Marathon training days – part 1

Marathon – that’s the goal. That’s what I plan to do in September. That’s all what my current life is about.

It’s quite an interesting experience to prepare for a marathon run, even after finishing four half-marathons this year and the overall feel to finally get used to long distances, the distance beyond 21km is something completely different. In several test runs I started running 26km and even 32km to find out how it comforts me and it was a tough lessen I had to learn.

Even with 5km over half-marathon distance I struggled to reach my training goal, which was only to make it over the whole distance. I ran the 26km with my girl-friend, accompanying me and providing me with hydration. It was on of the first real warm days of the year and I had some problems with it. In the meantime I finally got used to it and would also say, that I feel comfortable at higher temperatures. But back on this very day kilometers 22 to 26 felt just tough. Not only because of the warmth outside, also because my legs felt heavy.

A couple of weeks later I had a 32km run with a colleague of mine. My training plan was set for 28km, but on this day we ran 32km. That was a huge mental problem for me. I was very happy to reach the 28km mark and I could have stopped instantly but my colleague just said “Why don’t we continue till we reach the bridge?” or “Why don’t we run back to car?”

This may sound easy, but for me, as a runner who just felt a little comfortable with half-marathon distance and covering a mileage over a period of just one year, it was a huge hurdle to master. I struggled but at the end of the run I had the 32km mark popping up on my GPS watch and was just glad.

It’s still a long way to run, to finally reach the form I need to reach and conquer the marathon mark, but it’s possible. From now on I can say, it’s just 10km more. Before these runs I had things like “And now I have to run half-marathon two times?” in my mind. Adding the 10K to my current longest distances made is a much better motivation than a simple ‘now I have to do it again’ thing.

Run, Forest, run!

Last post was back in August, right before I went off for my vacation. A lot of things happened in the between time and I’ll try to give you a short report about the recent events.

The vacation itself was for one week only and I tried to used it to focus a lot on sports and improving certain disciplines – running, for instance. Back in the days of August I was still suffering from some minor injuries in my right foot, mainly fibre related, that were causing some trouble to correctly balance my right foot while running. As a result of this, I had some serious problem to normally walk after a running session, because I wasn’t able put my foot on the ground without any pain. Pain also occurs while resting the foot.

Whatever the case, I continued to run no matter what kind of injury I was suffering from and it became better and better. I ran around 45 km on my vacation and it seemed to have some sort of curing effect. I was very happy about these circumstances and I was now able to take the whole running thing to a new level.

I still have to admit, I’ve chosen running, because it was one of these kind of sports that I liked least and it would take a lot of willpower to get through this. And another aspect, I didn’t want to leave my running team for the relay run high and dry.

A couple of training sessions were left until the big day – the relay run. I finished them smoothly and without any interruptions or any other disturbances. The day of the relay run itself was very exciting, because I’ve never been to such an event as an athlete. Actually, I’ve never been to any sports event.

I couldn’t ever image that there will be so many runners in my hometown appearing on such an event. I was so excited that very day, that I even forgot where the meeting point for my team was, but we finally found each other and we were ready to run. I was the third of five runners in my mixed team. The whole starting area was very crowded and I did not realize how this whole this would work in the first place, but after a couple of minutes and after the first round was finished I’ve finally found out, how this relay run does work.

I’ve finished my lap in 11:59 min for a 2.5 km distance, which was more than two minutes faster than the time I was running at the very beginning of my training. I was happy with this result and it’s something I can build on. I’m not a Usain Bolt but on the other hand even no fatty with a short breath after 100 meters of running.

After this run I’ve tasted blood for these kind of events and I instantly registered for another in mid October, which I will tell you about in my next post.

Achilles’ curse

If you think things couldn’t get any worst things will start to get real bad. As mentioned in previous posts, I thought was suffering a tiny little injury that is located somewhere around my heel spur. Luckily it’s not an issue with my heel spur, it’s an issue with my Achilles’ tendon.

Details on this latest issue will I get to know by the beginning of next week. Hopefully it’s not such a big thing and I hope even more, that this will turn out good without having a surgery or something.

Secondly, my back – or my shoulder to be exact – thought to come back to my mind by reminding me of its existence with a terrible pain during a swim last weekend. A blocked muscle caused a limitation of my heads movement abilities and a lot of terrible, quite disturbing sufferings.

It wasn’t actually that kind of a big deal, but nonetheless I find these tiny issues and injuries pretty annoying. Especially with a “tight” training plan. I’m forcing myself to stick with this plan and every interruption is sooo not welcomed, you cannot imagine.

Anyhow, I still continue with sports and I still have the goal to do the relay run. I switched to sport types that are less demanding and it’s going quite well in that manner. I hope that the issues that I currently have with my back and my foot are gone in the near future, that I can  move back to my regular training plan.

Doing a running training is much more efficient when you run, if you know what I mean.

Break even

So I’ve made it into the relay team of my company. Well, I’m reserve but nevertheless I’m part of a team and I get some good training with experienced runners over the next couple of weeks. Nothing that would hurt.

Speaking of hurt – I kind of injured my heel spur at one gym session the other and instead of just breaking everything up, I decided to give it a rest for a few days and then continue with sports that doesn’t stress my feet that much. At least one time a week I go swimming, so my feet will be fine. And in the gym I moved to rowing and indoor cycling.

Rowing for instance almost killed me after the first time doing so for such a long time. My legs felt like filled up with plumb and I had sore muscles in my neck and my upper arms. I’ve done multiple sessions so far and I’m getting used to it. I always underestimated rowing but compared to jogging, which powers me off quite good, is one sports discipline that’s able to show me my borders.

And speaking of borders – I seriously have to do some extra training for my back. During the rowing sessions I felt that my back isn’t as muscular as it was a few month back. I was never in the condition that I looked like a body builder when it comes to this, but I always managed to train the stabilizing centre of my body quite good – like belly and back.

This is very important to gain good training results, because you don’t develop in a good pace when you miss to do the additional workouts your main disciplines base on. Always keep an eye on your centre!

To summarize what this post was all about, even with injuries, I’m still focusing on my training. And hopefully I’ll get back to jogging and running very, very soon. Everything looks good so far.

Behind the mask

I’m wearing a large mask these days. I’m not quite sure if this mask hits its purpose, but I’m stuck. Since I got away from my old company, where I was hired for almost five years and wanted to explore new territories I actually feel like walking in circles. It is even more frightening that I feel as if I walk backwards.

It’s hard to describe. After all these years I finally made it to the company I always wanted to work for and I feel so unsatisfied. I felt unsatisfied in my previous company as well, but one of the main reasons there was the commuting issue which has exhausted me.

The problem keeps growing an growing. Every time I start something new which excites me for a while I suddenly feel bored, in certain situation annoyed, and I want to leave it. The long breath I need to keep connected with something is gone. And it’s not even the long breath, I currently question everything and everything bothers me.

As you may know, I’m back into sports. After a long period with several small and bigger issues that did not allow me to train how I would actually have liked it I’m back to gym and the natatorium. I’m pretty good and fast when it comes to water sports but in the gym I’ve to struggle a longer period of time to get back to the point where I want to be.

But even there do I suffer the problem that it does not really catch me and it feels more like an automated process and not a thing that people usually do to have fun and enjoy. That’s in fact the core problem – the fun is gone.

With this core problem right in front of my eyes I’m watching out for a solution that is not to be seen yet. I’m tired of this and I really want it to go away.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #9

Almost two month away from this blog and no report about my current sports activities. And there’s a good reason for that. An injury was the reason for my long time of absence. Everything started very well on the first days of my vacation.

I got to jog every second morning and right after that I went to swim in the lake nearby, which was so refreshing. Till that time the only problem I had was this muscular imbalance around the left shinbone. To a certain point I was able to handle it, but on the very last day of my week in the forest that was scheduled for sports I had to cancel during my jog. Mainly because I slipped pretty hard off a stone and was not able to cushion it. Well, another lesson learned.

So that was a minor problem, that wasn’t actually that kind of an issue, because I had planned to rest for three or four days and stay away from sports. During that regeneration period came issue number two. My back – I had this terrible, awkward pain around the right middle of my back. It wasn’t that I couldn’t actually move or something, it was just painful and very disturbing. Vacation 2012 was ruined.

It took just two days and went to my doctor. She ordered me an x-ray to see if there’s anything wrong with my spine or related. It took a couple of days till the statement was done and it says that everything was all right. Well, the pain in my back told me something different. Next conclusion of my doctor was, that it has to be a static problem. By having said that she kept me off vacation and work as well for another couple of weeks. This whole things lasted for five weeks. Only one of my previously planned three weeks of vacation were taken. Serious bullshit.

Especially when you consider that I haven’t had a few weeks off for almost a year and a half. Which leads to the next issue. I already had several problems with my back over the last couple of month. Some minor and through several short periods even some major problems. But nothing that lasted for longer. Me and my therapists did a lot of research (of course) to find out where my problems come from.

We considered sports, some untreated injuries, wrong mattress and last but not least the furniture I got at work. You may guess it, it actually is my office furniture that cause these (meanwhile) serious problems. My desk is too low and my chair is a piece of junk that. Nothing that stabilizes, nothing that’s comfortable and far and beyond from healthy.

I’m a pretty petted person when it comes to comfortable office furniture. My last company had these chairs and desks where you could spent days and days on without getting tired or having any issues. I was complaining a little about the fact, that my desk was around 2-3 cm too low, but I had several tricks at the end of day to compensate this.

My desk and chair at home is basically the same. The desk is custom made and the chair is one of these common, badass comfortable ones. It wasn’t all that expensive, rather than the furniture I had at my last company, but I am able to sit there for hours without getting into any trouble.

Long story short, my therapist gave me the advise to quit my job, because with that in mind the whole therapy would be some sort of a bloody joke. Quitting my job is not the best solution, but it is quite an option. I’ve recently made a request to get a new chair and desk that would fit my needs and do no longer get me into such trouble and pain. I hope there’s a good solution on the way otherwise I take the advise of my therapist… well… maybe… possibly… we’ll see.

Anyhow, this whole thing took me apart from sports and gym and I’m not very happy about it. I would’ve been fine with a simple sports injury, but the fact that wrong furniture at work causes this bloody, damn issue makes me sort of furious.

I’ve planned to get back to gym for the first time at Saturday. I will try the treadmill and the elliptical. I’ve scheduled sports for three times per week, don’t want to exaggerate anything. Hopefully I can finally make it to the natatorium and swim a couple of lanes. I’ll keep you informed.