What has been going on?
March was a terrific month as I completed a half-ironman. As both the culmination of a lot of training and something I had designated as an indicator of full recovery, this was a pretty powerful experience. Although I was happy with my time, the way things got so much harder towards the end of the event was an indicator that my long distance endurance still has a bit of ground to make up. After the triathlon, I took the rest of the month pretty easy, allowing a decent time to recover, but keeping myself moving as well. I also started playing a bit of competitive soccer and was really happy with how much confidence I had in my leg.
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What has been going on?
Another really promising month as I build up for my ultra triathlon. Still feel like my recovery is a bit slow and I may lack a yard of pace when running but other than that feeling pretty good. Had a minor scare when my back went one day during a short jog. I think it was probably a result of overtraining it during the week at the gym. Luckily for me it recovered within a few days but it was a good reminder to be careful not to get carried away in the gym, especially now that I am doing so much more running and cycling. What has been going on?
The last month has been really positive. I am now thinking of myself as basically recovered and feeling free to do pretty much everything I want in terms of physical activity. I am still a bit oversensitive to any twinges. As a result of increased endurance training I have dropped about 5kg in the last month. This is certainly not diet related as I am pretty much eating as much carbohydrates as I can manage to keep my energy up. What has been going on?
It has been a really positive couple of weeks since my last update. Without changing much about my routine, the body has finally started to feel consistently healthy and pain-free. This allowed me to go on a multi-day bushwalk and make a tentative return to sport. What has been going on?
Things got a little dark for a little while actually. I wasn’t making any progress for a while and seemed to have more and more problems cropping up. As well as being frustrating from the pure inconvenience, this was quite difficult because of the uncertainty about how long my recovery was going to take. I have written about how difficult this uncertainty around recovery can be before. With no real progress to report, I didn’t see the point in writing a miserable update. I also struggled with maintaining the right mindset for getting through my latest setback. I was beginning to look for and expect new sources of pain and discomfort whenever I ran. It took a deliberate cognitive realignment and seeking some specific reassurance from my physio, who I have a lot of trust in. Once I got some confidence back I was able to start moving forward again. In the last few weeks though I have begun to get some confidence back in my body and begun running again. What’s been going on?
Less than my last update. I seem to have hurt my calf worse than I realised so I really haven’t been able to do much, which has been pretty devastating. I am hoping that I am inching towards recovery, but it seems a lot slower than my knee healed. On the other hand, apart from the twinging in my calves I am still mobile and capable so it is nowhere near as disruptive. What’s been going on?
Not much. Pulled my calf early in the week and that has put paid to any running, riding or sport for the rest of the week. Luckily (I think) I can still do my leg exercises at the gym, so I have at least been able to keep working on strengthening the leg. Training Managed a 10km run before I hurt myself but that is it apart from five leg sessions at the gym. . What’s been going on?
A bloody lot. I have been pretty much given the word that I can push myself as hard as I want with running and just let my body decide how much I can handle (was hoping this would mean I could stop doing bloody squats but no luck there). Went pretty hard at training for the first part of the week before going away on a buck’s weekend which put an end to any rehab work (and just about any sleep). Pretty determined to work hard through the residual fatigue of last weekend and start setting some goals. What’s been going on?
It’s been quite an eventful week. With my wife’s assistance, I have found a way of doing aerobic exercise at a much higher intensity (not that) than I am able to riding or jogging. She took me running on a cliff track with some particularly steep sections, which we did repeat laps up and down. I will not be able to replicate the fatigue that built in both my legs and chest going up and down that hill until I am back to running at speed for prolonged distances. Having served its purpose, the alcohol ban was allowed to quietly expire. I had a couple of glasses of wine over dinner and regretted it strongly the next day. I wasn’t hungover, but physically and cognitively, I was functioning worse than I had for some time. Is this how Peter Dutton feels every day, I wondered to myself, before immediately declaring an unscheduled rest day. What's been going on?
Following a script almost as predictable as a retired footballer ‘writing,’ a book, a seemingly flat period last week preceded a more successful one this week. I’m adapting to being back at work and finding the time to maximise my rehab opportunities each day. This is involving a lot of low intensity sport with my students, which is something I have been enjoying this week. I’m moving pretty tentatively but getting more confident the longer I go without setback. I’m really looking forward to seeing the physio next week and talking about running a bit faster and further, perhaps with the possibility of beginning regular time trials to give myself some form of metric indicators for progress. |
So as mentioned elsewhere, having done myself a pretty significant injury recently, I feel I am making some really good progress towards being healthy and a number of people have said they enjoyed the previous article. While it seems that the word, 'inspiration,' now belongs to people who post nearly naked photos posing on instagram, I hope this page can continue to be helpful to others. I thought I would keep a bit of a weekly journal of my continued journey (I cringed a little bit as I typed that word, thinking of how often it is used by reality tv contestants), including the progress I am making week to week, the work I am doing towards said progress and my observations of how things are going.
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