Old Man In A Hurry

Few days ago I had signed up for a trek to Roopkund in June. Now Roopkund in summer is not an easy trek to undertake. Certainly not for me at this age. So I started exercising in right earnest, particularly the legs. I did not step up my mileage on the run days. But I certainly stepped up the exercise on the intervening days. As I said earlier in another post I do not run on two consecutive days. 

Initially I was doing only squats, half chairs, lunges and calf exercises. I soon added weights to the lunges and also added some core strengthening exercises like planks and bridges etc. After this I discovered that there are certain exercises to improve body balance. And these I took up in right earnest, because balance indeed is an issue with me these days. 

The exercise is apparently easy and I could quite easily stand on one leg for three minutes at a time. But I did not realise that it was such a strenuous exercise for the calves. Last week I realised my left Achilles was aching a little. I concentrated on getting that repaired first and did not run. Last Sunday (today is Friday) I did some heel raises with a 10 kg rucksack on my back. Rise with both the feet, come down with the injured feet following full range of motion and then rise again. 

I don't know what went wrong but I came down heavily with pain in my left calf. It would pain in the morning when I woke up but would subside subsequently. I knew this wasn't anything serious but still took rest. On Wednesday I called my masseur to come and rescue me because the pain hadn't subsided in 2 days. Madhav's deep tissue massage helped tremendously. I woke up on Thursday with no pain in my calves. The Achilles is still hurting though.

Meanwhile I carried on with calf stretches and Achilles stretches. The Achilles is yet to heal but last night when going to sleep I felt a small marble like inflammation on my right knee. Prepatellar bursitis. I applied some ice and the inflammation went away. This morning I was finding it painful to climb down stairs at office. So I did a lot of quad stretches in the office. The bursitis is gone for now.  I am pain free. But I guess I will give my evening run a miss today as well. Might go for some cycling though. 

What I Learnt From This

• No matter, what don't rush things. Do not step up the intensity of your exercise all of a sudden.
• Just because you can do it, don't do it. For example, I shouldn't have probably stood for 3 minutes on a single leg though it seemed fairly easy. 
• No matter how trivial the exercise seems like, go slow 
• If you exercise for half an hour, spend at least 15 minutes for stretches.
• Stretch each and every muscle that is involved in a particular exercise.

I guess I got a little carried away with my desire to get super fit before mid-May. The trek starts from 1st June.

Monday, 24th April, 2017

I am yet to recover fully. The bursitis of the knee is gone but the heel is still a cause for concern. Every morning when I wake up there is some pain. Not a shooting constant pain but when I try to stand up I feel pain in the heel. It doesn't stay for too long. Later in the day I can feel it only when I try to stretch the Achilles. It is nothing serious in the sense there is no tear or swelling. But it remains a cause of concern and even leaves me very depressed because my trek is coming up. I cannot prepare myself, my training is stopped. If it does not go away before I reach Lohajung, my hike will be under serious question mark.

I made the mistake of thinking the pain has subsided and ran 2 km a few days ago. That set me back by several days. I have decided not to run unless I am totally pain free for at least a week. Today I think is the first pain free day. The problem with Achilles heel pain is that the recovery process is not only slow it can get aggravated during the rehab stage very easily.

Last night I tied a crepe bandage around the heel to keep it in a stretched position before going to sleep. Normally when we sleep the foot hangs down and there is some plantarflexion of the foot. That puts pressure on the tendon. So the idea is to give it some dorsiflexion. I tied the bandage in a figure of eight around the ankle. In the morning I thought the pain had gone and I could stand up on my foot properly.

I came to work in my Quechua because it has some ankle support. Let me see how the day progresses. If things go all right I will run only on next Sunday. 

Staying Injury Free

I have been running injury free for quite some time now. For two years almost, touch wood. I often wonder what went right with me this time that I didn't come down with any injury despite running for so long? 

In my earlier attempts I would come down heavily with injury in either the knees or calves or plantar or even Achilles. Why not now? 

I think the answer lies in doing a few things right. I do not know which one was right and which one was more important than the other. But I must have done them all right. Rather, I must not have done something drastically wrong to stay injury free. Let me note them down so that anyone who reads this might benefit. 

Rest and Recovery - The principal difference between a young man and an old man is the recovery time the older guy needs. If you are injured at 50 it takes you a much longer time to bounce back than it would have if you were 15. I realised this through trial and error and personal experience. And running is nothing but inflicting micro injuries on your joints. 

I therefore decided never to run on two consecutive days. I would run for a day. Rest for a day the next day and then run again on the third day. This would give my legs, particularly the joints, time to recover. If I have to err, I would rather err with two consecutive days of rest than run. 

Post Run Recovery Drink - I have started believing in the usefulness of a post-run recovery drink. It probably does not do anything to the joints but it works wonders on the muscles. The recovery of the muscle after this drink is almost instant. I can feel it. Without this drink my muscles used to remain sore for some time. But ever since I started drinking this my muscles feel strong almost instantly. My magic recovery drink is nothing but a banana milk shake. Just one banana chopped in a glass of milk and processed in the food processor. I drink it immediately after I come back. This is a combination of protein and carbohydrates, which is what is necessary for muscle recovery. I learnt about it from a website and it works.

Strengthening Exercise - Before starting this run of injury free running I started with a regular exercise regime. I used to get Mampu to sit on my feet and do three sets of sit ups. I think that strengthened my core and thighs. I used to do this every alternate evening and go for evening walks on the rest days. Finally those walks became runs. And then there was this evening when I ran for more than 2 kms. I was pretty impressed. That was a 23 minute run. Now I can run 2 kms in less than 14 minutes. In fact my best time is 12 min plus. I do a little more elaborate exercise now and that is probably yielding better time. But I think now I need a day's rest between the exercise and the run. I will experiment with that. 

Proper Shoes - There are many runners who believe in minimalism and go for the most ordinary running shoes and quite remain injury free. I am not one of them. To me properly cushioned shoes are very important. Without them I come down heavily with injuries. I will not get into the detail of all the trials and errors that I went through. But I finally saw some success after changing over to properly cushioned shoes. Of course with strength and stretching one can possibly get away with bad cushioning but let's be honest - I do not have that kind of strength yet. My shoes cost me Rs 10,000 or so. But I think it is well worth the investment. 

My Abilities

I want to note down the exercises I can do on a regular basis. Because after a few years these might look like only a distant memory.

• I can run for 2 km in less than 14 minutes and 3 km in less than 22.
• I can hold a half chair position with the back against the wall for 90 seconds x 4 sets. 
• I can stand on one leg for about three minutes at a stretch. With the eyes closed it is about 40 seconds to 60.
• I cannot do any proper push up now, due to non-use for about a year. My target is to be able to do normal push ups 8x3 in another couple of months. I am doing them with knees down on the floor right now.