OK. Looking for some advice, or some ideas that I like the sound of.
I won’t go too deep into the pre amble. I’ve covered that in other threads. I ‘think’ I’m coming clear of my injury. Finally. Tried a 5km today and waiting for any latent reaction. So far so good.
I have just under 3 weeks to my event. I’ve clearly lost a ton of aerobic fitness in the last 6 weeks. Strength as well. And I’ve put on a kilo or 2.
I’m not going to suddenly build a big aerobic base in 3 weeks. I’ll be working with what I’ve got. Luckily it’s rough terrain and slow. So that doesn’t count for as much. Years of base should suffice.
I’ll be lacking strength endurance and absolute strength for powering up the big Brecon hills. So can I train that in under 3 weeks without setting the injury off again? The physio theorised that it was ultimately caused by downhill running (caused by the poor bio mechanics from my weaknesses etc etc). So big hill reps are off the menu.
I’m planning on getting my run up to an hour this week, with at least a day rest between each one. Assuming no negative reactions.
What do I do for the last 2 weeks? Clearly no taper is needed. Is there any point in throwing in a 2-4hr hilly slow run in there? Is it worth risking really hilly, off road technical stuff (injury is lower shin leading into top of ankle).
Would anything over an hour on the tarmac be too much impact? Is it all too late, and I just need to tick over enough to get the legs going again and keep the mind happy, but just try to stay healthy?
Too much too soon of downhill running caused my random flare up of an ankle issue. It settled down quite quickly however. But in my case the physio was fine with me hill running (indeed uphill took all the pressure off the affected area) but she just said I had to walk down them. It’s the excessive loading and deceleration through the base of the tibia when trying to run downhill that was my issue
How about some weights in the gym, leg presses with control both ways?
And a long walk/run with walking the up’s and down’s so you get a bit of loading?
It takes me a couple of weeks of DOMS pain to get used to descending if I’ve been dodging it, problem is that the longest local descent I’ve got is about 1 mile and isn’t very technical.
Personally, I’d want to test it out… but that’s probably really bad advice and just asking for a flare up!
Your current fitness is what it is and I’m sure you’ll manage more than adequately… I wouldn’t bother trying to fit sessions in for any improvement in fitness, even if it works the benefit will be negligible surely?
Best of luck
I would ease back into it except for weights. I would go for low rep’s and heavy, it doesn’t leave you particularly fatigued and your gaining neuromuscular adpaptation. It will help you maximise the strength you have rather than trying to improve it in suich a short period.
Unfortunately i have no access to weights/gym. I’ve also never done them in my life, so i’d be quite worried about going and pulling a muscle doing something stupid with poor form.
My chest cold has come back with a vengeance this weekend, so that’s going to out the limiters on anything i can do anyway. It seems like my body it telling me something … well guess what body? Central governor theory! Oh yeah. You WILL be tramping through the snow on the beacons whether you like it or not!!
