May 20, 2008 at 11:32 am · Filed under Running
You may have noticed that I have not been running an awful lot of late. You may also have noticed that this downturn in activity has been matched by an awful lot of moaning of the “my back hurts, my leg hurts” variety.
I feel somewhat vindicated as, after a spate of trips to see the quack, I discovered last week that I have some fairly unpleasant goings on in my spine.
I have somehow managed to acquire a completely unpronounceable disorder called spondylolisthesis (spon-dee-low-lis-thee-sis) which involves one vertebrae slipping forward on another, see photo of lumbar region. So far mine has only slipped 2 mm which is still sufficient to create enough pain to impair everyday activities but in serious cases the vertebrae can slip off completely so I shouldn’t complain. Of course I spent the last week practically immobile, worrying that my spine would spontaneously concertina and I would find my waist somewhere near my ankles.
Apparently the cause is often related to a small fracture in the vertebra (pars fracture) and I had to undergo further imaging to check whether this was the case. The problem is quite common in athletes but not heavily associated with running in particular, here’s an interesting article if you suffer from low back pain.
The results came back yesterday and it seems that all is well, my back had been fractured but has now healed. Which seems to suggest that my spine should be fairly stable and that I ought to be able to continue without risk of coming face to face with my kneecaps.
Therefore running is back on, exams finish tomorrow so I will be back on the streets this weekend taking part in a month long challenge within a challenge. I will post further details of this in a non-sickness and injury related post.
Still wonder how you manage to break you back without even realising it?
Popularity: 2% [?]
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Tags: back, injury, knee, spine, spondylolisthesis
April 28, 2008 at 11:10 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I’m supposed to be off work at the moment on study leave but it may as well be called gardening leave as I’m spending all my time on the allotment. Today I thought I’d make my non-studying day a little bit more productive by running to the plot and I’m glad I did as it brought me and the sportband just that little bit closer.
As usual I left the house with both wrists laden with super sporty gadgets but the garmin was playing me about big time. I was walking down the street exceedingly slowly but it was still taking an age sighting satellites. As I passed WHSmith I got bored and nipped in to see if they had anymore veg growing gazettes that I hadn’t yet read.
They hadn’t.
I went back out and the flippin garmin started back from scratch scanning the skies. A couple of minutes later, after numerous elderly folk had stood on the backs of my heels I decided it was time to start running - the gps would just have to run along behind me.
500m later the garmin beeped at me and asked if I was actually inside! I switched it off - power to the people! I was only running 2k so I couldn’t afford 10 mins at the start just to capture data, I could have walked it in that time.
No such nonsense from Nike+ Sportband. Just switch on, walk, press start - RUN.
My new discovery, the bit that makes me almost love the sportband, is all down to Buckeye. The training log over there on the righthand sidebar is driven by buckeyeoutdoor and if you have a blog you owe it to yourself to register and get yourself a widget - just look how cool it is! They’ve set up a Nike+ challenge and if you join that and then enter your Nike+ username in your profile, all your runs get automatically uploaded. In this day and age where I seem to be uploading my stats to about a million trillion different online logs, that sort of convenience is just impossible to resist.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: allotment, buckeyeoutdoors, Forerunner, Garmin, GPS, Nike, Nike+ Sportband
April 26, 2008 at 11:41 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I’ve taken my time to write this post because I’m not sure whether to come clean about my sins or to attempt a bluff.
I was sent the Nike+ Sportband to try out at the beginning of the week but as I don’t have holes in my running shoes I couldn’t possibly go running before I had some hi-tech means of carrying my speed sensor - you wouldn’t catch me putting gaffer tape on my Kayanos unlike Joggerblogger and Jogblog.
The little thingammy pouch that I ordered from ebay arrived just before I left for work on Wednesday though, so I pretty much had no choice but to pack my bags and prepare for an enforced running commute.
My first impressions of the strap weren’t great, I wondered why Nike would design the watch to have a ridiculous piece of plastic wedged underneath the usb face. It angled the watch and meant I kept catching it on my sleeve. Thankfully I spotted the photo of joggerbloggers sleak sportband before I went out in public, the plastic bit is meant to be thrown away! Moron. Now I’m wearing it as a watch although I have to ask the person sitting next to me to read it as I haven’t got used to deciphering the vertical numbers and the screen is too dark but I still think it looks cool.
Anyway, back to the running.
When I left the house it was chucking it down so I packed the long sleeve top again, of course when I left work it was flippin scorching and just to ensure that I got heat stroke at the edge of a deserted canal I left the building with my empty water bottle in hand. With no means of re-entering the building I had to set off sans hydration system - bollox!
3 seconds later the Sportband is telling me to start walking but the garmin is persistently ignoring my request to locate my position. I can’t start walking now or the garmin will have a paddy fit. By the time the gps picks up the Nike system has gotten bored and gone back into clock mode, who can blame it?
I was feeling hot, sweaty and lethargic so I pretty much ignored both gadgets for the first 4k as thoughts vacillated between diving in the canal and diving in the canal. When I entered Brentford I headed straight for the nearest shop where I knocked back a bottle of water before I reached the till and handed over 90p for an empty bottle of plastic.
I set off again but now thoughts were of cool beers, enjoyed by the rivers edge. As I’ve never been known to resist the lure of beer and I was just about to reach the Thames river bank, I rather shockingly dived into the next shop and came out with a can of Stella. Now beer can’t be shaken so I paused both gadgets while I wandered down to the river. I thought I’d just enjoy my can and then carry on with the run.
Oh baaaaad runner! I thought it would be rather pleasant sitting with my legs dangling in the river enjoying a refreshing brew but the reality was rather seedy. I’m clearly a runner - running clobber and shoes, beetroot face and sweat, not one but two running watches and headphones in ear, only I’m walking and not just walking, this is no-good can swigging bum walking. About 300 hundred proper runners came past me in and in the end I realised I wasn’t enjoying this whole cool beer thing and tipped it all away.
Running was pretty tricky from here on in, 300m run, huge gasp, hands to temples and then walk for 1km - repeat. Nice treat at the end as there was a new piece of graffiti on my steps. Not quite Banksy but it isn’t bad.
Painful but the Sportband faired pretty well.
Total garmin distance (running only): 5.78km
Nike Sportband distance (running only): 5.65km
No way of telling which was the most accurate but they were close enough to ensure that I’ll never bother calibrating the Nike Sportband.
Post run, the usb face automatically uploads (after inserting into the usb port of course) to the Nike+ website and displays whizzy graphs.
The Nike+ website is pretty good if you like online motivation. You can join no end of challenges to push you out of the door and it looks like the next Nike organised run will be a worldwide Nike+ only event. The sportband is a great way of a gaining entry to the event, its also got to be one of the cheapest available speed and distance monitors on the market.
Popularity: 16% [?]
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Tags: commute, Garmin, GPS, Nike, Nike+ Sportband, Stella, thames
April 11, 2008 at 9:53 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
Well you all creeped me out with your comments to my last post, how am supposed to run along the canal without fear of being shot by some misplaced American gunslinger or tumbling into floaters of dubious origin? I’d planned another running commute yesterday and even went as far as packing my running clobber and endured the horrendous public transport ordeal, only to find at the end of the day that I had forgotten the Enell contraption, otherwise known as the shoulder boulder holder. No running without that I’m afraid.
Of course you know me well enough by now - I love this running malarky so much there’s no holding me back. I’d even sacrifice a friday evening of partying (for partying, read evening watching Gardeners World) for a trog along a deserted canal and a rendezvous in a terrifying canalside dock. I was deeply absorbed by the thrilling audiobook playing on the iPod when I took this snap. I was in the middle of a WWII bombing raid over West London when two cyclists bore down on me, yelling for me to get out of the way. For the second time in a week I had to throw myself to the ground to avoid a premature bath.
Apart from that little adrenalin rush, the rest of the run was rather peaceful. I left work later than usual because we are in the middle of the most exciting month end of the year if accounts can ever be described in those terms. The canal was deserted apart from some frisky bunnies and a convoy of Herons working their way down the waterway. I wasn’t quick enough to catch the clumsy birds dragging their lanky legs behind them so instead you get a photo of these pretty little plants.
They may be pretty in a prehistoric sense but I have a feeling that they may be specimens of the evil horsetail. I will therefore have to take my body, shoes and clothing through a decontamination zone before I set foot on the allotment. Wouldn’t want to transport it.
Good luck to any nutters plodding round the London marathon on Sunday!
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: allotment, commute
April 7, 2008 at 9:03 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
5:30 arrived and there was no getting around the fact that I had packed for another running commute. I did a quick risk assessment and decided that if I left immediately I’d be able to take the canal route while all potential murderers were still dithering on their doorsteps, wondering whether to grab their umbrellas or not.
There were a remarkable number of people enjoying the Grand Union this evening and I followed Jogblogs guidance and decided solitary blokes were ok so long as they had dogs with them and runners of all varieties were fine and dandy so long as they were running in the opposite direction to me.
There is one particularly spooky part of my route - a dark, disused wet dock, harboring bats and bird flu. I hate going through there, I always feel like I’m entering the murder scene out of a new Prime Suspect. Today I turned the corner and bumped into a runner and then an old geezer on a mountain bike. I would have screamed but the biker saved me the trouble, he looked terrified and wobbled so much on his bike that I had to grab him before he fell in the oily harbour.
Job done, I think I may force another running commute upon myself this week.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: commute
April 2, 2008 at 11:17 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
I’m in desperate need of a new running routine, and what better way to kick start a routine than re-starting the running commute torment?
I wanted to take the canal route but as I was preparing to leave work, a huge grey cloud was obliterating all the light of day. I spent so long trying to decide whether I was risking imminent murderising of the dark, isolated, canal kind that it got so dark I couldn’t find the opening to the waterway anyhoo. So instead I got to chalk up another grim run along the Uxbridge Rd for posterity.
I was really hoping to avoid people today, an isolated canal (minus the certain death) would have been perfect. As it was I had to put up with the look of panic on the faces of everyone I passed. People at bus stops would look quickly away and push past each other to put distance between them and me. They were clearly terrified that they were going to have to “do something” when the lolloping beetroot running towards them, collapsed and required CPR.
I was pretty hot today, it’s been so long since I last ran consistently that I haven’t noticed the seasons changing and I went out in a thermal long sleeved top. Very uncomfortable. It was so hot in fact that the Thames had dried out leaving an amazing array of litter and assorted boat wrecks. I was tempted to wade in and search for bullion.
As unappealing as this run was, I need to continue with this kind of torture. I have a plan of the crazy running kind and it needs a level of commitment and endurance that I seem to have discarded by the wayside. More details to follow.
Popularity: 13% [?]
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Tags: commute, thames
March 21, 2008 at 8:11 pm · Filed under Running
Here’s a tiny update to go with my titchy tiny run for today. It was short and slow but I’m not going to analyse it too deeply, at least I’m back out there and still breathing at the end of it.
It’s been about 4 weeks since my last run, I fell into a deep motivational rut that coincided with killer back ache and just as my physio sorted me out enough for me to stand unaided I got girl flu. Then that flipping lingered until it turned into another motivational rut and even the latest copy of runnersworld couldn’t drag me back into the fold.
Fortunately I’ve been getting harassed from the sidelines and so today I finally managed to push myself out of the door, slap bang into the face of a force 9.
Next weeks half has been cancelled due to the complete lack of training and the following weeks 10 miler is in the undecided zone. I’m off out again tomorrow for a slightly extended run so I’ll have better idea how much fitness I lost over the last month.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Tags: illness, runnersworld
February 18, 2008 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Rambling, Running
The weekend was supposed to be slothful and despite a few forgivable false starts I am still left wondering what the heck went wrong. How could I arrive back home and find myself sitting here on my sofa with multiple athletic injuries?
I arrived at Rach’s house on Friday and was immediately forced aboard the cross trainer to build up an appetite for the evenings festivities. A whole 4 calories later the Chinese take away arrived and I was allowed to kick back and enjoy my crispy shredded beef. Later, under a drunken haze I was introduced to the Nintendo wii and challenged to a ten pin bowling showdown.
Now, I have read books on ten pin bowling so like to think of myself as a bit of a bowling rockstar, you can’t just challenge me and expect to be let off lightly. Three hours later I was still calling for a rematch and was only persuaded to lay down my plastic bowling ball for a showing of the latest L Word episode (a particularly good one I have to add!).
I was up again at dawn practising on the alleys, Rach didn’t know what had hit her. Unfortunately she still beat me so I practised more while she slept. The next morning I had perfected the technique, I could get my ball to stay out of the gutter and actually managed to topple a few skittles. This perfection came at a cost though. By this point I could barely carry the weight of my own arms, I would yell out in pain every time I sent the ball bouncing towards her tv screen and even managed to pull my left hamstring as I adopted the power crouch position. I was glad to go home for a rest!
Back at home today I planned to sneak in my long run between meetings at work, they were held 10 miles apart and I thought I could probably pull off the distance quicker if I avoided public transport. I was aware of my rather tender arm situation and knew that carrying a water bottle was off limits so packed the bladder into my backpack. Setting off on a light trot down the canal I was reminded what a gruelling weekend it had been. I had to tie my arms into my rucksac just to hold them up, my triceps and deltoids were completely shot and I would have signed myself up for a full body cast at the drop of a hat.
Just to add insult to injury or even more injury to injury, my toe nail has started to peel off again. I sellotaped it up this morning in the hopes that it would help but I think I over tightened it. Even before I started running it felt like someone had dropped a darn bowling ball on my toe, I could feel every beat of my heart pounding through my nail bed. It’s like Japanese water torture.
My long run turned into a rather lame short run with a very long walk attached and I blame Rach and that silly little console.
Popularity: 24% [?]
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Tags: back, backpack, bowling, injury, wii
February 14, 2008 at 11:17 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
I’m off oop North this weekend to visit Rach so my weekend long run is looking unlikely again, in fact it’s worse than unlikely - it’s just not going to happen, I’m packing my bag now and the trainers and garmin have not made their way in.
Today I was working in central London so decided to squeeze in yet another mid-week long run. I was aiming for an intermediate length run, a light 10k dash across town but my internal GPS system went awry and it took me more than 13k to reach home. Good run though, you’ve got to love London, it’s full of inspiring routes. Tuesdays run took me along the Grand Union Canal, the Thames, Kew Park and then past Virginia Woolf’s house in Richmond, today’s jaunt started in Regents Park, through Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens past Radcliffe Hall’s house, through Holland Park and then back onto the Thames.
I suffered some weird magnetic interference in Kensington gardens and then again as I left Holland Park, and had to ring Shakti to see if she could guess where the hell I was and direct me out of the aberration known as Shepherds Bush.
Popularity: 24% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, GPS, thames
February 12, 2008 at 11:40 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
My social life has been unusually brisk over the last week or so and while it hasn’t entirely prevented me from running, it has interfered with my blogging. Not to fear though, it looks like I’m going to be starting yet another new job, way back out west again in the public transport no-go zone. This will act swiftly to curtail any mid-week social plans and force me to refocus on important stuff like running and writing about running.
It also means I can pull the bike back out of the shed and I get to throw some brand new running commutes into the mix.
I had an interview at the new place today so I thought I’d trial a new route for the way home. It proved to be a great opportunity to squeeze in the long run I missed at the weekend.
This route bears some resemblance to my first running commutes (the ones where I was brave or foolhardy enough to run along the canal) but now I appear to have taken up residence in the shed, all running commutes have to end at the allotment rather than my flat. That nicely adds about 5k to any route - an absolutely essential addition to any half marathon plan.
The new shoes came out with me again, I know I suggested I was going to save them for the big day but I can’t resist the temptation, and they really do make the long runs so much more appealing.
New route: 14.23km
Time: 1:50:13
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: allotment, commute
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