Normal running resumes and a holiday booked

Whoopeedeedoo, yeehah and other such cowboy like exclamations of joy. Normal running has resumed! Although my ankle is still a little puffy I'll have my last dedicated treatment session on it this Thursday and should be clear by the end of the week. I'll still have some proprioception exercises to do but this will be on-going for some time to ensure I don't tear the ligament again.

Last week I did my first 6 mile road run with Shenley Striders (the club I run with) and then headed out into the woods of Aspley Heath for a wet n muddy trail run on Saturday. 10 miles and 800' of ascent and descent later I write, uninjured and raring to go for the 22 mile training run organised for the 22nd December along the bank of Loch Lomond with Tim, Stan B (not met Stan yet) and a few others I believe. My ankle was fine throughout the trail run despite the often awkard heavy clay mud underfoot and I only felt 1 twinge when I landed a little off balance. Great stuff.

Other news is that we have booked our holiday to Queensland for 2009 to see our family over there. I have a conference in Cairns so it is an opportunity to tie both things together. We got a good deal with Singapore which means we'll be flying the new huuuuge A380-800 between London and Singapore. I am a bit of a nervous flyer anyway so was curious to know how such a beast would cope with landing in cross wind conditions. Quick google search and what do you know, you tube comes up trumps. Check out this video of test landing in Iceland (I think) for how to pilot a plane in extreme cross winds. Then check out the size of the plane next to a standard euro hop Boeing. (!)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdi-hnFrmag
(sorry - the embedding is disabled so I can only provide a link)

Hopefully landing in Singapore won't be as windy.

Music for post race relaxation

It is very easy to get carried away with excitingly fast and heavy music and Billy (the shoe?) has pointed out that I may have gone too far with Napalm Death. I have to agree at least partly. However motivatory they may be for runnng, they ain't pleasant listening.

So as a counterpoint here is an example of the kind of music that would suit the drained, elated, knackered, slightly out of body state likely to be induced by running a long ultra ... The Butthole Surfers and Hurdy Gurdy Man ... now relax ...



I'll blog about running next time. Honest.

If we listen to this music we'll beat Jez Bragg

Keith Hughes is onto something. I had thought as far as the short time scale effects of listening to thrash metal and punk on hill running performance. If we extend this principle and put together the right compilation I reckon he's right - we could all beat Jez Bragg's WHWR record time. Sub 14 hours could even be on with the right mix and sequence of tracks. And we have 6 months or so to perfect them. Great!

So far we have the list as being composed of ...
Slayer
Minor Threat
Celtic Frost (hmm, didn't they have rather permed hair Keith?)
Voidvoid (these guys were just a bit odd - can we delete them?)
Acca-dacca (AC/DC)
The Datsuns
Deftones (suggested by Mister Mason)

No-one has mentioned the brummie grindcore kings yet, so I'll have to ... bring on Napalm Death yeehaaah!



Then we mustn't forget the industrial wonders of Ministry with their track Stigmata



Right Jez, the musically and physically challenged, are throwing down the gauntlet!!!!! er ahem ;-)

More music to motivate (and some rather groovy dancing)

In response to Keith's comment I've been thinking long and hard about whether to post some more 80s old school thrash ala Celtic Frost (ha - had forgotten about them) or possibly Nuclear Assault. Instead, check out the groovy dancing to Minor Threat, a top 1980s straight edge punk band from the States (I was for about 2 years around the age of 20 a straight edger and rather too serious - but the music is great for running up hills to)...

Muuuusic to motivate

Normally I am a bit of an au-natural kind of chap when it comes to running, at least in audio entertainment terms. I have a tiny wee iPOD shuffle but don't really like it when trotting along, I'd much rather just be with my thoughts and the sounds of nature around me. However, upon occasion I do run with it and find this song makes me run like a maniac, regardless of incline or terrain.



It has the same effect on my wife and she has never liked thrash metal even slightly. As an experiment, download it onto your iPOD then try running up a very big muddy hill. Please come back with feedback on how it affected your performance.

In case you are wondering the song is Raining Blood by Slayer, one of the bands I used to love when I was hairy teenager (actually I still like the odd listen to them when the mood takes me - you never really seem to grow completely out of teenage tastes I have noticed).

The road to recovery

On Sunday, and again last night I ran for 15 .... wait for it ... wait for it ... minutes! Yeehah, what a feat of ultra style endurance.

My ankle is much better as a consquence of time and my physio friction rubbing it with great gusto. To ensure I don't exacerbate it he has advised me to get back into running by running for 15 minutes a couple of times, then to up to 20, then 25 etc until I reach 40 then he reckons I'll be fine. All very frustrating but the light is at the end of the injury tunnel.

In the meantime here's a photo of Eilidh and I out for a walk up to Scale Force in Buttermere, the day after the OMM. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Admonished

Still off running (boo) so not much to report really. I am using an exercise bike and rowing machine, and doing some weights at my University gym instead. The exercise bike is essentially a proper road bike with correct positioning so I get a good work out on it - quad burn after a minute or two to be honest!

My right ankle is much better though and I am hoping, subject to what my physio says this Thursday, to be able to do a couple of short 3 mile runs this weekend to get back into shape.

He admonished me though when I saw him for the first time last week, about 2.5 weeks post-injury. My ankle was still looking fattish but the bruising had mostly disappeared. I told him what had happened and what the hospital doc's advice was (don't run for 4 weeks) and I could see the steam coming out of his ears. 'b****y doctors and their injury recovery advice' you could see him thinking. I then told him when the injury had happened and he gave me a bit of stern ticking off.

He reckons there would have been about 4-5 days acute that he'd not want to touch the torn ligament, but straight after that he advised treatment is essential to ensure the swelling goes down and doesn't become a more permanent fat ankle, and to ensure smooth, flexible healing of the ligament. He then spent 20 minutes friction massaging my swollen ankle, right at the sorest point. AAAAAAGGGGHHHH is all I can say without descending into the kind of language that would get my blog deleted. I shan't be leaving injuries that long in the future. :-)