I had a lovely birthday, and got on with things. Within 3 days I was weighing in back under 200, and I had been swimming for the first time all year. I had also bought a fitness band thing to help my stretching get deeper for my hamstrings and calves, and I set about working out a decent plan for my PF. I'm not sitting around waiting any more, I've got things to do!!
The sun came out this morning, and for the first time since getting injured in October I decided to listen to a running podcast on the walk to work. Been having a few really motivating conversations recently, and spending time with brilliant people, and things feel like they're starting to slot back into place a little bit. Tonight I even cooked the dinner that I practically lived on in the first half of last year, when weight was dropping off me.... regular readers will recognise it haha. I haven't cooked this particular dinner for a few months at least - it was as delicious as I remembered (the lighting is poor, the salmon wasn't as peely-wally as it looks!). And today was the third time in February where my daily step count topped 10000 : something to slowly build on, as my foot pain allows. Average daily step count for December was 4245, January 4977, and so far February 6375. An increase of about half a mile per day, not a huge amount, but enough to slowly increase impact on my injured foot without risking making it worse. So far so good, but I have lots of plans!!
Finally, since I've touched on the subject of things that are motivating me, the Jedburgh Three Peaks Ultra Marathon was featured on BBC Scotland's "The Adventure Show" the other night. If you're in the UK, you can catch it on iPlayer until 21st March, here: The Adventure Show. I would recommend it, it's a great showcase for a fab wee ultra featuring loads of my running family and many, many familiar faces. I felt so proud of everyone, watching it. I even made it into some background shots at the finish line, too, hahaha, mostly stood around with my hands in my pockets, chatting! (In my defence for all the standing-about, I wasn't volunteering at this one - I'd just turned up to cheer on a few friends. Oh, and my foot was killing me that day!!!)
Good to see a colourful and healthy plate of food on the blog again. No sauce though... a few more taste intense calories might the more meal more appetizing and make it more likely to stick as a long term food rather a food during a diet.
ReplyDeleteOne way to add a wider range of flavours without too many calories would be a portion of kimchi or sauerkraut. This approach would add fibre, lots of vitamins that aren't found in large quantities in other foods and lots of healthy bacteria to keep your gut happy.
I am bit puzzled by your wish to keep stretching your hamstrings and calves, stretching really hasn't been found to make much difference in studies that have looked at the effectiveness of stretching. If you feel flexibility is an issue then more natural actives that require a big range of motion would be better. Have you tried Yoga? It would provide lots of other benefits besides flexibility.
I caught the Adventure Show on IPlayer, really impressed at how well they covered the event, captured the atmosphere, great seeing familiar facing pop up so often.
No sauce needed - I put fresh butter on the veg, and there's plenty fat in the salmon, it certainly wasn't a dry meal! And there's loads of taste there - I very much enjoy that meal!
DeleteYou're saying "why are you doing stretching, have you tried yoga instead?" - errr..... stop stretching, and try doing some stretching instead? :-) I find that the static stretching helps me - the tighter my calves, the more it pulls on my heel and fasciia. I've certainly noticed less stress through my foot when my calves aren't as tight. I'm sticking with the stretching, I know there's research out there that says otherwise, but you can find research to support pretty much every theory going, if you look hard enough. I'm working out what works *for me*.
Spotted you on iPlayer, too! :-) Lots of familiar faces, and lots of smiles, together with the stunning scenery. Can't beat it. x
Yoga is very different to static stretching of local muscle/tendon groups. Yoga involves mindful whole body movements, postures and sequences that train both the mind and body.
DeleteStatic stretching can reduce local tension in the muscles which can reduce acute pain, however, it's not solving any long term problem. Your own PF case hasn't yet clearer up despite all the stretching you've done, for this is it's been a failure. If it worked you wouldn't have PF now.
Repeating something that isn't working, using it a short term crutch that hides what has become a chronic condition isn't take you on any further. You need work whether your muscles are tight and if so why, Could there be a muscle tear that is still repairing? As part of repair process muscle fibres around a damaged fibre shorten to protect it while it heals. Stetching breaks this defence mechanism and exposes the damaged fibre to stress, slowing the healing process. In this case stretching is really bad, just let the injury heal, once it's healed then doing a MOT of your muscle tension movement patterns.
If you are healed up but muscles are still in tension then consider the whole body rather than local muscle groups. For instance, tension in the back can cause tension in the glutes, then hamstrings, then calves, then feet. This can all be another protection mechanism, but perhaps becomes chronically set in rather than just acute during injury repair. To fix it you don't try to lengthen the muscles, but instead work to reprogram your neuromuscular system to relax or hold tension in the body in the appropriate places for the posture or movement pattern than you are putting it through.
Stress can often surface physically as tension in the body, so be aware of how stress can manifest itself through the day and week. This might not be an issue for you, but personally I hold tension in my neck and shoulders when stressed or tired, often not notice the early signs.
On the all body movement, posture side, one movement pattern that I have found useful for releasing tension is to practice dropping into Asian squat. To do it you have to train your neuromuscular system to release tension right down your spin, hips, glutes, hamstrings, calves and ankles.
Done right flexibility comes from training your body to relax in the appropriate way, quite a contrast to static stretching which applies a large local stress that overloads the neuromuscular system so that it starts switching off.