Tag: running

LIFE

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The abs are feeling better. I don’t think I’ve had any discomfort from them since Saturday, so that’s pretty good. I’m going to do a test run at the weekend, and then I’m HOPING within a couple of weeks to be in full swing of half marathon training, but we shall see.

I am still quite interested in swimming. I think it would be a good counter to running and is probably very good for core strength. I have not signed up to the gym yet because I realised I did not have any swimwear, but I ordered some at the weekend and it came today, so now I have no excuse.

The train this evening was dreadful because of a tree on the line, thanks to Storm Brendan. I need to claim my 10p compensation for this but I can’t be bothered tonight. A girl I was at school with was sat next to me but I don’t think she recognised me. I googled her and apparently she’s a solicitor now. She smelled a bit though. I probably can’t claim compensation for that. It’s a bit weird to think she’s a solicitor when the main thing I remember about her is that when we were in infant school she did an Irish Jig in assembly one morning in front of the whole school. We stayed in the same class through infant, junior and secondary school, but that’s what I remember. That was… 26 years ago?

Work: Last week we had some training from the Knowledge Transfer PhD student we have, which consisted of essentially a computer science lecture. It felt like being back at university again, but it was a lot more effective than reading articles online, and as I was sat in the room I couldn’t help but think how amazing it is that I’ve worked here less than two months and they’re giving me training on new technology, whereas not once in the seven years I was at my old place did the company ever arrange for anyone to teach me anything.

Part of her presentation involved examples with data sets, and I was quite surprised when one of her slides used my full name as an example. I’m not quite sure how to take that…

Speaking of other things at work I don’t know how to interpret, as I walked past HR lady’s office today, HR lady and researcher lady were having a conversation and HR lady said “EV is one of those people”. Researcher lady: (mildly surprised) “EV here?” “yes”. What was that about? One of what people?! 🧐

Still sore

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My anxiety has been pretty bad for the past week or so, and I’m not really sure why.

Last weekend I put it down to taking ibuprofen, but then I googled “does ibuprofen cause anxiety” and the answer is not only does it not cause anxiety, it kind of has the opposite effect in a lot of people. And since I’ve stopped taking it, I haven’t noticed an improvement, so… it wasn’t that.

Maybe it’s just that I’m not getting any intense exercise. Maybe I’m just frustrated. I don’t know.

My muscles are feeling… ehh. I don’t know. When I go for a long walk and then sit down for an hour, they feel sore when I get up. But then I stretch a bit and they feel fine. It’s often really hard to know how to deal with injuries like this. This kind of soreness is the kind of thing you don’t think twice about if you’re active, usually. It’s the kind of thing you usually think “if I went for a run, this would feel a lot better”.

It’s just the fact it’s been a lot worse, and it’s been dragging on for so long, that I feel reluctant to run again. But it’s very possible that the missing component in the healing process at this stage is more activity. Muscles like being worked. I won’t know until I try it. I think I’ve pencilled in next weekend as a gentle 10-15 minute run, but we’ll see.

I’ve also been thinking about swimming. My mum and sister are members of the gym right next to the station… I could get off the train and go swimming before I go home. Or go before work.

Ibuprofen day 6

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I had a possible breakthrough yesterday when I found a stretch that relieves the discomfort. Basically, although it’d been improving, I could still feel a patch in my abs that really wasn’t happy when I did a particular pose. The pose is to lie on your back with your arms flat on the ground past your head, raise your legs off the ground to say 45 degrees, and then raise your arms and upper back off the ground. As soon as I raised my arms, I’d feel it in the area that’s been hurting.

Yesterday I discovered that if stand tall and stretch my arms overhead (and really, really stretch, so my back is kind of curving backwards, while sucking my stomach in as much as possible, then this stretch actually makes it possible for me to do the first pose without any discomfort.

I’m pretty excited by this because it means I might be back running soon, but since I’m not running at the moment I’ll err on the side of patience. Another week or so isn’t going to make much difference to my fitness but might make a lot of difference to my muscle recovery.

Ibuprofen day 3

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I’m getting pretty depressed about not being able to run. Or rather, not being willing to run. I was doing OK until this weekend, but then it just kind of hit me. I think that all the free time I have is a bit of a shock and I don’t know what to do with it, so I just mope and feel sorry for myself. That doesn’t help.

It’s been a week and a half since I last ran, which feels like an eternity. All I can really say is things feel better than they did two weeks ago, but not 100%.

I don’t know if it is necessary to wait for 100% before running again, and I don’t know if I will reach 100% without actual treatment. Probably I just need to be patient for a couple more weeks, but since this has been lingering for a few months now, is weeks a realistic timescale? I don’t know. The uncertainty is frustrating.

In an effort to distract myself I started trying to play computer games again, because browsing Reddit doesn’t really seem like a hobby. I find computer games don’t really engage me and I just get bored, except sometimes, one really does engage me and it sucks me in for weeks. I started a new Rimworld colony and it’s going pretty well. I built a few rooms, planted a few crops, built a wall around my crops to stop the elephants eating them, protected my cat from being attacked by a snake, and fended off two raids. My colonists are a bit depressed because their bedroom floors are made of soil, but they’ll be OK. When you crash-land on a new planet you have to lower your expectations a bit.

Back to work

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Going back to work has proved OK. I’ve really enjoyed the trains being quiet AND ON TIME this week. I suspect this won’t last, but it was nice while it lasted.

I decided to bite the bullet regarding ibuprofen. I made the mistake of googling my injury and then made the second mistake of reading the massive threads of people complaining about sports hernias and saying that they need surgery. Hmmm. So, mixed with my general impatience and the fact I had a few pains at work today, I decided to do what the doctor advised after all. She recommended a week of ibuprofen and then re-assess, so that’s the plan.

Injuries 🤔

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Sooo, I decided to stop running and doing any kind of strength training for a few weeks, to try to get my tendon strain (?) to heal itself a bit quicker. There is a half-marathon I want to do in April, and it’d be nice to get a few solid months of training in.

A week later…

I used to get some pains in every day life, like when getting out of bed (sit up type movements). I’m not getting those anymore, which suggests it’s improving.

I don’t know when to try running again though. Is this weekend too early? Maybe I will leave it until next weekend.

In the meantime I am trying to open up my hips a bit. I discovered that the left (the painful side) is much tighter than the right, so I have been foam rolling and stretching with some gentle yoga poses. I’m not sure it’s having any effect so far…

When I get back running, I must be more diligent about strength training and stretching. The routine might work pretty well if I can run at lunch times and then have the evenings for rolling/strength/stretching.

Medical updates

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Blood test results: It turns out my iron and haemoglobin levels are pretty good – the highest they’ve ever been on blood tests. Even so, the iron levels are a long way off the maximum healthy level, and, with how quickly they’ve dropped in the past, I am going to self-medicate another course of iron tablets. The last course took my ferritin from 20 to 62, and the healthy range is 20 to 300. It turns out you can buy the tablets I was taking – ferrous sulfate 200mg – over the counter without a prescription (though you need to ask), and it’s actually cheaper than a prescription.

Injury: I mentioned my ongoing running injury woes to the doctor. She had a good feel around and told me that the area of pain is a busy area full of soft tissue, tendons, fascia, etc. She recommended a week’s course of ibuprofen to reduce inflammation, then re-asses. I was completely hyped for this until I read the side effects list of ibuprofen, then got cold feet. I have had problems with stomach bleeding in the past (hence the iron tablets), so I get nervous when I read it on side effects. So I haven’t taken any.

Instead, I’m trying to get some anti-inflammatory effects through my diet and I’m coming around to the idea that I just need to rest it. It is improving, but it’s not there yet.

Interestingly, although she didn’t say it to me, she recorded it on my record as a strain of the tendon of the medial thigh muscle – so not my abs at all. It makes sense – I have found that stretching my inner thigh can give an unpleasant pulling sensation in the area it’s been hurting.

Christmas

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Today was the last day of work for a while as the office is now closed until January. We went out for a Christmas lunch, which turned out to be a very posh 8 course meal lasting for the whole afternoon. It was an experience.

It was a bit awkward to start with but I think I enjoyed it. I ended up drinking alcohol, which I don’t usually do, but it was kind of peer pressure and kind of anxiety medication.

I think I enjoyed it. It was certainly a new experience, which I survived, and maybe I feel like slightly more of an adult because of it. It was also something that we’d never have done at the previous job. And I definitely appreciated the fact it was held during work time!

It turns out I’m being paid for the Christmas period even though I haven’t accrued the holiday, which is nice. This employer seems a lot better at the human touch.

So, the Christmas break…

Excitingly, I’m going to get a blood test on Monday to see how my iron and haemoglobin levels are, which I should have had done a few months ago when I finished my last course of iron tablets, but I didn’t. Then on Tuesday I’m at the doctor to renew my antidepressants and I’ll mention my ongoing ab muscle woes and maybe get referred to physio, but I’ve decided to just take it easy over Christmas and limit running to parkies.

We’re quite lucky in that we have both a Christmas Day and New Year’s Day parkrun on top of the normal Saturday events. I will be there sporting my Santa hat 🎅 and my festive red 50 t shirt.

Training

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So ever since I started my new job the trains have been a bit terrible. I don’t actually think there’s been a single day they’ve been within a few minutes of being on time both in a morning and evening. This evening everything through my line was cancelled over about a 3 hour period. I was actually seriously considering running home (9 miles/15k) until my dad offered to give me a lift from a station on the other line. I didn’t ask, but he’s retired and he likes to feel useful, I think. If I wasn’t injured I would have just run it. It probably would have been quicker. The train company is going to get an email hearing all about how disappointed I am that my loyal custom does not appear to be valued even though when I changed job I specifically chose to remain in the city centre because of my previously high opinion of the local train service, and by the way I think you should reimburse me for the ticket I bought today to get to a station I didn’t want to go to.

They processed my first delay compensation claim and gave me back £0.10. Yes, 10p. So I immediately put through four more. The web site is a bit of a user interface nightmare (probably on purpose), but I wrote out some JavaScript to populate all the fields so I can just paste it into the console and whiz through it in a few seconds. At this rate, by Christmas I’ll have recouped a pound!

Actually though I feel a lot happier than I should. When this kind of thing used to happen it would usually ruin my whole evening. I used to get very stressed when things weren’t routine and predictable, especially commuting. I would catastrophise it into “am I going to get home today?”. Today I feel pretty calm about it. I just rushed over to an unfamiliar station, bought a ticket at a stupid machine I’ve never used before, and then asked someone where platform 8A was because their signposting was rubbish. Then I went to a station I’ve never been to before and somehow found the car park where my dad was. I did OK, I think. I was a bit concerned because the train route I ended up going on just happens to be Becky’s route, which could have been awkward, but no, I didn’t see her. I’m quite surprised we haven’t randomly bumped into each other yet, given that we’re actually still in close geographical proximity. I remember writing here once before about being frustrated I bumped into her when I was with my mum and how it always seemed to be her, never other random people from the office.

This evening I started the abs rehab program with two sets of front squats, two sets of back squats and two sets of deadlifts, with very low weight. Even so, I expect my legs to feel like lead tomorrow. I also threw in a lot of core and glute exercises. I think most running injuries come down to glutes being weak or inhibited and other muscles taking over to keep the legs and trunk stable, with limited success. There was no hint of any kind of discomfort, which is notable because a few weeks ago I was finding any kind of core work would be at least a bit uncomfortable. That’s not bad the day after a 12k run. Maybe I’m not doing as badly as I think I am.

Hopefully this will help. But maybe I’m just doing squats because my new HR lady referred to my ‘little legs’? We’ll never know the true reason.

The nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch.

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Sooo… the weekend. My sister started an Amazon prime trial a few days ago, so we have been watching a few things.

Firstly: Good Omens. I read the book years ago. I don’t remember much about it other than I really enjoyed it. Having watched the first two episodes, little of the story has come back to me, but it’s very well done. I was a bit hesitant because I didn’t feel the Discworld TV adaptations ever really captured the magic of Terry Pratchett, but Good Omens has the advantage of being a standalone book without a vast amount of lore that needs to be somehow translated to the screen.

Secondly: The Expanse season 4 episode 1: Ooh ooh ooh. I really, really loved the first three seasons of Expanse. I watched them around this time last year, when my world was an extremely dark place, and a few of those memories have resurfaced, unsurprisingly, but OK… It completely gripped me and I felt it was extremely well done. It reminded me a lot of Babylon 5 in the quality of the writing. There’s a lot going on and the characters are complex and interesting.

The first episode of S4 is a bit bewildering, but so was S1 and I’m sure it’s laying a lot of groundwork that will be rewarded later. I am a bit concerned some of the characters will lose depth though – Amos and Avasarala specifically – in the same way that Tilly in Star Trek Discovery S2 became a bit of a parody of Tilly from S1. We shall see.

In related news, I was stoked a few days ago when they released the full version of the Belter version of Highway Star (which played during the slingshot scene in S2, or was it S3?). The fact they re-did the lyrics in Belter pidgin is fascinating, though it’s a contrast against the very faithful instrumentation. That’s even a single coil pick up on the guitar, isn’t it?

Thirdly: The Death of Stalin. This is a black comedy. With the emphasis on the black part. This is one of those films I watch and I think “why am I watching this?”. Then I get to the end and think “why did I watch that?”. I didn’t enjoy it. It’s hard to articulate why, but I think it comes down to it being two things in one. Firstly it’s an absurd comedy presented as being serious. Airplane with murderous communists, if you like. Secondly, it’s quite an intense political drama. It doesn’t work for me, because the intensity of the politics is so high that it makes the absurdity seem in poor taste, and the political drama is hard to take seriously when it’s offset against such absurdity. A lot of people liked it though. It seems to be a cult thing. But I think it’s one of the worst films I’ve watched start to finish.

Running: Sadly, my abs are still causing me trouble. I don’t get it. It seems very volatile. I was doing OK this past week, but I’m feeling it today after a very gentle run. I sneezed during the run a few times and oh my god I felt that. I got home and did some bicycles; the first set was quite uncomfortable, but the second set was fine. Explain that.

I think I’ll just have to take some time off, but how effective that will be I’m not sure – it got worse when I started my new job and didn’t run for a week (the muscles tightened up, probably), so it’s hard to know what I should be doing. Maybe I’ll dust off the free weights and start doing some squats and stuff again. I think I must have some kind of muscle imbalance and the compound exercises should sort that out, hopefully.

I am at the doctor on Christmas eve so if it’s still causing me trouble I will mention it.