I tried to find a decent picture of physio exercises but they were all either obscene or strange. My physio is neither, but I do have some odd stretches to do.
Friday night I rocked up to physio and was like, dude. Fix me. And he did - sorta. After listening to my painful tale of woe, he told me to put some shorts on and proceeded to rotate my ankles, legs, and feet in various ways. Then I ran on the treadmill for a bit and he pronounced me as having legs that inwardly pronate too much and something to the effect of having not enough rotation in the hips. I know this from yoga (I'm flexible but not in the hip flexors) but I had no idea that it could impact my running! But it is, as my internal rotation issues are causing strain on my to the tune of very bad shin splints.
To make a long story short, I will run the marathon (woot) but I have to do a lot of stretches and exercises to build up the muscles in my calves and thighs (to offset the weakness of my hips) and also to increase the flexibility in my hips. I also need to simulate running as much as possible, which means like 30 mins at least per day on the elliptical (called "the cross trainer" here in the UK). So I have now taken to spending over an hour in the gym per day. Groan.
I apparently get to start running this weekend if all goes well. I had to buy orthotics (!) to put in my runners for more support, and Physio Chris tells me my training plan is bollocks (how dare he say such things about Hal Higdon). But if he gets me running and I can do the marathon without seriously injuring myself, then he will be my knight in shining Theraband armor.
Oh no, why was the Hal Higdon plan bollocks? I've just signed up for the Edinburgh Marathon in May, and of course was planning on letting Hal be my training guru!
ReplyDeletePhysio Chris feels that any training programme that has you running on consecutive days is bollocks. He said that they are based on training programmes for pros and "mere mortals like us" need more time to recover when the mileage picks up. I don't know how much I agree with him as I felt that Hal's Novice A schedule was really manageable. I've also been poking around on Runners World forums and the runners there all say they tend to do between 3-5 runs a week which is what Hal suggests. So, I'd say if you are confident then stick with Hal.
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