for this betrayal and may even subject it to further abuse, for example, by continuing to run.
- DEPRESSION: When denial and rage no longer work, the athlete moves on to the (penultimate) stage of depression
- ACCEPTANCE: Finally, the athlete learns to accept the injury and to modify ambition to accomodate the inadquacies of the mortal body. When this occurs, the athlete is likely to be overt the injury
He goes on to say……
I am uncertain whether it is possible to increase the speed at which the athlete progresses from denial to acceptance. But understading that the process is quite normal is usually helpful.
I can certainly confirm that I’ve gone through all these stages with my recent injury and it’s only in the last few days I’ve come to accept it.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on December 19th, 2006 in Injury, Training
Today I decided to test the waters and do an easy 2 miles. It worked out much better than last week Friday when I tried testing the waters then. At that time I managed to go about 10 feet before I had to stop running. This time I was able to run the full 2 miles.
My right ankle/shin felt solid for the first 1.5 miles, but then it started get a little sore. My left knee was more troublesome and pretty much hurt throughout the run, but just a slight nagging pain.
I’ll give me legs another 3 days rest and try a 3 mile run on Friday.
Today was a good sign and at least there is some promise that I may be running again. I’m hoping to easy back into it over the next 2 weeks and start the New Year all fresh.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on December 15th, 2006 in Injury
I’ve been sidelined since Monday unable to run. I started doing some cross-training on an elliptical trainer on Wednesday. My leg was feeling pretty good so I thought I would try and go for an easy 3-mile run. Well, that wasn’t a good idea. I got about 10 feet at which time i realized I wouldn’t be able to run yet.
Looks as though I may have to do the elliptical trainer for another week and then see how my leg feels.
For now I’m doing 40-60 mins on the elliptical. I’ll try and do 90 mins on Sunday so it’ll be comparable to my “long” run
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on December 13th, 2006 in Injury
This week is the first time I have had to miss running days because of injury. So far I have missed 2 days and expect to miss at least 1 more, if not more.
The injury has to do with the outside shin of my right leg. It is still pretty sore. As of today I can walk normally on it which I couldn’t do yesterday. The pain is mostly gone, but if I try to stretch it, it hurts.
My left knee was also giving trouble up until yesterday.
Right now I’m taking it one day at a time.
