On the mend...and running(ish) among Ex-Olympians...

Diane Modahl leading the pack at the start line..

After my last blog I had a bit of a rubbish day with a very hot ankle and more swelling for some bizarre reason considering i did bugger all the day before...I think it was probably warning me that if i even thought about attending the Harriers this evening i would regret it.  That on top of colleagues 'un-subtly' telling me i was an idiot for even considering running at this stage, I decided to swim instead.
Front crawl was painful-especially pointing my toes!!...goddammit just as I was feeling better aswell :( so i stuck with breaststroke...falling apart and miserable - not a happy Sam!
The following day, determined to try and maintain as much CV fitness as possible i booked onto a spinning class....i have never sweated so much in my whole entire life, pretty sure i lost half my body weight in sweat, but best of all NO PAIN :D I nearly did a 'Bridget Jones' getting off the bike though!
Rest day on wed (with the exception of cycling to and from my private clinic and getting utterly soaked-i had to treat my patients in bare foot as my shoes and socks were so wet they squelched as i walked and i'd have ended up with prune feet!!).
Soooooo then today came! I always intended to go along to the final Sizzlers 5K as friends were running it plus it was chance to meet some ex-Olympians....there was: Ron Hill (marathon), Diane Modahl (800m), Geoff Norman (marathon), Kevin McKay (1500m), Susan Crehan (10,000m) and few others but can't remember their names! One of them lead a group warm up-a little like Mr Motivator, slightly cring-worthy!

Medal for completing all 4 races-worth all the pain!!??

I decided to have my ankle strapped by the Physio who had a little tent set up during all the races, he was an ex-rugby physio/player and did a great job. I did a couple of warm-up laps, nice and slow and it felt so good that-YES i ran (please don't be mad everyone!!).
I didn't get a PB, in fact it was a PW (personal worse), well of this series, but i don't care, i still got quite respectable time of 20:14 so thats good enough for me! I even got a medal and a spot prize YAY!
Oh and Stockport Harrier won the prize for fastest female team :)

Agony....not running!!!!

After a very frustrating week of no running, my patience have exceeded me...far too much pent up energy and no-where to expel it. The routine of ice packs and elevation has become tired and boring. There's nothing more annoying that getting all settled with the leg up and ice in-situ, then remembering you've left that cup of tea in the kitchen - dammit better get back up again and walk like an idiot into the kitchen to retrieve it...and while I'm there I'll crack open some chocolate or pick and some sweets - Oh dear!

Soooooo after to asking an experienced runner and MSK Physio at work to assess my ankle this week,  I've decided 'to hell' with what I SHOULD be doing and WOULD be advising my patients, I'm gonna go for a run. Said Physio told me if it was him he'd already be running (he ran on a broken leg 3 days after it was diagnosed!!!). I've been cycling to work all week and its been fine, its stiff 1st thing in the morning but that soon eases, I'm no longer on painkillers and thats good enough for me!

So friday afternoon I went for a little 'try - run'-literally just round the block, no more than 1K in total. Ok I'm not gonna lie it wasn't perfect and I wasn't flying (partly due to the OD on snacks this week through boredom as much as anything else) but it got better with time and it didn't give way which is always a good sign! Now I'm not gonna get ahead of myself, I'm under strict instructions from the hubby not to 'overdo' it, so we decided to go for a bike ride instead on saturday for fun and fitness....we got lost following a friends instructions, it didn't help that the phone we were using with said instructions (nigelswheels.blogspot.com) ran out of data usage half way round - we ended up in the centre of Manchester which was fine, but the 3-4 hr bike ride only ended up being 2! On our way back though we decided to take a detour through a park where we used to live and they had MONKEY BARS!!!! AWESOME :o)
So of course I had to have a go...I have better upper body strength than I thought and managed to monkey-walk / swing up and down 4 times before my arms gave out, maybe I'll turn to bar work for the next Olympics if running doesn't work out.....

Anyway today after 10 days of 'relative rest', no pain (unless I poke the injured area very hard!!) and much less swelling and bruising, I've decided, I'm going to the track tomorrow to test my ankle out proper. If it survives the session of 6 x 800m, I'm racing on thursday :D
Keep your fingers crossed!!!

And just as i was getting faster....disaster (again)

Well well well, it's been a bloody long time since I've blogged!
For a number of reasons really, firstly i ended the last one on a high having run a 10mile PB, i then went away for 3 months (mattandsamdownunder.blogspot.com) to OZ and NZ, where i ran approximately 7 times over the whole holiday!

I think the 'rest' (although as you will see its not like it was a relaxing holiday) did my running the world of good. I came back and re-commenced training focusing on speed and shorter distances, got a 10K PB of 41:26, then progressively improved my 'park run' times getting closer and closer to the 20 minute mark.

So i decided to enter the Sale Sizzler 5K series, with an aim to get sub 20 minutes @ least once by the last race (4 in total).

Me and the Ex - 800m Olympian :o)

Race one was on the 5th July, a muggy evening threatening thunderstorms all evening but luckily holding out until after the event!! I achieved 19:40 :D. A great race topped off by meeting ex-olympian Diane Modahl....

I was hooked so the second race was on the 19th July, i managed to knock off a further 22 seconds coming in at 19:18.....is 19 minutes becoming more realistic? Possibly!

Then last night was race number 3, admittedly not feeling on top form following a couple of heavy weekends but still hoping to achieve a sub 20 run.
Following a week of rain the course was a bit muddy but not too bad. The gun went off and we were going, one lap of the race track as usual then out into the park, through a muddy puddle my ankle did a slight turn, but nothing too major (matt will tell you I'm constantly turning my ankle-even in flat shoes!). Then out onto the tarmac where the real problem occurred...the culprit speed bump-it was one of those moments that you could just see in slow-mo.... A complete ankle inversion followed by a few embarrassed stumbling steps but managing to remain upright (phew-otherwise i may have been trampled!!). Me being me (and having had little sprains before and been fine carrying on) i plodded on completing the race, knowing a PB was out of the question but i was there and it just didn't feel that bad! Running buddy Jason appeared behind me commenting that either he was going too fast or i had slowed-it was actually a bit of both and he got a great PB ;)

I came in at 19:55-pretty chuffed with that, all things considered-thanks Matt for egging me on for the final 'sprint'!! (although if he'd known about the ankle he may have thought otherwise!)

Ouuuuuch!!!

I hobbled off, grabbed some ice and made a quick getaway and have woken up this morning with a hugely swollen and bruised ankle.
Been to A&E, X-Ray ok (phew) and now gotta take some of my own advice RICE.....will i be fit to run the last of the 4 in 2 weeks??? WATCH THIS SPACE........