A fortnight of two halves ....

….. is how to best describe my calf muscle tear recuperation. The first week or so it felt like nothing was improving at all, probably not helped by a) going in to work the day after it happened and b) abandoning my crutches on day 3 and walking like a penguin which as you’ll know not only looks stupid but can also lead to hip alignment problems .

The second week was brilliant. My boss adopted his normal attitude of ‘take as much time off as you need’. In all honesty I’m not sure whether that means they can or can’t do without me but I took him at his word and did a lot of physio (both land and water) and I think got the rest/exercise ratio about right.

Now abandoned my crutches, driving again and I’ve been told to do some cycling although this hasn’t quite materialised. Generally feeling very positive although wish I had a firm time scale as to when I could run/play football.

As far as future runs are concerned I’ve cancelled the December 10k (shame as I was looking to beating my 2 unbelievably hot, extremely slow summer runs) but have decided to do the January 10 mile as a run/walk exercise and not worry too much about time. This may change nearer the date (7th Jan) so we’ll see.

Still hoping to do the February 10 mile and the Reading half marathon (March) but also applied for the FLM 2007 (that’s Flora London Marathon to the uninitiated). My main reason for applying was to build up credits so that in 5 or 6 years I’d get a GUARANTEED place without having to go down the fundraising route. I’ll find out in the first week of December whether I’ve got in or not but according to various running forums my cheque was cashed on the 2/11 (bad luck) as opposed to the 31/10 (well done).

FLM options:
If I’m in – pretend I’m injured and get a guaranteed place for next year OR run it without raising money OR run it for charity
If I’m not in – see how we go with the 10m, 10m, 13m and perhaps choose another marathon later OR run it for a charity having promised them I’ll raise £1500 for them beforehand.

Difficult to make any kind of decision when injured.

When Becky was pregnant I couldn’t help noticing how many pregnant women there were ‘out there’ – it’s the same with runners. In my current state of infirmity (infirmness/unfirmness??) I’m seeing runners at every turn. Very frustrating and mildly upsetting but as the current governor of California once said ‘I’ll be back’. He also said ‘Hasta la vista baby’ but as I’ve no idea what that means it would be inappropriate to comment.

One last ramble. Whilst my running has taken off and many people have kindly commented on my weight loss I do feel it could be a lot better. The eating danger times are mainly on the way to and from work when buying a newspaper and sometimes at work in the middle of the afternoon but I blame my work colleagues for that one. There’s also the small issue of getting a bus when it’s not absolutely necessary. I’m going to try and cut all of these out with IMMEDIATE effect. That’s right IMMEDIATE effect.

And finally – does anyone know how to get rid of wiry grey hairs from head, ears, nose and eyebrows. Not for me you understand, I’m asking on behalf of a friend.

Put me on the injured step ...

… Although you may have to carry me there!

Ok, let’s go back nearly 3 weeks. Playing football on a Thursday night, as I do, I suffered what I thought was ‘severe cramp’ at about 9.15 and therefore had to go in goal for 45 minutes depriving the others (average age about 40) of their rest time in goal.

Wasn’t sure if it was as a result of not warming up properly, just bad luck or something that had been ‘waiting to happen’. I’m quite good at warming up properly since the GGS 2005 – you’ll know that as the Great Groin Strain of 2005 - that had also been ‘lying in wait’ for a while but decided to wait until the Father’s race at Sports Day to come out in all its glory. So to speak. Hence the constant use of, bordering on addiction to, my magic pants or MP as they’re known the world over.

Anyhow this severe cramp took about a week to disappear, after which I thought I’d, after warming up properly, do a couple of very short (1.5 mile) runs. All well and good so I booked into the Bushy Park Time Trial for last Saturday as I wasn’t needed for ballet delivery. The BPTT is just a short friendly 5k race around the park in Teddington where I’d spent a fair part of my childhood either on foot, bike or with a ball.

The week was going very well from a purchasing point of view as well. The website ‘Fetch Everyone’ about which I’ve previously ranted produce a fairly lary red and yellow running shirt upon which I could iron John L and use as my ‘race shirt’ (not forgetting I’m supposedly in a 10k, 2 10 mile and a half-marathon race in the next 6 or 7 months). This arrived last Thursday.

I’d also taken delivery of a second hand Garmin (very cheap and basic one) which tells you how far you’ve run and at what pace etc. All things that you could do with Google maps and a stopwatch but also has this very exciting feature.

I quote:

Working out with the Forerunner 101 means you're never alone in your personal training, because the unit provides a "Virtual Partner™". This unique feature allows you to set your training goal by configuring your Virtual Partner's pace and workout distance. You'll get a graphic perspective of your performance by viewing your pace in relation to your Virtual Partner's pace, so you can always see at a glance if you're keeping up or falling behind.

See told you it was good. In English that means you set your pace and it bleeps at you if you’re going too fast/slow and displays some exciting graphics. I think. For reasons that will imminently become obvious I haven’t tried it yet.

Anyhow this is all sadly irrelevant. My cramp of two weeks previously was my calf muscle tightening up nicely and after 10 minutes of last Thursday’s footy I was running for the ball and thought someone had kicked me in the calf. No one there. No one anywhere near. The calf muscle had torn and I was in a fair amount of pain. In the next 24 hours I did 3 stupid things:

1 – Played on in goal
2 – Drove home
3 – Went to work on Friday on two crutches so I could not only tire myself out by hopping downstairs to get lunch etc. but also cram my leg under a desk instead of raising, extending, icing etc.

The whole thing is made all the more annoying because I’ve never felt fitter in my life. I am also getting very jealous watching other people running – bizarre behaviour for a couch potato of almost 40 years standing, I mean lying.

Anyhow I’ve had 2 sessions with the physio (all on land) with another 3 more booked in (all in water) so the secret is to be patient and not reckless. Not at work this week, on strict raising and icing duties as well as becoming addicted to Deal Or No Deal which is in essence one of the most ridiculous programmes on telly hosted by the eternally annoying Noel Edmonds (he who brought us Blobby).

Although I’m stating the bleedin' obvious, if anyone was thinking of going to www.justgiving.com/johnlowit and sponsoring me for the Reading half-marathon I suggest they keep their cash in their bank accounts for another month or two until I know what I’m doing.