Week 176: 42 mins in 2 runs, both at 5K effort.
Week 176: 57 mins in 2 runs, one at 5K effort, the other easy.
Today I went for my first "long" run in three months -- about four miles. I ran by the little neighborhood hill where I have done hill repeats (not today), I ran by the soccer fields where I have done drills and strides (not today), I ran by the familiar turn where I once slipped on the ice and ended up in hospital (not today). Still not 100%, but I finished without limping and feel like a real runner again.
I recently changed my running routine a bit. For a long time it has been: 15 mins walk, whatever run, 10 mins stretching routine for calves and hams. Now it is: 15 mins walk, 2 mins jog, 1 min rolling the calves, whatever run, 2 mins walk, 1 min rolling the calves, no stretching. If I don't do the roller, within about 30 minutes the left gastrocnemius is rolled up like a baseball just under the knee. Stretching I postpone to a later time.
The peroneal tendonitis is under control, it's been a long road. I won't do a big write-up on it, as I doubt anyone will have the exact confluence of factors that gave me this issue (kukkutasana, anyone?). The massage therapist was a God-send, and if anybody needs one in Columbus I can give a good recommendation. There turned out to be two tricky bits to my problem. (1) I had a knot in my left calf, found by the massage therapist, which needed to be worked out over several sessions. Probably residual from a tear or strain. This was never going away on its own. (2) The calf needs stretching, but stretching aggravates the insertion of the tendon in the heel, so that's a catch-22. It just takes time. As the calf gets better, it tightens up less, less aggressive stretching is required, therefore the heel has a chance to get better.
Suffice to say that I received a lot of advice (doctor, massage therapist, trainer, several physical therapists, various self-styled "experts" at different running stores) and over many months I tried it all. Here are some bits of advice I received ...
From the massage therapist, the best advice of all: "Get a roller."
From the doctor: "Let pain be your guide", and, RE the heel: "It's not broken." ... (He also said "I think it's plantar fasciitis." No, but two out of three isn't so bad compared to some other advice I received.)
From the trainer: "You have to make a choice."
From all the others: nothing helpful.
I'm still thinking about the age-grading, but I will withhold my comments until I can sound less like the prisoner looking at shadows of puppets and statues playing out on the wall.
@old guy II - Perfect training.
@lucKY2b - Never had IT band issues, I've heard EMS works.
@Mike Lundgren - Every distance has its idiosyncracies, of them all I think the half responds best to magical thinking.