Running

[Kit_L]

Yes. And I'd add a strengthening exercise for anterior tibialis, too:

The ATG guy has excellent exercises, and he's quite the athlete, too. It should be easy to duplicate the slant board (or do as I do, and find a steep hill!).

[Gareth O Connor]

Thanks Kit,I've a hill close to where I live,so I'll do the exercise on the downhill portion

[Kit_L]

The reason  these muscles are so important is that they do all the deceleration of the foot every stride. Don't do too many the first time, and make sure you stretch them out after (the first part of the floor quad stretch is all you need).

[Gareth O Connor]

Is the movement similar to dorsiflexion pulling the toes up toward the shins?

[Ned]

45 minutes ago, Gareth O Connor said:

Is the movement similar to dorsiflexion pulling the toes up toward the shins?

Yeah

[Kit_L]

Against a load.

[Gareth O Connor]

Last night did some hill work,jogged down to the park as warmup.Ran up a steep hill 10 times with 15-20 seconds recovery (Igloi intervals) jogged for a few minutes after for a cooldown.

Quad wall hip flexor stretch was able to get deeper into the left leg than the right

I ran a 10k last Sunday in 50.49 an improvement on 52.14 in my last race.I have a 10k race on the 26th and a 5k race on New Year's Day.I'm hoping to break 50 for the 10k

 

 

[Kit_L]

Best of luck and remember the even split. And stay as relaxed as possible of course.

[Gareth O Connor]

Thanks will do.I've been trying out being relaxed in training dropping the shoulders,relaxing the neck and chest and allowing the stride to be smooth.

[Gareth O Connor]

We had our club run tonight a 5k race.I didn't race it,ran it controlled left some petrol in the tank for the last 500m and sprinted to the finish.I went around in 27 minutes,ran another 5k as a cooldown I felt better in the second 5k.

I think I'm becoming more efficient as a runner,learning to relax and not strain.The body knows how to move I just need to get out of the way

[Gareth O Connor]

Thanks for the counsel this past year @Kit_Lbest of luck in the new year

[Kit_L]

Thank you. And best wishes to you, too.

[Gareth O Connor]

Ran a pb in the 5k today in 23.43 and ran 7 k in the evening, after the parkrun on the 17th, I'm going to take a break from racing for a while

[Gareth O Connor]

Fartlek run today,followed caprice no particular plan...ran by feel.

My body needed movement as I was sitting down for most of the day,in the classroom and on the bus.After dinner I did some bodyweight squats and followed them with the quad wall hip flexor stretch

[Gareth O Connor]

Ran four times this week,9.2k on Tuesday,Fartlek Wednesday,over 8k Thursday and 5k parkrun on Saturday. My left ankle is sore now,the back of my calves are heavy,lead like.I'll take today and tomorrow off

 

[Kit_L]

If you can afford a decent remedial massage therapist, they can really get into those calves and they can make a truly significant difference to the speed of recovery. I need some work on my own calves after doing some running the other day – I have small muscle tear in my left calf as a result of this. It's a very long-standing injury in my case.

And I have found that only doing the kind of bouncing that you do when skipping is the right kind of stress to heal this, at least for a while. No amount of strengthening the calves seems to have any effect on this weakness. The injury is likely fascial, so needs work that targets this material. Light bouncing does (and it's one of the reasons all boxers skip).

[Gareth O Connor]

I don't think my calves are injured,I think I ran too much last week.I'm used to running 2 a week and sometimes I'll add in a third,I did a parkrun(5k) on Saturday and I felt flat to the boards.I don't normally run 4 times a week anymore

Would the calf stretch leaning into the wall help?

 

[Matt Chung]

> And I have found that only doing the kind of bouncing that you do when skipping is the right kind of stress to heal this, at least for a while. No amount of strengthening the calves seems to have any effect on this weakness

Hey @Kit_L very interesting! As part of my rigorous dance training, one of my coaches has us "jumping up and down" in place for minutes at a time. When I first started doing this a couple months ago, I could barely last a few seconds, before my calves felt like they were going to explode / cramp. However, half a year later, I can sustain this sort of movement in the order of minutes. With this in mind, I just noticed over the last couple weeks that my plantar fasciitis has (fingers crossed) disappeared completely and wonder if this exercise / stress of bouncing up and down, has contributed to the recovery.

[Gareth O Connor]

I did a lap of the Palace,some leg swings and 4 strides as a warmup.Met my uncle and did some kilometers with him.Finished with another lap of the palace and 5 hill sprints

[Gareth O Connor]

Recovery run today,ran easy and sped up on the way in

[Gareth O Connor]

Ran 10 miles this morning with some members of the club

[Gareth O Connor]

I've an 8 race next Sunday.I'm trying to break 40 minutes.My best 8k time is 40.30,is it unrealistic to run it in 39.45?

[Kit_L]

My suggestion is to be careful with your split times, run as relaxedly as you can, and see what happens. Expectations are a mother&^%er. No expectations means no disappointments. Let's see what happens. —support squad.

[Gareth O Connor]

I'll try to get into a good rhythm and go from there

[Gareth O Connor]

13k run this evening