Run Parkie Run

Running Goals For 2011

Admin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:50:18 +0000

I’m sure we all have New Year’s resolutions related to running, so here are my goals for the coming year. Feel free to post yours in the comments form below. Hopefully by putting them up in the public domain I’ll be more likely to stick to them!

Complete my first marathon without aggravating any injuries. If you’ve read my knee injury post then you’ll probably realise that this one is harder than it sounds. I’m going to be cross training a lot which will help, and I’m desperate to run. I’m hoping that the dull ache I have since my operation won’t get worse, otherwise I could have to pull out altogether.
Run at least two 5k races. There are several going on in my area at the moment so this shouldn’t be too hard. Again, I want to do this without aggravating any injuries.
To train regularly and not take breaks! The hardest part about running is trying to get motivated after taking some time off, so I’m definitely going to stick to a consistent schedule.

Those are mine, but I’d love to hear what you think!

Me And Knee Injuries

Admin — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:49:55 +0000

So, as promised, here’s a slightly depressing (but hopefully interesting) post about knee injuries and what they can do to your running. ‘I’m sure most runners will have encountered some sort of knee pain – and the majority of us just ignore it. This works sometimes – the pain might just disappear – but there’s also a chance that it won’t get better and actually gets worse.

The problem is that running places a huge amount of force through the knee joint with each step. The repetitive movement and constant impact (often on hard surfaces) wears away at the knee until eventually the runner starts to feel pain. If you “push through” this kind of pain then it will get more serious and eventually develop into something that’s difficult to cure.

I had a relatively minor knee injury a few years ago due to running. Knowing how serious these kind of problems can get I backed off straight away and didn’t do anymore. Even so, the damage had been done and I had to have a plica removal arthroscopy the next year. After that, scar tissue formed below the knee and I was out of action for another year and a half! All from a minor injury that I thought would heal in a couple of weeks.

I hope this post hasn’t scared anyone, that wasn’t my intention. It’s just to show that you need to respect your body and joints. If something hurts DURING the run then you need to stop! Muscle aches and pains afterwards are OK (to a certain extent), but you need to listen closely to your body and what it’s trying to tell you.

Introduction And What This Blog Is About

Admin — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:49:20 +0000

Welcome to my new blog! I know that I’m about 10 years too late when it comes to making a blog about running, but better late than never. I’m not going to try anything drastically different on this website – just a general overview of my training and how it’s going. I’m gearing up for my first marathon next year in London, so I’ve got some serious training to do before then!

So what’s my current schedule looking like? Unfortunately, Christmas has really set me back this year so I need to get back into shape. I actually quite enjoy going to the gym, so I’m going to be doing some cross training on elliptical and stationary bike at least twice a week. I’ll also have one swimming session, on top of my two-three runs a week. This should keep me in good shape while not stressing my joints out too much.

The first “real” post on this blog will be about my knee problems and how to avoid them. As runners we all need to be aware of the potential injuries – and knee problems can be very serious. Even relatively minor injuries can take a long time to heal and make a huge dent in your running progress.