Target 26.2 - First Timer Steve's Journey to Paris

We then had a spot of lunch and some more photos, before I had a chat with Victor, the psychologist. We discussed coping strategies for if I had any tough patches in the marathon and also had a good chat about the injury and what this would mean for my eventual performance in Paris. At the end of the day, it is all about managing my expectations and I have to say that, whatever happens, as long as I can finish then I don’t really give a stuff about how long it takes me. I would love to go really fast and I know that I am capable of running a very fast time but running a marathon is a huge, huge achievement and the time is just window dressing when it is all said and done.

So five days rest it is... I’m bored already! 

I have to say Steve you took everything in we said and that was a very good summary of what we found, sounds just like my notes!!

Keep me posted as how it's settling.

A message to Steve's Knee : give him lots of pain when you think he is causing any further damage as you nor I wish no further damage but if you could try really hard and get better very quickly we would all like you very much.

Steve : brown sauce BUT if not doing much running for the next few days please try and keep all the "extras/junk" to not very much at all and portions a little smaller.

sarah asics pro team wrote (see)

I have to say Steve you took everything in we said and that was a very good summary of what we found, sounds just like my notes!!

Keep me posted as how it's settling.

Hi Sarah,

I've said it probably four or five times already but, hey, I'm going to say it again anyway - thank you so much for all your support and expertise. Especially on Saturday on training day - it really did feel like you took so much time out to focus on my knee!

All the stretching, massaging etc made a huge difference in general to my leg and back (I'm always amazed at how tight my back is when you start working on it!!) and I felt so freed up by the time you'd finished.

PAUL FORDE wrote (see)

Hi Steve, sorry to hear about the injury. I got round The Silverstone half in 1.52 which I was really happy with as its my first time at the distance. Fingers crossed that a few days rest sorts you out and has you flying round again.

Hi Paul, thanks - these things happen so going to make the best of it and see how it goes

Great result in Silverstone! I've heard from others that it's not the easiest course so you must be delighted with that time! You should definitely try out the Dorney Lake half next year - it is absolutely as flat as a pancake and all on tarmac/concrete so it's really good for a fast time. Just as a comparison to make you feel even better, I ran my first half marathon in 2:36!!!

What's up next for you? Any more races lined up before the big one?

wiggly worm wrote (see)

Hi Steve, I'm usually to be found on Mel's thread, but I just had to pop in to let you know I have my fingers crossed for your knee - if that makes sense?!

I'm so impressed by your pragmatic approach - in contrast to my head in pillow weeping extravagantly approach - you deserve to have a speedy recovery and a great race in Paris. They do say that positive thinking speeds healing

Hi Wiggly,

Thank you so much - I really appreciate you crossing fingers for my knee

I think the thing that is keeping me pragmatic the most is just keeping reminding myself that there's no point in worrying over something I can't change. I'm doing everything I can do - resting, icing, anti-inflammatories, hassling my GP - and everything else will take care of itself one way or another. At the end of the day, it may just turn out to be nothing much and the rest will take care of it so there's no point beating myself up over it.

And if it is cartilage then there's no way I can have the op to fix it before Paris so it will just be a case of managing it anyway.

What I do know for sure is that I've had such an amazing time so far and met some genuinely lovely people and learnt so, so much from everyone, particularly Sam.

Alex (the super-fast rocket-powered one) said that he has in the past had torn cartilage in his knee and still got through a marathon so I've got no excuses and will be smiling as I cross the finish line in Paris. Mainly probably due to the thought of the anaesthetic qualities of the forthcoming french wine, but smiling nonetheless!

RUTH MCKEAN wrote (see)

A message to Steve's Knee : give him lots of pain when you think he is causing any further damage as you nor I wish no further damage but if you could try really hard and get better very quickly we would all like you very much.

Steve : brown sauce BUT if not doing much running for the next few days please try and keep all the "extras/junk" to not very much at all and portions a little smaller. 

Haha let's hope the knee is listening

Yes, I always have brown sauce on my cereal...

I had some very healthy chilli this evening and kept the portion size nice and reasonable. As I cooked too much I am going to have the rest with a baked sweet potato tomorrow so I am, on the whole, being healthy! I did chop up two whole finger chillis, seeds and all, and chucked them in so it was pretty mouth-searingly hot... loved it! Definitely enjoying this cooking lark.

How are we doing with the Paris restaurants? Any closer to a decision?

Training - Week 12

Monday - Kneewatch - Day 2

Monday saw the start of week 12 of training and the dawning of day two of Kneewatch...

Of course, I am not allowed to run so I have spent an incredibly frustrating couple of days seeing loads of tweets about people's runs, reading all about running on here and generally winding myself up!

I never thought I'd say this before starting this training but I've been really enjoying the longer runs and it was really frustrating to sit there yesterday resting when I should have been out for a 2hr 15min run... Argh! It's only been two days but I think because I can't run, I want to run a hundred times more than I otherwise would... Go figure.

I managed to snag an "emergency" appointment with a GP today. There is one GP at my surgery I have seen in the past who I know is quite into her running but I couldn't get an appointment with her as she was off - I asked when her next available appointment was and was told two weeks!! Scratch that idea then! So instead, I played GP bingo and just grabbed the earliest appointment I could.

Luckily, somehthing at least went right this week and I got a GP who I had never seen before but who clearly had a good grounding in sports - he told me that he ran himself, did a lot of mountaineering and was an ex-soldier so he fully appreciated what I was telling him.

He also seemed to know what he was doing and did a lot of the same things physio Sarah had done at the training day to establish what the cause of concern might be.

Thinking ahead, I had taken the latest copy of Runners World with me to try and convince whoever I saw how important this was to me (and my hundreds of thousands of adoring fans... haha) and I duly set about explaining about the whole marathon experience and what an amazing opportunity it was. He was genuinely interested and actually snatched the magazine off my and actually proceeded to sit and read the whole article whilst I sat there in awkward silence!

Anyway, instead of recommending more physiotherapy or some anti-inflammatories or similar, he said without hesitation that he'd refer me for an MRI scan on my knee - he also said he would do everything he could to impress the urgency of the timescales involved and said that he expected that the scan would be done before we head off to Paris. So, if nothing else, hopefully we'll know soon enough what we're dealing with one way or another.

I have been doing as instructed and icing and resting. Sarah said that I should ice for a minimum of 8 minutes and do this twice a day. I've also been taking Ibuprofen, also as instructed.

I don't know whether it is because it has been poked and pulled about a bit over the last few days, whether it is because I ran another few miles on it on Saturday, or maybe just because I am very aware of it at the moment (or a combination!) but it has been fairly painful today. More of a dull ache than anything else, but I have been feeling it pretty much all day. Hopefully a bit more rest will sort it out!

I might try a bit of swimming tomorrow to keep up my cardiovascular fitness and I can't see any reason why I can't get a fair bit of core work in over the next few days... Obviously I'll avoid lots of squats and lunges! It's not a setback, it's a good opportunity to do a bit of cross-training

So, what with me being pretty rubbish and boring over the next few days, how is everyone else's training going? Any funny stories or smashing times??

Training - Week 12

Tuesday - Cross Training

I was in a bit of a rush this morning to get ready and get out of the door but I thought I'd try and squeeze a little core work in to keep things ticking over.

I stated off by doing thirty sit ups, which felt quite reasonable. I am determined to one day regain my six pack!! It's like an old friend I've lost touch with. Unfortunately I've lost it's address

The problem is not the muscles themselves - the top part of the six pack is there and is actually pretty well defined, so I assume all of the muscles are the same. The problem is that I have a small, incredibly hard to shift layer of fat that runs around my abdomen, about the level of my belly button area. I cannot shift it; it just won't go.

So I reckon I could probably do a thousand sit ups every morning for a year and still not achieve a huge amount more definition. I strongly suspect that, unfortunately, it is going to take a diet-related solution...

I've already made huge changes to my diet and it is, the occasional off day aside, unrecognisable from my diet before this competition started. I actually go to the supermarket and buy some vegetables. Crazy. But my diet is still a long way from perfect so it is definitely something to work on. One step at a time though, and I'm genuinely enjoying cooking fresh so long may it continue.

After the sit ups (slightly off on a tangent there!), I did a straight-arm plank. I was 'planking' almost every day at one point but I have slacked a bit recently and this was the first one I had done for a while... and it showed! I managed to hold it for 1mins 20secs but "managed" is definitely the word for it!

That was all I had time for this morning but I am going to do a bit more this evening and hopefully hit the pool as well. It only took five minutes and had zero effect on the knee so there really is no excuse for me to be sitting around doing nothing for the next couple of days... Onwards and upwards!

Hey Steve

Well done for keeping yourself occupied with cross training... hope you managed to hit the pool tonight - I did 2k at the pool today..... because - would you believe, ever since training day on Saturday I have had a pain in my Achilles. Noticed it just faintly after the canal runs, and it's just got worse... haven't run since then. So I feel your pain (though I have 2 extra weeks to recover than you, since not running Paris). But obviously (!) I'm practising what I preach - icing, rest, cross training and anti inflams. And er, red wine. That helps recovery, eh Ruth?

You might find that using a pool buoy works, to give you a good CV workout without in any way irritating the knee. Now come on KNEE, get better now - Steve needs you to cooperate here.

Keep us posted Steve. Everything crossed.

Steve loves bacon wrote (see)

RUTH MCKEAN wrote (see)

A message to Steve's Knee : give him lots of pain when you think he is causing any further damage as you nor I wish no further damage but if you could try really hard and get better very quickly we would all like you very much.

Steve : brown sauce BUT if not doing much running for the next few days please try and keep all the "extras/junk" to not very much at all and portions a little smaller. 

Haha let's hope the knee is listening

Yes, I always have brown sauce on my cereal...

I had some very healthy chilli this evening and kept the portion size nice and reasonable. As I cooked too much I am going to have the rest with a baked sweet potato tomorrow so I am, on the whole, being healthy! I did chop up two whole finger chillis, seeds and all, and chucked them in so it was pretty mouth-searingly hot... loved it! Definitely enjoying this cooking lark.

How are we doing with the Paris restaurants? Any closer to a decision?

The area you are staying in Paris has a lot of SMALL eating places so proving hard to get somewhere to have you all comfortably.. as you are now a star you have your support "people" also to feed  but yes narrowed down to 3 eateries. I have  my sister on the case so she is phoning  these places for me (as she lives in Paris hence the huddle of language being less of an issue for me) to make sure numbers are okay and we have some options that are non-pasta/pizza for Sarah. No online menus so she is doing the menu check over the phone also (I have given her a  list!)  but the reviews are good for all three. The furthest one away is only 0.6 miles from hotel so that is a big bonus.

SamMurphyRuns wrote (see)

Hey Steve

Well done for keeping yourself occupied with cross training... hope you managed to hit the pool tonight - I did 2k at the pool today..... because - would you believe, ever since training day on Saturday I have had a pain in my Achilles. Noticed it just faintly after the canal runs, and it's just got worse... haven't run since then. So I feel your pain (though I have 2 extra weeks to recover than you, since not running Paris). But obviously (!) I'm practising what I preach - icing, rest, cross training and anti inflams. And er, red wine. That helps recovery, eh Ruth?

You might find that using a pool buoy works, to give you a good CV workout without in any way irritating the knee. Now come on KNEE, get better now - Steve needs you to cooperate here.

Keep us posted Steve. Everything crossed.

Hi Sam,

Oh no, that's rubbish luck! Am I right in thinking that you've got the Grizzly at the weekend?? I think Birmingham is cursed. You should come and run in Basildon!

Unfortunately, my amazing 50m pool with state-of-the-art faciltiies that is the envy of all and sundry... was closed to the general public because of some big swimming race/gala! Nevermind, I'll definitely hit the pool tomorrow after work (I may even get an early night and get the swim in before work...

2km?!? You're obviously a far stronger swimmer than I am! I did 1km a few weeks back and had jelly arms for days... 

Thanks for the support

Evening Bacon Steve!

Just nipping in to check how the knee's coming on and to say Get Well Soon!! Fab to see you last Saturday ... can't believe the next time we're all going to be together is in Paris!! (We'll get you over that finish line if we have to drag you!!)

RUTH MCKEAN wrote (see)

The area you are staying in Paris has a lot of SMALL eating places so proving hard to get somewhere to have you all comfortably.. as you are now a star you have your support "people" also to feed  but yes narrowed down to 3 eateries. I have  my sister on the case so she is phoning  these places for me (as she lives in Paris hence the huddle of language being less of an issue for me) to make sure numbers are okay and we have some options that are non-pasta/pizza for Sarah. No online menus so she is doing the menu check over the phone also (I have given her a  list!)  but the reviews are good for all three. The furthest one away is only 0.6 miles from hotel so that is a big bonus.

Haha the downsides of celebrity life, eh? It's going to be tough dodging all those paps!

Wish I had a sister in Paris - would be great for city breaks! Just tell her j'aime des pâtes à la sauce tomate ou des pâtes aux fruits de mer. Merci.

In other vaguely nutritional news, I found the absolutely most amazing way to eat chilli this evening:

 Thank you for forcing me to cook properly!

RunnyRunRun wrote (see)

Evening Bacon Steve!

Just nipping in to check how the knee's coming on and to say Get Well Soon!! Fab to see you last Saturday ... can't believe the next time we're all going to be together is in Paris!! (We'll get you over that finish line if we have to drag you!!)

Hey RRR,

Thanks Feels a bit like a bag of rusty spanners at the moment but I'm sure a couple of days rest will sort that out!

Great to see you too, as always, and I'm so pleased you brought your own coffee with you this time... you seemed a lot more relaxed

I know! Crazy thought, isn't it?? And so close as well...

Training - Week 12

Tuesday - Cross Training

Well, as I said above, the pool was closed. Grumble grumble. So the swim is now in the diary for tomorrow instead. Honestly, I'm like a caged tiger and I just want to do something! If I'd have had runs scheduled, I'd probably be thinking "aw, do I have to?" but because I can't I really want to! Basically, what I'm saying is that I'm a big kid.

So as I couldn't run or swim this evening, I did a bit more core work and ended up, including the bit I did this morning, doing the following:

Sit ups - 100

Press ups - 45

Plank - 2, both for 1min 20secs

That'll do me for today and, like I say, tomorrow I'm going to hit the pool.

The knee hasn't felt  too great today to be honest - it feels very grindy and clicks/pops a lot. You know when you try to change gear and you haven't got the clutch down properly?

Yeah, that.

Training - Week 12

Wednesday - Cross Training

Wednesday and... a familiar theme. Cross-training!

I went to the pool today to swim a few lengths and, by and large, it was ok. I only managed 750m but it wasn't too bad so I was fairly content by the end.

When I have been running and my knee has played up, it has felt like the whole joint is inflammed, like it has been over-used, is all sore and is grinding on and impacting on itself. That's probably the best way I can describe it.

When I was swimming, I didn't have that at all BUT what I did find was that on a few occasions when doing various things in the pool, when my knee twisted in some way I felt a very definite tweak. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was amazingly painful but it was sore and definitely felt like something was up. What that is, I don't know yet but there definitely feels like there is something going on...

I have been resting, icing, taking the inflammatories but I have to confess that for the first time I am getting rather worried. I haven't run for four days now and it still feels like there is something not right so I'm actually not really looking forward to running on it!

Until now I have been feeling pretty positive and feeling like it'll all work out one way or another but I'm not feeling quite so chipper about it all this evening. I've got one more rest day and then will give a run a try and I'm not feeling particularly confident as to how that will turn out...

Having said all that, I have had so many kind things said by so many people and that really has helped a huge amount - it has definitely kept putting the smile back on my face!

Sam and Sarah, what run do you think I should do on Friday? Should I just try and slot back into the training plan? Or is there a specific run either of you had in mind? Obviously I'm thinking something at a nice, gentle pace but distance-wise it has seemed to take a few miles for any pain to kick in so maybe I should try 5 miles or more to give it a proper test? Or do you think it better to do something very short first to break it back in gently?