I am now into my final stretch of Taper before I take on the 100K in just over 7 day's time. I started the week with a biomechanical assessment which was an Amazing birthday present from my best friend Graham. It was a full video and computer tracking assessment of how I walk and run... Conducted at The Running School in Wasps Rugby Club's training ground in West London, we arrived to treadmills, fast-feet squares... and a lot of kids, with very ambitious parents, being professionally coached to run (and the coaching is FAR from cheap!). Old, heavy and broken I looked and felt a little out of place.
When I explained what I was doing this year, I received a sideways look that screamed 'OK, sir. Of course you are.' They made a good point in stating the rhetorical question 'who taught you to run?' - Both the title of the School's founder's book, and the comment from the sports scientist that conducted the test. Given a cascade of injuries I've endured the last few years in the same leg, this makes a good point, as the resounding answer from the test was 'nobody'... clearly!
I won't go into too much detail on the assessment in the video below, but you can see a good chunk of the deep dive analysis and a couple of the tests here on my YouTube channel (Thanks again to Graham for taking these videos!) along with some funny afterthoughts from the pair of us at the end.
The assessment was an hour long. In itself really good value for what I learned, and they wanted to sell me a coaching programme after (God I need it). The problem with that is they are just too far away for me to attend and don't do online sessions for those who will struggle to make the trip regularly. I can find drills etc to help correct the problems and talk to my physio about running coaching drills locally once I get the 100K done in order to incorporate into my summer training block. It was an eye opener for me though and has given me loads to think about. I'm very grateful to know 100% what the mechanical challenges are.
The upshot was though: I'm doing it wrong! Overstriding, not using my shoulders in the arm swing, and bouncing were some of the culprits. Along with my brain not firing the neuromuscular connections properly, which the coach said would be largely my body trying to protect itself after all the injuries (I'll get to how my head is traying to sabotage my efforts again, in a moment!). All of this led to generating forces 5-7 times my bodyweight!! (rather than the 3x if I was doing it correctly). To put that in context, that's 100kg x5 (being conservative). Half a Tonne in every running step of force going through my foot. That is millions of kgs and thousands of tonnes of unnecessary force I'm subjecting myself to on an ultra! Crazy!! No wonder stuff hurts way more than it should. It's made me think long and hard about getting this corrected as best I can through the summer ahead of the 300km in sept.
That brings me to the WTAF?! part of this post...
Last week I was carrying a painful Adductor issue. Crazy overtightness following my 30km long run the weekend before. I worked hard to loosen that off and appear to have it under control. This week, despite nailing my Achilles and Heel Bursitis issue that was the goddam bane of my life last year, It came on with a f#cking vengeance this week.
Monday came around and I went for a little 7km run. Just long enough to turn the legs over. I was cautious about pushing it as I was still nervous about the adductor problem. Less than halfway in and my heel started screaming at me. Subsequently, and even after icing twice a day since then) it has been miserable and about as painful as it's ever been.
It's just come from nowhere. I was rested. The biomechanical test was not hard on me physically. I kept my run pace easy. I warmed up. And only now, just with days to go, is it deciding that it's going to try and f#ck my shit up... And during my birthday as well.... bastard.
Needless to say I'm pretty frustrated and I cannot help but think this is my subconscious trying to self-sabotage my efforts.... Let me explain...
The mind is a VERY powerful thing. It's no secret that I've felt this last 3-4 months training has been incredibly problematic. The Hip/back/ass issue was hugely difficult, physically and emotionally. It left me seriously questioning whether I would be able to do this.
I combine this with the DNF (Did not Finish) last May on the same 100km route I'm about to tackle.... and that was traumatic. I mean that. Genuinely traumatic. My feet were torn to shreds and my achilles and heel were in a bad way. I endured the worst 30km on my feet I have ever experienced. With this new development, I sense that this is my subconscious trying to protect me by manifesting a phantom injury tied to last year. Self sabotage is definitely real. It's all now down to how I tackle that. The moment it happened was after the hard work was done in my training block for this 100k. I didn't twist an ankle, or come down too hard. It simply just started to hurt... and hurt badly. I've been barely able to walk on it the last few days. It came from out of nowhere. I have 8 days left before I demand my body runs 100km on it. Fuck.
I had the physio look at my leg, and apart from tight adductors she said my calves were not too tight (they've been much worse since she's been treating me), and my ankle, etc look and feel fine.
This only leaves me with the psychological aspect to all this. I can feel it's not injured... I just have crazy pain. And I can feel it's my head messing with me. I know this because I can hear the quiet whispering doubting voice deep inside, looking for the exit, trying to assure me it's OK if I take a rain-check... ... well it's not fucking OK. Quitting feels like shit. I have 8 days.
In response, I've got into action and pulled out all the rehab toys. Ice, Graston scraping, lacrosse ball, roller, bastard-shakti-mat and the Ice & Hot water buckets. The last 48 hours have been an onslaught on my ankle and calf/soleus.... and it is starting to work!
The biggest thing is I've given myself a strong talking to and basically said to my Psyche that "you're either with me, or your not. But if you're not then this is going to hurt way more than last year. I'm doing this regardless so you better get your ass on board and help me the fuck out by letting this shit go." I was also speaking kindly to myself by saying "Thank you for the warning. I remember what last year was like, but it's going to be OK. We've got this." . It helps to give myself some reassurance that I'm gonna be ok rather than simply going postal on myself. That I have to have such conversations with myself is questionable to an outside observer, though I'll do whatever works at this point in time. Either way I'm at that fucking start line.
We can go easy, or we can go hard... but we are going.
The fact it is starting to improve now is a very good thing. All that's left is for me to keep working on this problem and put it to bed quickly (the Hot & Cold buckets are incredibly effective for this) get my gear together, review the plan with Graham who is supporting me, and get my ass on that start line.
Thanks for reading...
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