Fat burning pill buzz

Ouch.

The Fat Runner was probably a little too eager on the diet pills... It's now 8pm, and his pulse has been up at about 90bpm since he came back from the gym. Not sure if it's the hangover from the gym (probably not)...

I guess he'll follow the instructions tomorrow!!

Gym at last

The Fat Runner got to the gym today - and feels soooooo good!

It has been a long time since he has done any exercise given his plantar fasciitis. But the pain seems to be subsiding so he decided to risk going to the gym - and everything went really well!

30 minutes on the bike
20 minutes on the elliptical trainer

Total of 630 calories burned if you believe the readouts on the machines.

And then 3x10 hamstring curls, 3x10 glute extensions (are they called donkey kicks, can't remember) and 3x10 quad extensions - all designed to build up his lower legs after so many weeks off running. Also to build up his strength because he was told that he was weak in his hamstrings and glutes by his podiatrist...

Also, the venom hyperdrive diet pills came in today. You're meant to take 1 a day initially, and then increase to 2 per day. TFR had read lots of reviews saying that people felt 'wired' on these things, but this hasn't happened, even though he took 2 the first day. Well perhaps he won't sleep tonight - we'll find out!

Finally, he's also taking green tea extract. So unfortunately it may be hard to disentangle the different effects of these things - let's just hope that there is an effect!

For those who want to keep tabs, TFR weighed in at exactly 99.0kg this morning...

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.

Personal Best at WCTT!

TFR has set a personal best at the Wimbledon Common Time Trial.

Okay, so he still didn't prepare particularly well for it. He had drinks with a client on Friday night, and then a few glasses of wine with his wife later on.

He felt a little shaky when he woke up, and if it weren't for his friend coming around to pick him up at 0815 that morning, he might have decided not to go.

But he did so anway. The first lap went actually rather well. Lots of people overtaking him, but he stuck to his pace and felt able to push a little in the second lap. In fact, in the last 400 metres he was able to pass four people. One girl he passed literally metres from the line. The picture on the WCTT website shows that she wasn't too happy...

So, his new PB for the WCTT is 29:14. And he is very happy that finally he has broken the time he set way back last year when he first ran the WCTT.

So why does he think he did well. He thinks that a lot of it is down to the Long Slow Run. That relatively monotonous run which seems to go for ever and seems to be so sloooooowww. But it's that which builds fitness, burns calories, improves technique, and gets the body ready to run shorter distances with more effort.

So from now on, TFR is making sure that he builds a LSR into every week - and he suggests that you do the same if you're not already doing it!

TFR may not run the WCTT next week as he is likely to be in France - he's seeing whether he can take the first flight back in the morning and still get there in time...

Running on alcohol

Stupid fat runner.

He once again ran the excellent Wimbledon Common Time Trial last Saturday.

The only problem was that Friday was a bit of a big night.

Drinks with his team - 4 bottles of Becks
Pre-dinner drinks at a work recruiting event - 3 glasses of champagne
Drinks with dinner - 4 glasses of wine

He went to bed, feeling fine, and woke up feeling equally fine.

He even woke up early (after having a dream that he had woken up late and missed the run!)

He set the virtual trainer on his Garmin Forerunner to match the pace he ran last time.

He set off, although very rapidly found that he was working very hard to keep up with the pace he ran last time, despite the fact that the last time he ran, the first lap was at a very slow and comfortable pace.

So he gave up.

And has promised he will never be drinking that much on the night before a race.

He was very annoyed, particularly since he had trained during the week as well as at the weekend and was feeling that he could have gone for a PB.

Oh well, there's always next week!