“All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue them”
Walt Disney

JUNE 2009

Resting HR (average): 57
Resting HR range: 50-67

Average weekly mileage: 3km
Average training load: 4

Running time:km range: 5:16 – 5:22

Weight: 71.8kg
Fat %: 22.0%

“There is no failure except in no longer trying”
Elbert Hubbard

“This is my story.
I am the hero”
Yossi Ghinsberg

Resting HR (average): 59

Injury status: (L) low back 1/10, (R) Calf 3/10

This week saw more medical tests and a return to running. Monday I saw the doctor briefly and went back on Wednesday to have a stryker test for Compartment syndrome. This involved a base line measure of the pressure in the posterior (calf) and lateral compartments (outside) of my right leg. So he put quite a large needle in and boy did it hurt! After that I could barely walk due to the pain, but had to go for a run.

I ran about 18 minutes but no symptoms came on, and we remeasured the 2 spots. Having to go through those two needles again was not fun! It took at least 3 days to recover, and the areas around the puncture sites were very hard from the inflammation. The worst pain however was when I went o pay the bill and got told it was $630! I almost had a heart attack there and then! His standard appontments are $250, but this was more than i expected…

Thursday I went for an ultrasound scan on my entire lower legs to rule out any DVT or vascular causes for my pain. We only tested the venous system as the arterial system would not be as likely to cause my symptoms. As expected, nothing was found.

Friday I went back to the Doctor, and he thinks the medication is reducing my central sensitization and I am to slowly resume running. Central sensitization is essentially where the nervous system becomes hyper sensitive to stimuli such that the threshold where pain is felt will be a lot lower. It means that the nerves are not behaving as they are supposed to do, usually caused by some sort of trauma.

Friday morning, I managed 8km, and the goal for next week is to do 3x 8km runs.

“Failure is just one step closer to success”

“In life you need either inspiration or desperation”
Anthony Robbins

Resting HR (average): 57

Injury status: (L) low back 1/10, (R) Calf 7/10

Another week of no training, with not a lot more clarity of what my outlook is. I went to see the Musculoskeletal specialist on Wednesday, Dr Mark Craig. He said he was fairly confident he’d get me back to running, but we still aren’t sure what is causing my pain.

On Friday I went for an MRI scan of my lower back. I had a CT scan last year which is about 80-85% conclusive in showing any structural abnormality that may be causing my symptoms, whereas an MRI would give me 98% conclusivity. My CT last year showed some slight disc bulging around L4/L5/S1 but nothing significant. however it did show some atrophy of my multifidus muscle at those lower levels which is an important stability muscle. My MRI was normal, and no abnormalities detected, which is good.

My MRI in the frontal plane

My MRI transverse section through lumbar spine

I’ve done a little bit of cycling this week, but still havent done any running, as i’m advised not to, even though my leg isn’t painful at the moment. It’s getting very frustrating, and hopefully i’ll get some more answers next week.

“We are all in the gutter,
but some of us are looking at the stars”
Oscar Wilde

“We must accept finite disappointment,
but never lose infinite hope”
Martin Luther King Jr

Resting HR (average): 57

Injury status: (L) low back 1/10, (R) Calf 7/10

Another week with practically no training. Physically the calf is no better with 1km runs all that I could manage on Monday and Friday, before the pain set back in. Both occasions it caused the pain to flare up again for about 2 days. It’s extremely frustrating, as neural injuries simply don’t respond logically! What does one do. On Thursday I had to resort to going for a walk around the river like the middle aged ladies do!

Mentally it’s even more frustrating. The ability to sleep properly, and get up early to exercise is very difficult, almost as if some uncontrollable force makes it impossible to get out of bed. Consequently not much exercise has been happening other than the long, growing list of rehab exercises and neural stretching I have to do.

Next week I am going to see a musculoskeletal medicine specialist. I have experience of refering to 1 when I used to work as a physio in Wellington. They do things such as further investigations, trigger point injections and whatever else is necessary. I’m hoping I can get some light shed on my problem, and a solution that can stop this problem once and for all. After all Comrades 2010 is getting closer every day…

“Don’t lose hope.
When it gets darkest the stars come out”

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying” Michael Jordan

Resting HR (average): 54

Injury status: (L) low back 1/10, (R) Calf 7/10

This week can only be described as extreme frustration. With only 4 weeks before the Gold Coast marathon, it’s not a great time to be breaking down.
The Right calf has gone from bad to worse, and I can only run for about 1km before the pain stops me. I thought it was a calf strain, but I have been to medical professionals and had an ultrasound scan which could not pick up a tear anywhere. The most likely scenario is neural tension, similiar to the injury that kept me out of Comrades 2008. It’s a complex problem that doesn’t like to go away easily.

I haven’t been doing much neural stretching in May, as the first half of the month I was going so well, after a great start to the year. I guess it shows that with my physiology, I have to be doing neural stretches every day without fail. My test to see how far my nose is from my knees in the long sitting position (trying to touch ones toes) is about 38cm at the moment and it was down to about 25cm at one stage.

The week went extrememly badly in terms of being able to train, keeping up the mental strength and again getting some decent sleep. Hopefully this problem can be rectified in the coming week, otherwise it looks like I won’t be able to run the Gold Coast marathon, and beyond…

“7 days without running makes one weak!”

“The most we can ask of ourselves
is to give it our best shot
knowing that sometimes we will fail.
What is important is how we handle that failure”
Tiger Woods

MAY 2009

Resting HR (average): 54
Resting HR range: 49-60

Average weekly mileage: 55km
Average training load: 147

Running time:km range: 4:49 – 5:41

Weight range: 69.0kg – 71.0kg
Fat % range: 22.3%-19.5%

“The only limit for your success tomorrow,
is your doubts today”