I can’t remember feeling as much pressure going into a training run as I felt today. The last few weeks have been a bit of a battle, firstly to admit that there was anything wrong with me physically, and then once I had accepted that, to work out what was wrong and how to put it right. I went to the physio on Wednesday, probably a week later than I should have done, but this was definitely a case of better late than never. I was reassured that the issue with my hip flexor wasn’t anything major and was given some exercises to help strengthen the muscles surrounding that area, but the question of when I would be able to run pain-free was still lingering.
Having felt mild discomfort throughout Tuesday’s run, I then took the rest of the week off, so my first opportunity to test how I felt was yesterday. That run mostly went well, with only minor discomfort initially which eased after about 10 minutes and didn’t return, though my new shoes still didn’t feel like they were worn in, which was a concern because my only alternative shoes are a little old now and not ideal for running a Marathon either. Therefore I took a bit of a gamble today and wore the new shoes again, in the hope that I could at least solve that issue before Windermere in a fortnight.
All of the above meant that today was a perfect opportunity to try out a small tip from the latest issue of Runner’s World. There’s almost always one thing that I’ll incorporate after every issue, whether that is a training session, a training plan or a way to tweak my running form, and when I read “Benzie advises holding my thumb and forefingers together…the contact between the thumb and forefinger conducts any tension flowing in the body,” it immediately made sense to me and was something I wanted to try.
It sounded like such a simple idea. There were other suggestions in the same column which sounded equally useful, but would require adjusting my form over a much longer period, and trying to make such changes so close to a Marathon would not be sensible. This change though was something I could implement immediately. If it worked, I could carry on doing it. If it didn’t work, I wasn’t putting myself at risk of injury by trying and so there really wasn’t anything to lose.
The biggest challenge was reminding myself to do it. On my long runs I generally carry a bottle in one hand, with my other hand loosely closed. When things start to get difficult, I tend to tighten both hands, and though I started out well with this new technique today, I tripped over in the woods about 35 minutes into the run. Thankfully the landing was soft, but I immediately reverted to my old habits after resuming my run.
It was only as I approached the final 5km of my 23km route that I remembered what I had initially been attempting, and the impact I felt was huge. Small tensions within the body can build up into something significant over a long run, and that is really counter-productive. Once I placed my thumb and forefinger together, I noticed the grip on my bottle loosening. My shoulders relaxed, my face relaxed, everything felt lighter. It almost felt like I’d been running with a backpack for the first 90 minutes of the run which I then dispensed with, such was the lightness I felt.
Right now, the run feels like a success. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow and how I feel on my next run on Tuesday, but my hip was pain-free and my shoes felt a lot more comfortable by the end of the run too. I did feel a bit sluggish at times, and my speed and power have probably dipped a little following two weeks with not much running, but the stamina was good. I didn’t go into zone 5 at all, so although I might need to temper any thoughts I had a few weeks ago in terms of time, if I run sensibly I should hopefully still be able to produce a good performance in Windermere.
Scorpo Stories 