First of all, apologies for being so late with the blog. But the truth is that not much really happened in these last four weeks. I'm religiously following the plan laid down by the physiotherapist at Move, and slowly begin to feel the beneficial effects of it. The muscles around the hip have become stronger, and the hip seems to be more stable. I've also been able to run a few times, without pain. I mainly focused on keeping a good form, and improving the technique, so to reduce the future chances of getting injured again (and, hopefully, to improve the performance, too...).
On the other hand, my fitness has been hit really hard by these weeks of rest. I can feel the fatigue just after one or two miles, and the heart rate clearly rises after three. I know that this is normal, and temporary. But nonetheless frustrating. I look at the Strava feed in awe: many guys and ladies in the club are doing amazingly well in training for the spring marathons, and ran truly fantastic times in the tune-up 10ks and half marathons (side note: The Big Half should have been one of my tune-up race, that I had to give up. I'm quite disappointed that they do not allow either deferrals or transfers. I won't sign up again. Full stop). I can see the level of the club constantly improving, old members getting faster and faster, and new young members which are showing brilliant performance. BTW, as a consequence, the contest to get on the WCR bus has never been so exciting! And I can't deny that I am a little bit depressed at being forced to be just a spectator... Trying to stay positive, and to find an upside, I keep looking at my fellow runners brilliant training and races to find greater stimulus and determination for my come back. I need this, especially now, to keep going when I feel so heavy and sluggish during my (few) training runs, between a (booooring) strengthening session and the other.
When I started feeling the pain in the leg, it was still mid January, and I hoped to quickly solve the issue to get back on track. Things took a quite different turn, and the problem revealed to be much worse than initially thought. As said at the beginning of this post, I am now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... But for what concerns the London marathon, it is clear that the time has run out. At this point, I can take it easy with my rehabilitation: I won't rush it, and take all the time needed to be able to properly train and run again. I would like to be back for June/July, maybe initially focusing on short distances. In particular, I hope to run again the Sri Chinmoy mile relay in July (Kieran, Briain, don't rush finding a replacement, please!!! ).
So, in this VLM blog I won't talk any more of VLM. In the next post, though, maybe I'll talk a little bit about how I am changing my running form and posture (following physio advice, and suggestions from a few other credible sources). It might be interesting to those plagued by plantar fasciitis, because one beneficial side effect of improving the running technique is that it tends to reduce/solve that kind of problems (as I am experimenting on myself).