2018 so far - the long and winding road
I last wrote a whole year ago back in 2017 when things were looking a little more optimistic. I
managed 7x 10K loops of the Equinox 24 in a work team as a last minute
substitute for an injured runner. It was good to be part of an event again and
do another ultra in the process. I’d never done an event like it before as part
of a team and it was different. The atmosphere was good although the gap
between loops was enough to stiffen up but not enough to get any real sleep.
Still, I was out there and that’s what counted.
I managed the 1st club XC too but then disaster struck
and from something so innocuous. I was just walking down the hall at home when
I caught my foot on the dogs cover. It dragged my leg over to the side slightly
but out of all proportion to the nature of the incident I got a really sharp
pain in my knee that just didn’t go away. I knew I’d done something straight
away. I left it only a couple of weeks before invoking the insurance again and
got a speedy MRI in November.
It wasn’t good and I was basically advised that I’d never
run again. My meniscus was shot. I had a
degenerate tear of the medical meniscus which was not repairable since on his
analogy it would be like stitching frayed cotton, the stitch would just pull
through and leave me worse off than before and the knee open to OA. So, I was
back in the knee brace and offloading the joint with another review in 2m time.
The follow up in Jan 2018 was slightly more optimistic. The microfractures from earlier in 2017 had
healed, the articular surface of the femur was good and the dint on the end of
it that was evident last year had healed. But although torn meniscus’ don’t
usually repair themselves, as at Jan’s MRI the consultant saw evidence of some
repair. This was probably because the tear was right at the end, where the
meniscus joins onto the femur and the only area where there is a decent blood
supply. The consultant still thought my cycling career was likely to be much
longer than my running one but if I was careful I might be able to try light running
in another 4-6weeks. I would then be guided by the pain as to how much I could
actually do.
This wasn’t the blasting into my 60th year raring
to go that I had planned back in September but it was a million miles better
than it had looked at the end of my annus horribilis … as long as I could be
patient. Not my best trait.
So, I walked the Wilmot with Neil at the end of Jan. Leonie
had her spies out to make sure that when Carolyn and Christine passed me I
wasn’t running … How we laughed about that when they did come past. 50K without
bursting into a run obviously took a lot longer than it normally does but I was
grinning from ear to ear every hour that passed without my knee hurting. It
ached but then so did everything else.
The Belvoir 15 in Feb with Louise was another milestone. Setting
off from the back I was allowed to burst into a jog with her occasionally and
it felt too good to be able to jog again. I was very protective of the knee and
live to every single twinge, so much so that I was concentrating on it so hard
I was oblivious to the fact that my R knee was actually hurting more and I
hadn’t even noticed.
The next step up was 4 Inns with Boz and Ethan. I had
dropped out of Wayne/Andys team since I was no way fit enough and wasn’t even
sure I’d be able to walk the whole way let alone run, but as it was it was so
good to be up on the moors again whatever the pace. We jog/walked much more
than I expected and the boys did good. My 1st Ultra at 17 was also
Boz’ 1st Ultra at 17 too and I was so proud to have been there with
him on it. Even if I got no further than this this year, it would be a good
point on which to end my running career.
Derby 10K with Louise in April was my 1st run of
any distance and without anything of any significance as far as my knee was
concerned. My knee was now aching the day after any sort of running but nothing
major. The main issue I had found with it was that it just felt plain weird
when I started off, almost as if something was out of place. When I started
running it hurt I had to limp to offload it. Were I a weaker man that would
have been enough to make me stop and give in and decide running was now out,
but I found that if I was patient (that word again) and took it easy, after a
mile or so things just ‘clicked into place’ and I could run ok, without pain.
Strange … and it’s still like that too, although the ‘clicking into place’ is
now down to about ¼ mile. It’s still there though and means I’ve needed to
break the habit of a lifetime and actually warm up before I try to push it.
Anyway, the progress was enough to tip me off the fence and build
a cunning plan. If I could walk GUCR by the end of May I could develop a
strategy to get fit enough over the next 6m to give Spartathlon another ‘final,
last’ go. If I could manage that then with Nomad 50 in May and KACR145 in July
at a faster pace, I would surely be in with a chance. Ok, it would be no repeat
of 2016 but it might be enough.
But I should know by now that things don’t ever go to plan.
There are always ifs and buts and maybes. 1st of all, even with 4
names in the hat I didn’t get in Spartathlon … again. 3years running I had
failed and was about to give up since there was no chance of me getting another
qualifier for 2019 at my present state, when I got a discretionary place along
with another couple of UK runners who had not got in with 4 names in the hat
either. What to do now?
Clearly I’d have been best deferring my place to 2019 when
I’d have had longer to build up and strengthen confidence but this wasn’t going
to happen. 1st off I’d be back to just 1 name in the hat and I’d
still need to perform at 110% at some point this year to get a qualifier for
2019. So plan A had to be do what I could to get ready and then, if I could
meet my pre-requisites, give it a go.
GUCR was awesome. It wasn’t possible due to the cut-offs to
walk the whole way but I planned to walk as much as poss. In the event I jogged
from the off with Martin and was able to run at a slow pace for much longer
than I thought I would be able to. Martin called it a day at Hatton Locks but I
pressed on. By 70m I was only about an hour down and feeling knackered but
good. Overnight involved a torrential thunderstorm and a lot of walking. By
dawn I was down some more and realising the enormity of a ‘just within the
cut-off’ finish. By Springwell at about 120m I was getting some twinges so I used
it as an excuse to stop running and deathmarched the rest of the way. Just how
hard mentally it was to complete a 41.5hr GUCR
as opposed to the 34.5hr finish I thrashed out in 2016 is hard to put
into words. There were times when my head was absolutely done in, much more so
than my body but I ground it out and in the next day or so I recovered enough
to be pretty optimistic about building up to a much more competitive KACR in a
couple of months time. If I could do it in about 36hrs then I could go to
Greece.
However, the road of life is longer than even GUCR felt and
much more winding. A day or so after
GUCR and my L ankle was swollen, stiffening up and going a nice rosy red. My
knee and everything was recovering but my ankle was getting worse which was
strange since I couldn’t recall going over on it. Maybe it was arthritis.
Then I started getting the shivers and feeling rough.
Luckily I had done GUCR and read the pre-race notes enough times to have an
idea what it might be. The GP confirmed it as cellulitis, by which time my
temperature was the highest she had seen in ages and my ankle was definitely an
angry, swollen red colour. Blood test after blood test followed to check it
wasn’t something even more nasty and it was clear that it wasn’t going away any
time soon. Far from kicking on after grinding out a GUCR finish I was back to
worse than square 1 … again, not able to run at all. The course of antibiotics
took away the shivers and the angry redness to the swelling but not the
swelling itself. It took a good month to start dissipating and even then would
come straight back when I tried running on it. The only bonus was that the run
and post-race infection had bump-started my diet and I’d managed to drop my
weight 6lb to 12.9, the lightest I’d been since 2016.
But eventually it seemed to stop swelling up after I’d slow
jogged just 5K or so and I could start the cunning plan. With so little time
left now I’d had to drop out of KACR. There was no way I could risk it swelling
up again and not being able to go to Peru and no way anyway that I could get
fit enough in a fortnight or so to build up to be able to churn out a
competitive 145m.
So the plan was a ‘gradual’ increase of 30-40-50-60mile
weeks over a month. It wasn’t something I’d care to recommend to a beginner but
I needed a drastic improvement quickly. And it’s seemed to work so far. I’ve managed
to increase my tarmac miles (which is what I guess I need most) and it’s
coincided with the biggest heatwave the country has seen since 1976, which is
again what I guess I need.
And so here I am. I’ve managed a couple of 20-25milers and a
39miler too. I am still (too) slow but the head is there, my knee has held out
so far and the twinge from GUCR has gone (for now). It’s a shame to call it a
shame but I could do without the Peru adventure really since it’ll mean me
losing a good 4weeks running and a good 200m or so of training miles. OK, it
may help with the weight loss and leg strengthening but I really need tarmac
miles in my legs. By the time I get back
I’ll have lost 3-4 weeks running (and have a ready-made excuse for failure) with
only about 3wks or so left – enough to give me probably just one good week
before needing to taper. And I do need to taper. I know already that I don’t’
recover as well as I used to or as quickly.
At the moment though I am starting to feel pretty good. I
just hope it lasts and that I can come back from Peru feeling as good. We’ll
see about that but one thing is that I’m not expecting a smooth run with no
more twists and turns between now and the end of Sept. That would be too much
to hope for.
