Running to Think

I'm gonna skip week 02, for the reasons I explained in a previous post. I deliberately planned for a break between two intense training blocks. Anyway my body anticipated me with a stressed posterior tibial tendon that needed to be fixed any time soon.
Week 02 has been dedicated to resting, specifically active resting which consisted of a bit of cycling at the gym and loads of repetitions of the exercise you can see in the picture above.
According to my physiotherapist, I could have started running again on monday of week 03, after 7 days of no running. That's exactly what I did.

13/01/2014
20' run and the usual exercises. I headed to the gym a number of times to strengthen some muscular groups that needed some intervention, such as hamstrings and shoulders, upper back and abs. Running, running, running is not exactly what every runner should do. Sometimes we have to plan some workout sessions at the gym or, if you feel more like Rocky Balboa at the steps of a stadium in the suburbs of your city ;)

14/01/2014
30' trail in Sart Tilman in Liege, wearing trail running shoes. This session was characterised by the usual amount of hills and irregular terrain which made it a tough and quite stiff experience. At some point I was scared that the tendon would have collapsed again. I was really waiting for the running session to finish as soon as possible. Not fun, at all.

15/01/2014
Of course my physiotherapist kicked in, discouraging me from running on irregular terrain for at least one more week. She was quite diplomatic by avoiding the more appropriate "you are an idiot" conclusion.
I proceeded as requested by wearing softer road running shoes for about 40', finishing on the track and field. I still felt a bit of stiffness in both the ankles and mainly on the injured tendon. Way less than the day before, though.

16/01/2014
52' easy run with no pain whatsoever and much less stiffness. I felt like I could have been running for 3 hours more, which I didn't do. This time, I would have really deserved to be called an idiot.

17/01/2014
again 50' easy run in the city of Bruxelles. Sore calves and both tibial tendons quite tired are probably the result of a week of training and exercising. I better close week 2 here, with a saturday of rest.

18/01/2014
Rest


I wish I could say "the gipsy is back". But I still don't feel that comfortable.
Yet.

The week that follows an injury does not belong to the category of memorable days. I usually start eating, I feel a bit depressed, my day suddenly becomes longer than a year and I start liking people less. In return they seem to like me less too.
This is the moment when I start talking to very few and close friends about my mood and the status that affects my personality from the minute I wake up to the second I fell asleep again. I am aware of how annoying that can be.
Caroline is getting familiar with this other part of me, which is probably less fun to deal with. But I think she's doing great, her stuff being still at home.
Some days ago I talked to my fellow friend Sajjad, who shared a number of running experiences with me and being a runner as well knows exactly what I am talking about.
My question was very simple: how do you overcome the depression from not being able to run? His answer was brutally simple and it opened a new way of thinking about those periods of injury.
He said that the first three days are really annoying. But then it becomes slightly easier because I should start focusing on other types of work I have. Which is a good thing anyway.
"It's a reminder of how we always need change" he added.
"When I get injured and I have to stay at home, I am reminded of my vulnerability. You appreciate running much more when you start again".
I never read something more true.
Feeling down, experiencing a knockout and touching the ground with your face, if you know what I mean, is exactly why people need to stand up and keep moving.
Yearning for the motivation to motivate.
Indeed I was focusing on other things last week, such as a new book I bought, some academic papers in my reading queue for a long time. I even spent much more time in the kitchen, not just eating, but experiencing new recipes and experimenting with food.
With great results too. Caroline ate my food and was never hospitalised for food poisoning. That's great to start with :)
If it’s true that the seventh day God rested from all His work, then I’m clearly not a god.
Last week I felt busier than the days when I covered three-digit distances. On the other hand, my injury seems to improve everyday and my recovery phase being shortened with the help of a physiotherapist at the Sport Medical Advice Centre of the University of Leuven. We're working on strengthening the posterior tibial tendons and ankles with specific exercises and they're observing my running posture in search of some imperfection that might be lethal on the long distance of +50 km. Carefully inspecting images and videos of me running on a treadmill or during some drills on the track and field is quite a daily task.
My physiotherapist advised me to go back to run again after a week of therapy and exercises, completing up to 70% of my running schedule. Even in the presence of a small pain or stiffness I have been advised to continue, unless the pain doesn't go and it actually becomes more consistent. That's right! It's even better than any song in my mp3 player, and honestly I couldn't disagree with the medical prognosis for several reasons. One of which is that my physiotherapist is a runner herself.
Back to my state of depression (which by the way sounds worse that it really is), a good coincidence is that I got injured exactly at the beginning of my resting period. This means that I would have rested anyway, regardless of the injury. Hence the status of depression has been on a steady decline, with respect to the one I had right before running a marathon a few years ago.
I always have in mind quotes that try to motivate me even when I am sleeping and I remember of that anonymous genius who wrote "you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have". Well, I should let him know of another nice fact I will summarise in "you never become stronger if you never choose to give your body some rest".
Which is exactly what I've been choosing for.
Run happy!

Hello folks!
I remember the days when I was running like crazy as they were last week.
Wait, it *was* last week!!
Well, here I am, dealing with the first injury of 2014, even though whatever happens in my life is pretty much the first of the year, for the obvious reasons.
The day I was kind of pushing myself to the limits, coming from a 31 km trail and a lot of hills, then running a 10 km at the consistent pace of 3'50" per km I forgot about one important thing: the body does have limits.
Yeah yeah the mind can probably ignore them and most of the times it does that greatly. But sooner or later we have to face the physical limits of joints, tendons, sore legs and bones.

Long story short, at the end of the running session of the 1st January I felt a very acute pain somewhere in the left foot, just when I was running back home which means at the end of the training.
I stopped with the usual teeth-grinding face. Looked at the foot, touched it and I got the same irritating feeling I got in the last mile of the 32-mile run back in November 2013.
As usual I underrated the thing as "just stress", since the previous week had been quite stressful indeed.
The day before, the last day of the year, I felt quite tired even on a relatively slow pace. In retrospect I can say that was an alarm raised by one of those subtle safety mechanisms embedded in our body. Exactly, in retrospect...
So many years of running experience and I am still committing the same old mistake of ignoring the signs of the body and keep going. When I feel great I just go for it and push it to the limit, usually going beyond and paying the costly price of breaking, stressing, fracturing and disrupting. So wrong!!! So stupid!!! Bad Francesco, very bad boy!

It comes without saying that the 2nd of January it was a no running day for the reasons that I might have explained so far.
Resting and then resting again and again.
While by the end of the third day God had created a foundational environment of light, heavens, seas and earth, I instead did something of which God would just be rolling and laughing, such as running for 7 min and feeling that acute pain I am so used to.

The schedule had been made. Doctor working at the Sport Medical Advice Center of Leuven checked my foot and concluded that, with great fortune, it was not an inflamed tendon.
He found two main problems instead. It turns out that my left foot is less stable than the right one. This instability is what is letting the bones knock at each other with a terrifying and disgusting clacking noise whenever they are moved in the (un)proper way.
On longer distances this small instability- which might sound cute out of context - becomes a monster to deal with and usually to get kicked from very badly.

We already planned some sessions with the physiotherapist who will fix this instability with some specific exercises for the plantar fascia and posterior tibial tendon. Strengthening these bad boys should give me the stability I need to start training again and, hopefully, to participate to the ultra marathon next March.

Fingers crossed!

There's nothing better than starting the year by writing about week #1. An interesting thing I noticed on the training calendar is that by counting weeks from monday to sunday, rather than by date, week 1 is right in between 2013 and 2014.

Waiting for the post-workout dinner to be ready can be even more painful than the workout itself, interval training included.
One relatively fast way I found to kill time and to stay healthy is making things rather than buying them. Humus is one such thing I am used to prepare before dinner. Sometimes I feel satisfied just with some lebanese bread and a salad.
I am aware that buying humus is much easier than making it. But, as many other things, I prefer to see my food and process it by myself. Here is a recipe to make humus and serve it in a coloured way that may stimulate your appetite.