2009 round up

How's that for procrastination? I originally wrote this on 1st Jan 2010, but am only now editing it to publish... From some of the emails I've received, I know you've been on the edge of your seats to hear how I'm getting on!

Well, 2009 has been quite a year for many reasons!

The biggest thing to happen this year, however, has nothing to do with running nor weight loss - the two principle subjects of this blog.

No, the biggest success of 2009 is that, after many years of trying, my wife is now pregnant. In fact, she's now 23 weeks pregnant with twins (the best "buy one get one free" deal there is!)

But you don't want to hear about that, you want to hear about weight loss and running. So how did I do over 2009 and what are my plans for 2010?

2009 new year resolutions

At the start of 2009 I set three simple new year resolutions around running, cycling and going to the gym, and hopefully weight loss would be the result...

Unfortunately I failed them all for no good reason. There were a few things which made them more difficult, but even taking those factors into account I would still have failed...

I planned to run 300 miles but only ran 140. Ok, so I've been injured for the whole of November and December with an achilles strain but that doesn't account for the difference between the resolution and what I did.

I planned to cycle 1000 miles but I only managed just over 300 (pitiful). On that front, my bike was off the road for 2 months while I had to fabricate a part which is no longer available off the shelf. And I also had 2 months during which my doctor said I couldn't ride - this was to maximise the chances of making my wife pregnant. As it has worked, I can hardly be bitter...

I also planned to go to the gym 100 times but only went 40 times instead. Perhaps just a bit too much given the amount of travelling I do?

Weight loss

Much better news on the weight loss front. Using intermittent fasting I lost around 10kg (or 12kg if you take peak to trough results). Here are afew posts about this...

Losing weight through intermittent fasting
Rapid weight loss success

Running performance

As you may know, I was quite consistent at doing the Wimbledon Common 5k each Saturday (at least until the start of November when I got injured). Weight loss and some specific speed work in the autumn helped bring my time down from around 30 mins to 26:51. So that was definitely a success.

New resolutions for 2010

Although we're already over 10% into 2010, let me share with you my resolutions...

Running - 500 miles (vs 300 target/140 achieved in 2009)
Cycling - 1000 miles (vs 1000 target/304 achieved in 2009)
Gym - 50 times (vs 100 target/38 achieved in 2009)

So far, things have been going quite well against these goals.

I'm particularly pleased on the running front where I've managed to incorporate a true "long run" into my training. In fact on Sunday I ran 15k (which for me is a very long run!! But as you may remember, I need to get up to 21k to complete the Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. By the way, sponsorship for this endeavour is still appreciated!!!

Running in January was a bit of a nervous affair. The streets in London were covered in wet slippery ice, and it was the first time I had run in 2 months, having taken that much time off in order to try to let my achilles heal.

After the first couple of runs, my achilles felt a little sore, and I worried that I'd come back too soon. However, if I hadn't come back in January, then I'd never have been in shape to do the half marathon in March. Definitely a case of being caught between the rock and a hard place / devil and the deep blue sea...

Anyway, this soreness appears to have now gone, even after the 15k run after which I just suffered the normal aches and pains of going further and longer than I'd gone before.

That's if for this post (it's been a long one hasn't it?!?!)

Just one final reminder - please sponsor me for the half marathon - everything is very much appreciated and it's for a very good cause!!

Another week, another 5k personal best

Someone told me that personal bests are like buses - you wait for one, and then three come along simultaneously.

That gave me some comfort when I hadn't had a PB in over two years of running... But a bit of weight loss and a bit more training has helped me to get EIGHT PB's in a row!!

My previous 5k PB before the summer was 29:14, set way back in March 2008.

After the summer, I started losing weight and getting fitter, and within 7 weeks of getting back from vacation, I got my first PB in over a year - 28:30. Wow I was chuffed with myself!

The next week I took another 17 seconds off, then 14, then 24, then 12, then 8, then 0 (we'll come back to that...), then 11, and last week I took another 25 seconds off the Fat Runner's 5k PB time to get to 26:56 - quite a drop in only eight weeks!

So, should I count the 'same time' result from 17 October as a PB? The reason I am doing so is as follows. The batteries in my Garmin Forerunner died within a few minutes so I had no idea how fast I was running. If I'd known that I was destined for the exact same time as I'd run the week before, then I'd definitely have pushed just a little more to get another second off... Is that fair?

We'll see how next week goes. Another PB may be tricky for two reasons.

Firstly, I took 25 seconds off last week, so I think that I was right at the limit of what I was capable of.

Secondly, I've got a sore achilles tendon 3 days after the run which might not fix in time, and I'm certainly not running on it this week so I'll be relying on gym work, swimming and cycling for any fitness gains this week.

Other news - as well as the half marathon I'll be doing in March next year (by the way - I'm still very eager for sponsorship - please support me!), I'm also signed up for a triathlon in May. Am I mad? Possibly...

Plantar Fasciitis surgery - no thanks!

Walking to the tube today (for non-brits, the tube is the same as the underground or subway or whatever you call it in your country), I felt a slight twinge in my foot - could it be plantar fasciitis again? I hope not as that kept me from running for a long long time.

Well obviously I'm going to try to take it easy and make sure I don't aggravate it, but in any event I looked up plantar fasciitis on youtube, and found a good reason to make sure that my PF doesn't get so bad that it needs an operation.

The funny thing is that this kind of plantar fasciitis surgery is described as 'minimally invasive'. Looks painful to me!!

If you're squeamish, do not watch...

"Run walk run" - still running faster

Following my last post when I was talking about the potential for run-walk-run to give better times than running alone, my last two 'runs' were "run-walk-run"s... If that makes sense.

And the times I ran it in seem to imply that, for The Fat Runner at least, that it is faster to break the run with a walk.

Again, over the same course that I'd been running on my holiday, my times for the last two runs were around 23 mins 20 seconds - over a minute faster than running alone.

I found an interesting post providing the counter view to the benefits of run walk run. The author, very persuasively I think, claims that run-walk-run works best for out of shape runners.

Well to me that's fine. I am an out of shape runner. I'm The Fat Runner for goodness sake!

What I know from the run walk run method is that it allows me to do the following:

> Run without injury: Admittedly it has only been a bit over a week, but it's worth noting that I ran every other day (and I'm now 103kg unfortunately) with very little soreness (and none towards the end of the week). And this was after not having run for over a month!

> Run faster: My times seem to bear out the fact that I run faster when I walk...

> Work on running style: Perhaps this shouldn't be an issue for me at the moment, but one of the things I notice is that when I do run walk run, the 'run's are much closer to 'run's than 'jog's... My feet come further off the floor, I feel myself able to push off with more force, I feel like there is more of a flowing rhythm going on, rather than the 'plod, plod, plod' I get when I don't put the walk breaks in

So, while I'm sure the other author is right (and on another post, one of her readers makes the valid point that "funny thing I don’t see Tergat and Gebresalassie taking these walking breaks"), run walk run seems to work for me.

So my question to you is, what is the etiquette for using run walk run in races. Will I seriously annoy other runners if I continually overtake them, just to walk for a bit and let them overtake me? What are your thoughts?

Walking to faster running times

Sounds counter intuitive doesn't it? If I walk more then my times will be faster?

It puzzled me that my third run of the holiday was so much slower (almost half a minute on a 24 minute run) than my second.

There could be a number of rational explanations for this - different weather, more fatigue etc. etc. But the other difference in the runs was that in my second run, I walked about 25% of the way back to my starting point, whereas in the third run, I decided I was going to run the whole distance.

On my second run, I used the telegraph poles to ration my walking - so I guess it turned into a bit of an interval or fartlek session. I walked to one pole, jogged to the next one, and then ran through the next two before walking again.

I'm not yet convinced that run-walk is necessarily quicker for me (you certainly don't see many people doing it at the Wimbledon Common Time Trial), but this article from Jeff Galloway on Run-Walk seems to suggest it would be quicker by delaying fatigue. It may even be a way of reducing soreness or injury after the run.

So I've got a choice to make today - run-walk, or just run?

Anyone else had experiences of this? What do you think is quicker?

Fat Runner back from holidays

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun sun - as the theme from Red Dwarf states. Also a pretty good description of The Fat Runner's recent holiday!!

Unfortunately he has no photos of where he was running to post here, so he'll just describe it for us in his own words:

"I step outside of the house, set on an island in Scandinavia, and breath in the fresh air - warm from the many hours of sunshine which have been blazing already this morning, and heavily laden with the scents of the nearby fields and forests.

Strapping on my Garmin 305, two quick checks to make sure it has locked on to satellites and to my heart rate monitor, I walk down the gravel track by the side of the old barn and towards the deep blue sea. Once I'm at the boat house, a sharp turn right up to the fence which marks the end of our property, a flick of the 'start' button on my forerunner, and I'm off!

The trees close in a little over the gravel track, but it is still possible to peer through the trees to my left and see a small motor boat humming its way out to sea.

The gravel track merges with the road after about two minutes of running, the trees pull back slightly, and the air feels a little less close.

Now is the time to relax and not push the speed too much - make sure that I have enough in the tank to push harder towards the end.

To the left of me is a steep bank down from the road to the sea and I see some locals getting into their boat at their small pier, almost falling into the sea itself now.

Around a right hand corner, away from the sea and a short and deceptively steep hill. I make sure I slow down even further here, as running up hill stretches the plantar fascia and risks triggering my injury again. But soon I'm past the steep part, and around the next left hand corner is the old school for the island. It is only a few rooms - I think it never had more than about 30 students or so, and closed down over 50 years ago. It's now owned by the local landowners who collectively rent it out to a lady in her seventies. It's also where the traditional midsummer activities are held.

Past the school, and eventually the road plunges downwards and I let my speed pick up naturally with gravity. One of the things I do have is gravity!!

The hill again flattens out, probably about 15 metres or so above the sea. Again, to the left is a very steep bank, covered in pine, spruce and fir trees with the odd house. I'm sure the first one has its own smoker, because the smell of strongly smoked fish comes up towards me - I really need to get my own smoker, as I've been getting better at catching (and filleting) pike this holiday.

But before I know it, the smell has gone, and the only monotonous part of the run starts - I'm about 1.5k in now, and I'm only doing 5k runs.

The few things to look at are the yellows and purples of the roadside flowers which are left to grow virtually unmolested - there is very little traffic which comes down this road. And sometimes peeking out between the flowers you can see the bright red of a wild strawberry - which looks like a normal strawberry in miniature - about the size of a large pea, and as sweet as candy. No time to stop to pick one up though, and I press on.

Once again, the trees give way, this time to farmland which is used to raise cows - dairy cows I think. Only a minute or so and then I reach the fence which marks my turning point.

Back into the trees, past the wild strawberries and the fantastic smoking smell, check the forerunner - could be a good time!

Up past the school, and now downhill back towards the sea - let the speed build up but not too much, and carry it onto the straight. Past the public pier and back down onto the old track. Again check the forerunner - this will definitely be a personal best!

Push for about 90 seconds down the gravel track and get to the fence, stop the forerunner, and yes! A personal best by about 25 seconds!

Quick stretch before walking back up to the house past the barn, and time for a well-earned shower!"

Sounds rather idyllic!

The Fat Runner does Fartlek

Fartlek - no sniggering in the back please...

As promised in his Friday night post, The Fat Runner got out into Kensington Gardens on Saturday morning for a 5k run (31:30 or so) and then again on Sunday morning for the same run (31:00 or so).

For the Sunday run, TFR decided to do some Fartlek - mainly because he didn't think he'd be able to keep running for the whole 5k. As regular readers know, he hasn't been able to train as consistently as he'd like given his Plantar Fasciitis injury.

So what is Fartlek? Well Fartlek is Swedish for "Speed play" and it is basically a relatively unstructured session with a mix of running speeds - from walk up to sprint.

TFR ran for around 15 mins before beginning his speed play session - probably roughly a quarter walking, a quarter slow jog, a quarter running, and then a quarter at around 400m pace...

And the interesting thing is, even with the amount of walking, the total time for the run was less than the day before.

Of course, this might just be part of TFR getting used to running again after his plantar fasciitis rehabilitation, or it could mean that this is the fastest way for him to run...

If nothing else, Fartlek certainly makes the training session more interesting, and they say that it increases fitness more quickly.

The summary - TFR is going to be building Fartlek into at least half of his training sessions going forward...

Kensington Gardens run tomorrow morning

Just a quick note to say that now The Fat Runner's plantar fasciitis has cleared up, he's going to be running a very gentle 5k around Kensington Gardens tomorrow at around 0830 to see whether he'll be able to start running the Wimbledon Common Time Trial the next weekend he's in London...

If you're around, then he'll be the one wearing all black... And running slowly...

Plantar Fasciitis rehabilitation

TFR's plantar fasciitis is fixed! (He thinks...)

Last week he was on holiday, and took the opportunity to break back into running in the gradual way suggested by his physiotherapist.

Tuesday night - 30 mins of 1 min run, 2 min walk
Wednesday afternoon - 30 mins of 2 min run, 2 min walk (had to pull up early because of blisters)
Friday afternoon - 30 mins of 5 min run, 2 min walk

The plantar fasciitis did not come back at all. The only problem was the blisters, which could have been caused by one of two things (or both):

1) The fact that TFR hasn't been able to run for a while, so that his feet have become less hardy and therefore more susceptible to blisters

2) The thick foam packing which his podiatrist fixed onto the inside of his training shoes to provide more support.

In fact, those packings may not just have caused blisters, but were also rather painful at first, and he was tempted to remove them.

However, the very fact that he had decided that "he know's best" back in April, and that is what caused this problem in the first place made him heed the specialist's advice and persevere...

Anyway, good news for now. Now that he's back at work, there is less opportunity to run, but he'll try again tomorrow morning!

Building stretches into daily routine

As you know, The Fat Runner has been advised to do much more stretching to treat his plantar fasciitis. While he wasn't sure how he would have the time to do this, he has started to build stretching into his daily routine so it takes up almost no additional time at all.

1) Calf stretches (both gastro and soleus) when he's brushing his teeth - 2x15secs each muscle, each side gives 2 minutes - good to make sure he's brushing his teeth long enough!

2) hamstring stretch when he's drying his legs coming out of the shower each morning - foot on edge of bath and lean into it

3) quads - additional stretch which he hasn't yet built into anything else...

But, in the words of the immortal Meatloaf, two out of three ain't bad.

TFR is interested in hearing how you build stretches into your daily routine - let him know by commenting on this post!

Fat loss pills

As regular readers will know, The Fat Runner has not been able to run for some time. He has had plantar fasciitis and has been advised by his podiatrist and physiotherapist not to run for at least another week. By the way, if you're in London and looking for a very good sports physiotherapy service, TFR can highly recommend Pure Sports - not only do they have all of the normal medical knowledge, they also have a very good understanding of sports, how they cause injuries, and how to fix injuries as soon as possible so that people can get out and about again.

Unfortunately, however, in the time that TFR has been unable to run due to this injury, his weight has increased to over 99kg, and he feels that drastic action is required.

So, he is going to try a weight loss pill - Venom Hyperdrive 3 - from Discount Supplements.

Apparently, not only does it 'mobilise fat', whatever that means, but it also has hoodia to act as an appetite suppressant, and various other 'thermogenic' aids to raise metabolism.

Reading some of the reviews on the web suggests that this is quite powerful stuff - many users complain of sleeplessness as well as feeling 'jittery' throughout the day - there's quite a lot of caffeine in this. It can also cause headaches through dehydration.

But the results seem positive, with people taking off between 3 and 7 pounds a week.

TFR will try this out and he'll let you know how he gets on, once it arrives (hopefully tomorrow)...

Desperate times are calling for desperate measures...

Plantar fasciitis treatment

The Fat Runner's foot is feeling much better after three weeks of rest and quite a lot of care. If you also have the same kind of heel pain he has, then here are a few things you can do.

The first thing to bear in mind is that these ways of treating plantar fasciitis were recommended to him by a physiotherapist and a podiatrist who did in depth analysis of what was going wrong. Both said that plantar fasciitis is normally caused by a range of different issues which together work to stretch the plantar fascia more than it is designed to stretch.

In TFR's case, these issues included:

- Foot mechanics - overpronation throughout the stride
- Running style - midfoot foot strike rather than a heel strike (which is better for heavier runners, even though most magazines seem to say not to heel strike...)
- Weight - obviously
- Lack of flexibility in calves
- Lack of flexibility in hamstrings
- Poor core strength

What was interesting is how they both identified issues way away from the foot which were contributing to The Fat Runner's plantar fasciitis.

So what is the treatment?

Four core pillars (for now at least)

- stretching
- strengthening
- ice
- massage

And this is all underpinned by rest - no running or even cycling for a while...

Stretching

A number of key stretches were suggested - all basically to loosen up the calf and the hamstring. Calf stretches are being used to target both main muscles in the calf. Up until now, TFR didn't know you had to do two different calf stretches - one to target each muscle. Because the plantar fascia is attached to the heel, and the heel is attached to the calf and so on, loosening up the back of the leg will reduce the stress on the plantar fascia.

Strengthening

Two key strengthening exercises. Firstly, heel raises (isolated on one foot at a time to increase the pressure - the other foot in the air). Secondly, using a large rubber exercise band to strenghten the rotational strength in the foot (turning the toes of one foot in towards the other foot. These exercises should stabilise the foot more so that it collapses less on impact, again reducing the stress on the plantar fascia.

Ice

Used to reduce inflammation more quickly. The plantar fascia has very little blood supply so takes much longer to heal than a muscle - hence icing should be done for as long as possible (weeks) rather than the couple of days you normally ice muscles for.

Massage

Useful to increase bloodflow to the area around the plantar fascia and break down scar tissue in the area.

On top of this, TFR has to rest.. A lot... So no running or even cycling for now. So he is keeping up with weight training.

In a few weeks, the recovery regime is likely to move from stretching towards core strength work, something TFR has done very little of in his time. And if he's honest, he has done very little stretching as well (until now).

Looks like his oversight is now catching up with him...

Plantar Fasciitis - a pain in the ****

Any runner who has had plantar fasciitis knows what a pain it can be - in practice, a pain under the heel.

Plantar Fasciitis is "a painful inflammatory condition caused by excessive wear to the plantar fascia of the foot or biomechanical faults that cause abnormal pronation of the foot" (Source: Wikipedia)

The Fat Runner has had plantar fasciitis before - about three years ago when he decided to run to work and back from work the same day - far more than he'd run before - and this is what set it off. And it took a few weeks to recover from.

So what is it - basically, it feels like excruciating pain on the bottom of the heel - and can spread forwards along the botto of the foot to the end of the long bones in the foot. At its worst, it is almost impossible to walk. And it's worst in the early morning when you've been off your feet for a while.

TFR knew that he'd picked up a little plantar fasciitis a few weeks ago, but decided anyway to do the Wimbledon Common Time Trial last Saturday. 1k in and he was feeling ok. 2k in and he was feeling much better. By 3k, however, he thought he should pull out, which is what he did.

And as soon as he had got back to the car, it was clear that he should have pulled out much earlier. It's now Thursday, and TFR can just about walk - slowly, and with a hobble, but at least he can walk.

He's heard some horror stories about PF taking over 2 years to fix, so he wanted to make sure his rehab was planned immediately - so what has he been doing?

1) Stretches.

He met someone at the WCTT who had also had it (and who advised him not to run...) He said that twice-daily stretches of the foot (toes on a stair and drop the heel as far as possible) worked for him within a month or so.

2) Icing

As with most injuries, rapid icing is key. So he filled a drinks bottle with water and dropped it into the freezer. He was then able to roll the bottle under his foot to provide at least some cooling benefit to his foot.

TFR has never been so injured as he has been by running over the last 6-8 months - but please stick with him - he's hoping, once this is over, to be injury free for the rest of the year!

You can find out more about Plantar Fasciitis by clicking on the link.

This is ridiculous!!

The Fat Runner is injured again...

After the time trial he ran in Wimbledon Common, his achilles was feeling a little sore, but that seemed to pass with rest.

So the next weekend, he went for a run - aiming to run up to Hyde Park, run around the perimeter and back again - that is about 4.8 miles in total.

Well quite soon into the run, his achilles started to play up, but there have been other times when things have hurt and he's just run through it and it has been ok after a mile or so.

Not so this time!

After 3 miles, it became clear that he was doing more harm than good, so he was forced to stop running and walk the rest. And he has been hobbling since!

He used to read stories of people being injured through running and could never understand it. He used to play contact sports like rugby at a reasonably competitive level and could understand injuries in those kinds of sports... But injuries from running? You're having a laugh aren't you?

But he's now painfully (all too painfully) aware of his folly, and is doing his best to get enough rest and recovery to start running again...

Oh well - hopefully there will be a happier post sometime soon!

First Run after injury

I know that The Fat Runner said only a few days ago that he wasn't going to run this weekend, but the temptation was simply too great...

So TFR went out with his wife around his normal Kensington Park run, and took it easy (very easy!) and everything seems to have gone ok!

The wound on his leg didn't open up and there was no obvious tightness or soreness.

So hopefully the injury phase is over, and he will no longer be tagging his posts with 'injury'.

Of course, this will also mean that he has no excuse not to run, so expect lots more updates on his running progress....

So - seeing how he missed out on the London tree-athlon 5k, he needs a new challenge, so he'll be appearing at the Wimbledon Common time trial on Saturday 20th October.

The time trial seems to be a really nice, small, local event - it's 5k, run by enthusiasts, and doesn't cost anything to enter, and because of that is run on paths which are not closed to the public. But it's run every weekend, so TFR is looking forward to doing a few of them before the end of the year.

The only difficulty he sees so far is that it will be after quite a difficult travel schedule. This Wednesday, he's in Amsterdam, then back to London, then on Friday he goes to Germany, back Sunday night. On Monday morning he flies to Philadelphia, and flies back to London overnight on Wednesday night, landing Thursday morning and then transfering at Heathrow onto a flight to Athens, flying back on Friday night... Hopefully he'll find some time to keep running, and the hotels will have some healthy options!

By the way, he was slow today - 34 minutes for a run he normally does in 30...

96kg!!

So since TFR started this blog, he has lost 2kg, mainly over the last few weeks.

How? Unfortunately, the way most diet books suggest NOT to do it - by restricting meals. In particular, he has been working rather hard and late, quite often meaning that lunch is a snatched sandwich and dinner doesn't always happen. He's yet to see whether the 'starvation mode' is a reality or a myth - there seems to be conflicting advice depending where you look...

But for now, good news.

Also, the injury has finally scabbed over and is no longer leaking. Unbelievably it's taken almost 4 weeks to get to this stage. Even now, though, the scab looks a little frail, so TFR won't be out running this weekend. Next weekend though is going to be the start of something though! And as he is lighter, he's hoping to be able to run even quicker!

But this time, he won't be running around Hyde Park when they close the gates at night...

Two steps forward, one step back...

The Fat Runner is running again! But not really out of choice, and now it looks like he's put his overall recovery back a bit...

So why did he start running so early - only two days after having his stitches out? Well it's all because of Network Rail. Probably.

He was flying to Sweden on Thursday evening so took the Heathrow Express out of London, leaving plenty of time to get to his flight. So far, so good, but the train eventually arrived 35 minutes late, meaning TFR had to run through the terminal to get to check-in on time. It's probably not a long run, perhaps only 1k, but TFR was surprised at how his legs felt, even running in hard-soled shoes. The thing he thought would take longest to heal, the gastrocnemius strain, didn't flare up at all.

But the wound has started to bleed again. There is a large scab over it so it's difficult to see how much healing has been undone, but it looks like TFR still needs to stay off the roads...

So why was it Network Rail's fault? For those who don't know, Network Rail is the new Railtrack, and it owns and manages the UK's rail infrastructure. According to the Heathrow Express driver, there was a faulty signal which meant he needed to slam the emergency brakes on, and once you've deployed the emergency brake there is a lengthy process to restart the train. And then it must have taken some time to find a new time slot on the track.

So that's how TFR ended up 35 minutes late at Heathrow, and STILL CAN'T RUN

Stitches out!

Great news! My stitches came out yesterday! I was a little nervous before I went to the surgery to get them removed. Not because of the procedure - after all I've seen a doctor poke her finger through by cut and knuckle-deep into my leg to make sure the muscle was still attached - but because he might decide not to do it.

You see, up until yesterday, it hadn't really healed. Each night when I took the bandage off, there was fresh blood. But luckily there was no fresh blood at 5pm last night which is when my appointment was!

Already, it seems easier to walk. Not sure if it's psychosomatic, whether it's just part of the healing process, or whether it is just slightly easier to walk without the stitches, because it allows my skin to flex more naturally without the four bits of string trying to pull it back.

Anyway, for whatever reason it is, I'm happy, and think there's a good chance I'll be running again by next weekend. I might try to get some light cycling in beforehand just to do at least a small level of cardio...

And the weights are continuing! I've found it really easy to keep it up actually, because it takes so little time. And already it's having an effect - my upper body is lifting back into the shape it should be. There's a concept I remember reading about called 'muscle memory' which says that muscles that have been big/strong before 'remember' that they were big and strong, and therefore respond very well to training. In other words, it's easier to rebuild muscles that have already been built than it is to start afresh.

One of the things I hadn't told you so far is that I used to play American Football. Yes, in the UK! Ok so the standard is not much to write home about, but we had US College division 3 starters in our team who were not obviously better than us... So the standard wasn't too bad. Anyway, because of this it meant that I'd done a lot of weight training and it seems like my muscles are remembering it!!

Anyway, a good day today, all is right with the world. I hope your day is going just as well!

Map of my run before my injury

>

Rehabilitation continues

TFR feels bad that he started this blog about a fat guy running, and he hasn't been able to talk much about running!

Rehabilitation, however, is continuing, and he has found a great way of reducing the pressure on his calf strain. It is through heel lifts!

He has put a wad of paper into the heel of his show, which lifts the heel relative to the toes, and so reduces the strain on his calf. It also means he is a slight bit taller, which is good when his wife is close to 6 feet tall!

The 5k race he entered for down in Battersea Park is tomorrow. He will be going down there to lend some support to his wife, but will only be able to look on from the sidelines. But given the way the rehabilitation is going, he is hoping to be able to run in just a little over 2 weeks. Hopefully he won't have lost too much conditioning in the time away from running!

His next post will be a report of the run, hopefully with some pictures, and should be some inspiration for those of you who have always thought about doing a race, but never quite plucked up the courage!