“To believe in the heroic, makes heroes”
Disraeli

Resting HR (average): 58

Injury status: (R) Calf 2/10

Neural stretching (knee to nose. averages in cm):
Baseline 31; Afterwards 25

This week felt like starting at the beginning once again. Low mileage, low fitness, and a body that doesn’t seem to travel very quickly, smoothly or efficently, and where you wonder how you could ever contemplate running the Comrades of  90km!

It felt good to manage 5 runs, albeit only 8km at a time. It’s a good start and the key now is to get the fitness and mileage slowly up to what it was.

The resting heart rate is averaging closer to 60, so that needs to fall by about 10, and I haven’t wanted to weigh myself because I know I won’t like the result!

The right calf injury seems to be largely under control, even though it has felt slightly sore and vulnerable a couple of times. Out of all the physios, doctors and scans I have seen and had done, I believe the neural stretching is the thing that controls my symptoms, and they are directly proportional to my neural tightness. I’ve been working hard with my stretching, and that has resulted in my baseline measurements coming down 6cm this week.

I am also taking a tricyclic tablet in the evenings to try and help me sleep through the night and reduce central hypersensitivity (essentially a over responsive neural system), the downside being it’s hard to get up in the mornings to train! However this coming week I aim to increase the mileage slightly, (if I can do 50km I’d be happy), and also start doing my upper body and core stability work again…

“It is more valuabe to look where you are going
than to see where you have been “