johnsjar

I went to my ART practitioner yesterday and he told me I could run as long as I went slow with about 50% effort with respect to what I have been doing. I decided not to run that day but I went out today not very optimistic that I could do anything. Much to my surprise I managed to finish the whole 11 km, although at a much slower pace. My pace was 10:04 per km which is around 16 or so per mile. I did it in 1:50:42 with walk breaks.

It was really hard to go that slow, but I knew if I didn’t go slow I would probably either break it again or delay my recovery. I wore my HRM today for the first time in a long time and will probably keep wearing it for a few months until I get used to my new faster pace. I found it very difficult but I managed to keep my HR and hence speed below 125 BPM. It took a lot out of me mentally as I had to really focus on what I was doing. If I lost focus for even a moment my pace would start to increase. I am used to a certain level of perceived effort, and as I have become more fit, my pace has increased so that I felt the same amount of perceived effort. This is why I am starting to wear my HRM again and will continue to do so for the next few months. I can’t begin to tell you how bored out of my tree I was to run that slowly, but it’s better than not running at all! I can still feel some tightness and soreness in my calf so I kept the level of effort just below the point where I thought I might make things worse.

What did he do? Well, I went to him with a specific complaint of a localized soft tissue injury. So he examined, poked and prodded my left calf, then applied pressure with his thumb, moving it around so as to break up some scar tissue while at the same time I was moving my leg through its range of motion. With feedback from me, he kept the pain of treatment below 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the maximum I could bear without gnawing one of my own limbs off or biting my tongue!

So, in a short recap, yesterday the ART guy said I had some problems in my soleus and a little in my gastrocnemius as well. He broke up some scar tissue and I made another appointment for this Tuesday. I think this will really fix me up! He knows I’m a runner and that I want to do another half Oct. 8th so he is very encouraging. This Tuesday I will ask him to check out my other leg and to see what he can do about my left shoulder, which has a small amount of inflexibility on rotation as compared to my right shoulder.