Getting back into running

[bothdone]

Hi

I'm coming up to my 8 month review after my second BHR.   I'm hoping my surgeon will say I can start running again.    I'd like to be able to run 10-15 miles a week with the aim of running a maximum of 10km (gently) in a race.   I certainly won't be going anywhere near a marathon or Ironman - but hats off to those who do.

I've maintained a very good base of fitness, including Concept 2 2000m at 7.40 and 20 miles exercise bike at 40 minutes.   I'm also up to walking 6 miles briskly in 1hr 45mins.    However, I realise that these are all no/low impact activities and are using different muscles than running.

Has anyone here got any tales to tell about post BHR-op running?    Did you have any specific preventative or curative physio once you started running again?

Ed

[bothdone]

I've just had my 8 month review.   Both hips are fine and my surgeon gave me the OK to start running again. I intend to do about 3 days a week with a total weekly mileage of 10-15 miles.   I'd like to be able (eventually  ;D) to negotiate a 10km race.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[bothdone]

Me again.

I did a few runs before my surgeon appointment to help me see how it felt so I'd have information I could discuss with the surgeon at the 8 month appointment.   I "ran" on the treadmill and outdoors on the flat.    I've done another 3 runs in the last week.

After 7 years without running I felt very unco-ordinated and ungainly.   The main effects were tight muscles to the side and back of the hips.   No pain on the actual joints.    A jog up a slight incline really tightened one of my calves - it recovered with a bit of arnica gel.     

Onwards.......

[bothdone]

Back again....

The good news.  I got up to 5000m on the treadmill with no ill effects.   With that behind me, I entered a local 2.5 mile run.  It was a great feeling to pin on a number and line up at the back of the field.    I got round in just under 20 minutes and was pleased.

The bad news.  The next two weeks I was working in a house with restricted head room.  I had to walk round with bent knees, sometimes carrying things.   Gradually I started getting pains in my right hip - very worrying.   I though about it and realised it was what I'd been doing in the house - the bent knees had strained muscles - and nothing to do with running.    I tracked it down to above the hip joint - somewhere in the gluteus - piriformis region.    A couple of days ago I started working through some specific stretching exercises for that area and it feels much better.

Yesterday I got back on the treadmill and warmed up to a 1000m in around 5m40s (I forgot to stop my watch!).  No ill effects.

I used a book called "The Anatomy of Stretching" by Brad Walker - clear diagrams and explanations, with one exercise per page.   Well worth a look.

Looking forward to an easy run outdoors again.

[bothdone]

Another couple of weeks have gone by.    I’ve obviously noticed there’s been no replies to what I’ve been posting on this thread but the number of hits so far (over 400) says someone must be reading it.  As I feel it is the sort of stuff I would have like to have read before starting my running again I’ll continue in the hope it might be useful for someone in a similar position.

A couple of background notes.  When I stopped running in 2001 at the age of 47 I was still running 10 miles in 61 minutes.   I had to stop as the pain in my hip a few days later was too intense.  For a year or so I tried small 2 or 3 miles runs but it was no good.  So I stopped.   As well as running I’ve been an athletics coach (track, road, cross country) since 1991.

The last couple of weeks have been tough as I’ve worked to get back into running after the muscle strain (non-running cause) and loosen the muscles as the same time.  With two 10 minute stretching sessions a day I’m happy to say it has worked.

Under this I’ve put exactly what I’ve done over the last 10 days.  Distances are measured in metres (miles in brackets) from www.mapmyrun.com  (I like to know exactly how far I’ve been.)  Every day usually starts with a half mile walk for my paper and finishes with a similar stroll after my dinner.

Log:
21st    Road run 2310m (1.44mi) 10m45s.   Day 5060m (3.15mi)

22nd  Off road hill walk in mountain boots.  2960m (1.84m)   day 6840m (4.25mi)   

23rd  Treadmill 3000m (1.86mi)  15m40s           Day 8390m (5.22mi)

24th  Coastpath hills.  Boots   3250m (2.07mi)     Day   4990m  (3.10mi)

25th   am Stroll on beach  2080m (1.29mi)
         Pm Stroll 3250m (2.07mi)                       Day  6030m  (3.75mi)

26th   Road run  4130m (2.56mi)  21m26s      Day   6390m  (3.97mi)

27th  Road walk in boots.  Brisk   6560m (4.08mi) 1hr 11 mins.    Day 8160m (5.07mi)

28th  Gym   Treadmill 2 x 1000m fast walk
                  2500m concept 2 row (9.41.6)
                  5 mins cross trainer
                  20 mins exercise bike 9.76mi                     Day 3470m  (2.16mi)

29th          Treadmill  5000m (25m32s).  Last 3000m  14m40s   Day  8540m (5.31mi)

30th       Plan today is for a very easy day with a stroll around the shops.

As I write this it is the morning of the 30th.    My legs feel loose after yesterday.  I find running on a treadmill helps me work on a relaxed style and I’m in total control of the pace.  (Yesterday’s 5000m had 500m walk/jog warm up. Then the 5000m started at 10.5kph pace.  The last 1500m was at 12.5kph pace. And was followed by 500m ease down to a walk.  Then a sauna and a quick dip in a swimming pool.

Happy New Year to all surface hippies everywhere.

Ed   

[dvander]

Ed,

I am one of those reading your posts.  Similar story of running marathons up to age 48 in 2003.  I am 6 weeks post-op and during my one mile walk yesterday was remembering my last marathon in Delaware, USA.  Prior to surgery, I could not even handle walking without paying the price. The pain overtook me as well. 

Thank you for your continued updates.  I am longing for one day to be able to enjoy the pure pleasure of a simple jog with my cross country team in their warm-ups.  Then biking home without pain. Your notes are encouraging.

Dwight V

[sroberts]

Hi Ed,

Congratulations! I've also been following your posts. I'm in the same boat as you. I am 6 mo post op and slowly getting back into running after a four year hiatus. I've found that running is much more difficult for me than intense cycling. Does your running gait feel odd? Are you doing any strength training?

keep up the great work!


spencer

[bothdone]

Hi Spencer and Dwight

Good to hear from both of you.  My best wishes for your future jogs and runs.

For Spencer.  The first few jogs/runs my running gait felt very unnatural - I felt like a huge unco-ordinated carthorse.  Happily it is feeling easier and more natural now.  The worst bit is the breathing despite having kept my aerobic capacity going with rowing.

I've done light weights on my arms, sit-ups (crunchies) and a couple of leg strength exercises: single and both leg sitting down leg pushes and exercises opening the legs with weights inside the thighs then outside the thighs.

Ed

[bothdone]

13 Jan 09

Just got back from a 40 minute walk in my boots along a hilly coast path.  A very pleasant 6 degrees C.   I must admit to thinking “if that’s as good as it gets it would have all been worth it”.

Back to the running…..

1 Jan.  Started the year with a 1.44 mile run in bitter cold.  10 mins 56s
4 Jan.  Mile treadmill 7m19s
6 Jan   3000m treadmill 15m41s.  Left calf tight about 5 inches from floor.   Overdid the speed?  Ice, arnica gel and 1 x ibuprofen calmed it down.
9 Jan   treadmill 4 miles continuous  35m31s.    Furthest yet.
12 Jan.  Outside.  Ran 1.9 miles out in an easy 17m17s.  Stopped and stretched.  Ran 1.78 miles back in 14m12s.   Hard work as was distance and “speed”.

I’m happy now that I’ve built up to 4 miles in one go.   I’m going to try to add a few easy miles around the main runs before going any further.

As for the hips.  The 2008 one is going well.  The 2004 one gets a bit stiff after about 3 miles, but when I started it felt stiff after about a mile so it seems to be improving.    I suppose it has had more time to stiffen up since the operation in 2004.

Bye for now.

Ed

[bothdone]

I meant to finish on a particular point in my last post and forgot to do it.

The bit of running I've done so far has really reinforced the need for patience in looking for improvements - something I've noticed on other threads and in my own general experience of BHRs.

[sroberts]

Hey Ed,

Way to go! I hear you on building up easy. I'm coaching preseason track at my daughter's high school and running with them is definitely humbling. Yesterday we did 5x(10x walking lunge, 30sec wall sit, 5x 200m run, 2x stadium steps, 1x100m run, 50 toe raises). I was just jogging easily on the runs since I can't run fast yet. It's all about enjoying the movement and not over doing it.


take care,

spencer

[bothdone]

Hi Spencer

Hope your coaching goes well.  I'll be up at the track tonight with my middle distance group.  It will probably be chilly here in England, maybe with wind and rain.  Brrrr !

I haven't been doing any drills or short speed work yet.  I've been concentrating on building a little base of distance and getting quicker over distances longer than a mile (though I have been improving my 500m time on the treadmill).  Your post has prompted me to hink about getting in the occasional session simialr to the one you described to work on different areas.   

I'm still doing 2 ten minute stretching sessions a day and concept 2 rowing, stationary bike and walks up to 6 miles a day over the course of the week.    I try to have a rest day on a Thursday - today!

Ed

[sroberts]

Ed,

Thanks. I can't take the cold weather anymore. It'll be 73F here in Tucson today. I still can't push me speed at all but running stadiums definitely puts a bit of intensity to my effort. As for the kids, well they are flying. They are a lot of fun. We run and condition on M,W,F and weight room on T,TH.

If you want a good rowing/conditioning workout try this: 3x (10squats-no weight,750m row,       
                                                                              8 front squats-light wt,500m row
                                                                              6goblet squats 30lb db, 250 m row)
                       goblet squats- hold a dumbell in front of you like you're holding a goblet
take care,

spencer

[bothdone]

It is only a week since my last post but I couldn't resist posting this.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a new pair of off-road trail shoes.    I've been breaking them in on short walks but today I thought it was time to try them out on muddy trails.

I started at a car park and ran down to a grassy coastal headland.   Despite a wet top surface, the shoes didn't slip.  Down a little path and across a short pebble beach and into the woods.    A steep climb up about 30 muddy steps got me onto the coast path.    Genuine gooey mud and a gently undulating path through the trees but with the sea about 50 metres to one side and a golf course on the other it was fun.    Keeping my stride short and easy I ran on until I came to a recognisable spot I could measure and turned back the same way.   Time out 17 mins 47 secs.  Time back 17 mins 36s.   Distance total 3 miles.  (I wasn't quicker on the way back - there was an overall height gain on the way out).

It was easily the most fun I've had running since well before my first BHR in 2004.    I caught myself grinning a few times as I was running along.   The new trail shoes gripped well - now all I've got to do is clean them and my running socks.

Happy Days!

Ed

[sroberts]

Hey Ed,

Gotta love the mud run! I ran with the kids today at track and felt great. My best so far, I ran a 3:15 800m and a 4 min 1k. Not to shabby for 7 months post op. Totaled about 2.5 mi for the whole workout. Aiming to keep the volume low while getting back up to speed.

Dirk is coming over tomorrow with a friend of his and we're going to ride Mt Lemmon. It should be epic. There's excellent pie at the top!



take care,

spencer

[bothdone]

Hi Spencer

Wow ! a 4 min 1km - that's faster than anything I can do at the moment.    Congratulations !   Were you in spikes or trainers?     

I'm coming to the end of a two week cycle tomorrow so I'll post what I've been up to after my Sunday training.

Hope you enjoy your bike ride.

Best wishes

Ed

[sgoulet]

Dirk is coming over tomorrow with a friend of his and we're going to ride Mt Lemmon. It should be epic. There's excellent pie at the top!



take care,

spencer

I am very envious.  While Houston will warm up to 70 degrees today, we have no mountains to ride  :(

Have great ride and keep it in the small rings!

Steve

[sroberts]

Hey Ed,

No spikes just trainers. I still don't feel like I can push it or open it up with a lot of speed. It reminded me of a cruise interval. My goal is to keep the runs short and interval based. I'm definitely a little stiff today (not in the hip though). I'm also staying off pavement for now.
Trails and track only.

Steve,

Come on over to Tucson anytime! We're putting on a triathlon camp March 20-27th and we always get a lot of cyclists. There's also a triathlon festival March 6-8 here. Have a great weekend!

take care,

spencer

[bothdone]

Its been an interesting couple of weeks as both the distance and “speed” has improved.

A brief summary

January
Wed 21   treadmill 5 miles 42.21.6.    I was a bit weary at the end of that !

Fri 23   I hadn’t done anything fast for a while so I warmed up and had a go at a measured road mile.    I had targeted the mile in 7.15 but as I was going through my check points I realized I was ahead of them and pushed on.  I crossed the line in 6.59.0. Very pleased.

Sun 25   easy 2000m on the treadmill

Week’s miles run  12.96 miles

Mon 26   Went over to a measured 3km course I ran some years ago.  I hoped to run it in under 14 mins 30 secs.  Again, I had my target splits and got ahead of them.   With a final push I finished in 13.51.5 â€" and then jogged over a mile recovery.  Slept well !

Wed 28   Did my longest run on the roads â€" 4.18 miles.    34.26.    Hard work but nice being out there.

Fri   30   Easy 4000m on the treadmill (after 2500m row and 10 miles exercise bike)

February
Sun 1      Went to the gym.   Plan was to warm up for 1km on the tread and then go straight into a run at 12kph and see how easy everything felt.    I did that and increased the speed by 0.1 each km and by 0.2 on the 5th km to cover 5000m in 24.35.0 â€" a post-op pb (PR in USA speak) by 46s.   I then went straight into a 1km warm down for a total run of 7000m. It was more than I planned but it felt good, probably as 5km is now less than my longest run and slower than my fastest run.

Week’s miles run 14.76 miles â€" a bit more than I originally planned but inside my weekly maximum target of 15 miles in a week.   I’ll ease off the mileage next week.  (honest !)

A few general points which you might find useful:

•    Does it hurt?     My left hip (BHR 2004) gets a bit stiff sometimes but doesn’t hurt as such.     As you might expect my hip muscles have been a bit tight this week as they’ve been doing a type of exercise they haven’t done for years and they’ve both had BHR surgery.   An evening ibuprofen most nights seems to sort them out.    A good soak in a hot bath on Saturady eased everything.

•   When I started running in November it didn’t feel natural â€" I felt very heavy and unco-ordinated.  It all feels a lot better now.   It is an advantage of running on a treadmill (or track) you can concentrate on how you are running without thinking too much about where you are running â€" though obviously you don’t want to shoot out the back of a treadmill !

•   Before my second BHR I used to think about enjoying a single ten minute mile jog.   Obviously I’ve gone way past that but I’m keeping a close eye on not getting too competitive with myself.   I’m going to work out some time targets for myself over the next few weeks and I’m going to stick with my original plan of running no further than 10km in one go.     I’ll post the targets at a later date.

A final point.  Its been a very cold winter over here.   Temperature at the moment is around 40 degrees but there’s a bitterly cold wind.     Once a week I coach a track session.   Typically I’ve been wearing a long-sleeved thermal top,  t-shirt, sweatshirt, down-filled jacket, goretex raincoat, woolly hat and gloves.   It gets quite cosy in there!  The athletes all have various layers on but keep warm with their running efforts.

Ed

[bothdone]

Running with the weather

Mon 2 Feb   Put on my off-road shoes and ran on the fields at the back of my local leisure centre.  A very cold day so well wrapped up â€" a good job I was !   When I was at the furthest point from the leisure centre on my second large lap the skies opened and heavy snow came down.  That wasn’t too bad until a driving wind whipped it into a horizontal mass.  By the time I made it back to the leisure centre I looked like something from the frozen north.

Wed 4 Feb.    I decide to have a go at a 2.5 mile route I did in November â€" see if I could improve it.    When I got down to the seafront it was very windy and raining.  I thought “well I’m here. I might as well have a go.”   I started off OK and then turned back to run along the promenade â€" straight into the teeth of the wind.  It was hard work but I battled on.    I then turned round and ran back with the wind at my back.    I finished and was pleased to have improved my time by over a minute.    That’s the good news.

The bad news …. Both my hips were screaming at me that evening and well into the next day.   I was quite worried I’d done some damage.   The next morning I worked out what had happened.  Running into the wind I’d worked too hard and really pushed both my legs.  Running with the wind I’d probably been over-striding and over-extended the muscles around both hips.   Lesson learnt â€" don’t fight the weather.

Fri 6 Feb â€" felt ready to try a little run on the treadmill.  Did a comfortable 2000m

Sun 8 Feb â€" Decided to have a go at a swifter 3000m on the treadmill.  Warmed up for 1km then ran 14.17 for the 3000m before going straight into a 1km warm down.  That’s a PB/PR for my post-op 3km treadmill

Week’s miles run 10.41 miles

Mon 9 Feb   More weather.   It had been raining all day but eased off about 6pm.   I decided to just go out and enjoy a relaxed 2.5 mile run from my house, with no thought of how long it would take.   Had a great time â€" just ran, and completed it in an easy 23.23.   

Wed 11 Feb   Much better weather â€" warmer and dry.  Went down to the leisure centre to go for an easy 4 mile run.   When I got there they were doing a sponsored treadmill run for charity in the main entrance and I was asked to do some running for them.   I did an easy 5000m and then went out and ran another two miles down to the seafront and back.    My hips had been feeling tight all day.   The runs loosened them off.    Four hours later, as I type this, they are both feeling fine.

Fri 13 Feb.   Still got the better weather. Just two layers â€"thermal and T-shirt â€" and gloves.   Ran out easy for two miles.  Did a few stretches.  Ran back at close to max for 1.75 miles.  Did 13.12.6 â€" just under a minute faster than the last time I did it.    Had enough left to run nearly a mile as an easy warm down.  Enjoyed it.

Sun 15 Feb  Blasted 2000m on the rower and 20 mins on the exercise bike before an easy 2500m running on the treadmill.


Week’s miles run: 13.79m

This was the fifth consecutive week where I’ve done some form of running four days out of seven (Mon-Wed-Fri Sun).      I think I’ll have an easier week next week with just three days running.