Sunday, May 15, 2016

Return from break

My poor neglected blog, how are you, it's good to see that you are still around.
Wow what a long break.
So, what happened to cause the break and why is it time to get back into maintaining the diary.

Well back in August of last year I had squeezed the discs in my lower back once more and this lead to a bout of sciatica that has lasted for 6 months.
Even now it is not fully right but it is much better than last year.
From August through to the end of last year I was probably only running around 20 to 25km per week, a 50% reduction on a year or so earlier.

I think I must face the fact that lifting heavy weights or doing deadlifts is not going to do my back any favours and I have to make a choice about which exercise I enjoy doing the most.
Running was my first love because of the sense of freedom it gives, to be able to move long distances under your own power is a bigger buzz than doing bench presses in a noisy gym.

So, now, I still have my gym membership but I only do core work and light upper body work but I don't mind doing chins and hangs from a bar as that stretches my back out.

The sciatica created a burning feeling around the lower calf/back of the ankle that I at first misdiagnosed as a calf injury. I wasted precious time by rubbing gels on my calf and using a roller and ultrasound to try to fix something that wasn't actually broken.

Once I knew what the real issue was I started to do a series of exercises that would begin the slow path to fixing it. It is frustratingly slow but it is getting better. I still have a slight amount of weakness around the right ankle but the burning sensation has gone.

The weekly kilometres have gone to around 30km.
The only races I did this year was the Christmas Fanatics Fun Run on Christmas day morning. Of the three distances 8km, 13km and 21km I did the shorter one. The reason I chose the shorter on was because it was a hot and humid morning with a hot northerly wind blowing. Even at 6am in the morning with the sun just coming up the humidity sapped my energy.
At the split point where you can divide off to do the 13km or head to the finish, I threw in the towel and headed for the finish line. I didn't record any times or bother writing down any position placements.
Now we are a few weeks off the Winter season and I'm trying to adjust to the colder weather with limited daylight after I finish work.
I shall try to totalise the distance I have covered during the break from postings over the last 2/3 year.

Neil