15/02/2010 – Swimming Towards Recovery
It is now nearly two weeks later and my foot has still not healed, although it is feeling less painful.
I rested and abstained from all forms of exercise for one whole week and actually thoroughly enjoyed it and wanted to carry on a bit longer! However, because I have been swimming as cross-training exercise I thought I would try some swimming lessons to learn how to swim properly. I was taught to swim by my dad before learning at school and he put the fear of God into me by telling me that I would die if I inhaled water. So, needless to say, I don’t even like water on my face and hate it if someone splashes me. I swim the breaststroke with my head held as far away from the water as possible. This is painful, especially as I was trying to swim for an hour, five times per week to maintain my fitness level.
The health club/gym that I am a member of has a swimming instructor who gives one to one lessons to adults who want to improve their strokes. She teaches in the water next to you and is very patient. She could tell how tense I was about getting water in my face and knew that I would suffer from a bad neck and shoulders if I carried on. This was happening, although my muscles only hurt while I was actually in the pool. I was getting better at perfecting the breaststroke, which is totally different to what I had learnt before but I was still reticent about the water getting on my face, so my neck still hurt. I have practised a lot since last Wednesday when I had my first lesson and can now take a bit of face splashing! In fact I even go under the water a little bit like you are supposed to do whilst breathing out.
My running has hugely benefited my swimming, I breathe much more easily and don’t get as out of breath as I used to when swimming before I ran. In fact, I don’t get uncomfortably out of breath at all, but I can feel my heart pumping fast when I push myself. My instructor is trying to slow me down as the breaststroke is meant to be a relaxed stroke, but I always seem to want to go fast!
The big breakthrough came when I went into the sauna to dry off after swimming. A man in there told me that I made swimming look like hard work! I wasn’t sure if he was joking so told him I was just learning. He then gave me loads of advice about how to go under the water. I felt slightly foolish, as I must have been making a big show of myself in the pool, obviously spluttering about when water came near me! Because I was trying to achieve the breaststroke I was obviously going to be coming into contact with the water more, as with real breaststroke your face is meant to be totally submerged when breathing out then up again for a new inhalation. The sauna man told me that you don’t hold your breath when you go under and then gasp for dear life when you surface. When you go under you breathe out and then in again on the up. This is a lot easier than holding your breath! The instructor said holding your breath will only tire you out and panic you.
So, I am getting there. I can swim a lot better now and am no longer getting a sore neck. I am much more relaxed and enjoying my swimming and am even staying in the pool for up to an hour at a time. Before the lesson I used to do two half hours.
The best bit of news is that I have found a machine in the gym that I can train on hard without hurting my foot. I have never looked for such a machine before, as I never knew they existed. I haven’t been able to use a machine or even weight train as the impact on my foot was still quite heavy. This machine is like a cross-trainer but the pedals are on an arc so your feet stay flat on them and are hardly used. They go up higher and lower than a traditional cross-trainer but the workout is probably slightly harder as the legs go further. The muscles used are the quads and calves and will be good strengthening exercise for running. It will be a hard workout but I miss the mental disciplining that goes hand in hand with hard exercise. This will get me in good form mentally for when I start running again.
I went to an abs class this week and afterwards came into the gym to have a closer look at this new machine. I had a go and it seems pretty easy to use. I did about ten minutes but it was hard work, especially on my brain! I’m no longer used to practising the mental discipline that goes hand in hand with hard training so my mind was just telling me to get off. This is something I need to practise and I am looking forward to my new endurance-training regime.
After I stepped off the cross-trainer I felt I wanted to try a run. I had my new ipod with me and had a new playlist ready for when I went back to running. I walked for a bit but then a particularly kicking tune came on and I just started running really fast, it felt good to be back but I knew this was only the beginning. I had no pain upon running or walking so I knew I was on the mend. I ended up walking with a few minutes of hard running for 2 miles! Two weeks ago I couldn’t even walk for a few minutes on the treadmill.
My road back to running will now incorporate another whole week of swimming plus a first back weight class on Saturday. Then the week after I will do 3 days swimming plus 2 days on the cross-trainer of half hour sessions. On the Saturday again, a weight class. Then, I will give up swimming and go back to 3 days weights and 2 days cross-trainer of an hour’s duration. The week after, I will run a bit on the cross-trainer days and slowly build this back up to an hour twice per week and phase out the cross-trainer. Then I will add a run to a Saturday so I will be doing 3 runs per week but spread across the week. I aim to be running for about 15 miles again, per week by the end of March. Then I will kick up the tempo with a couple of aerobics classes too.
My week will look like this: Monday – plyometric aerobics class 45mins, body pump class 1 hour (the plyometric class is good for runners as it uses quick movements like jumps mixed in with aerobics and will be good for speed and strength, it also helps warm up for the body pump weight class afterwards as often you can spend the first half of this class warming up). Tuesday will see a run on the road with the running group of about 4 miles. Wednesday will see another body pump class, maybe with a little jogging to warm up to beforehand and then afterwards a body combat class. This is like kick boxing and is good for stretching muscles. Thursday will see an abs class, then a run for about an hour (6 miles or so). Friday will maybe be a body pump or a cycle spin class and then Saturday will be another run.
6/5/2011 - Army Training Course Needed!
04/02/2011 – Hi There!
05/10/2010 - Morton’s Neuroma Madness!
21/08/2010 - The Wedding Journal
30/05/2010 - Running Free!!
06/05/2010 - Surprises Come In Podiatry Orthotics!!
15/04/2010 - Having Wheely Good Fun
22/03/2010 - Running Withdrawal
15/02/2010 - Swimming Towards Recovery
04/02/2010 - Help I’m Injured!
