So this week training has been progressing slowly with my knee injury, I went to bootcamp and only did the exercises I could do pain free, which helped mentally with the fact I was still doing something.  I also saw Zoe for Acupuncture on my knee.  This really helped.  My body responds very well to acupuncture and its helping speed up my recovery a lot.  Many years ago I had Bi-lateral retinacula released performed on both knees – it’s now a procedure that isn’t carried out as it has a very poor success rate.  They basically go into the knee and trim the structures on the outside of the patella to free it up, however, all it does it create extra scar tissue and compound the original issue.  This, combined with a very old fashioned training coach, makes it no surprise that I suffer with bad knees! At the height of my running career my coach was into quantity not quality. Which is still the thinking of many long distance runners – the more miles the better!

This isn’t the case, it’s about the quality of the session, each mile run needs to combined into a correct training programme, not just plodded out.  Sessions should be at tempo, combined into a speed session or an interval session with only one long run a week.  There is little benefit to the body  running 10 miles every day at the same slow pace, as all the body will ever do is run 10 miles at a slow pace!  We have seen a few people this week to help with their running styles and I am adamant that with the correct advice, dedication and training, anyone can knock time off their marathon and half marathon times.

So, Like everyone else, when things start progressing nicely with weightloss and fitness we get injured!  With me it’s my knee. I’ve no idea what I’ve done, which is worrying for a start considering my profession, but its put a stop to all my training.  As with all injuries they set back training plans which we have to accept.  I’ve started having treatment with Matthew at our Manchester branch and its going really well. Once its recovered, its important that I don’t just carry on my training from where I left off, as this can easily cause further injuries, depending on how long I am resting for.  You have to start training slowly again and build back up to where you were, by not rushing back into training.  I’m not saying go back to the beginning, just take a week or two to ease back into it slowly.  In the mean time, I can work around my injury by doing things like core work and cross training.  Which despite the fact I hate it, being married to the personal trainer means I’m actually doing it!

Last weeks blog was very much one for the women, so this week I’ve got technical with gadgets to please the rest of you!

Over my running career I’ve have polar heart monitors, garmins and various other gadgets so goodness knows how much I’ve spent!

Now that I am taking it less seriously I’ve started looking at the different apps you can get.

I now take my phone with me, and considering I run with 4 dogs and a buggie I didn’t think the extra weight would affect me too much! Not only is this for safety but also kills about three birds with one stone. I am contactable if I choose (to get picked up mainly!), I have my music on hand but also access to hundreds of different running apps!

Some are free whilst others aren’t. Some measure your route before you go, some even measure out your intervals. Which gets me to my point. These apps, I use ‘map my run’,  can help massively with interval training. Some people call it the Farlek training, others speed work, but they are all variations on the basic theme of a fast bit followed by a slow bit, which is repeated. It’s the fundamental issue here that is important, not what you are calling it and these apps help massively to measure distances so you can run 500meters then walk or jog 500meters repeatedly. It’s this type of training that will help you greatly improve not only distances but the time you take to run your races. At least one of your weekly sessions needs to be based on interval training in a good balanced training plan.