Diagnosis

I finally have some clarity on why I've been injured for so long and keep failing to get well enough to sustain running for more than just a few days. I had a CT scan on Monday which showed that rather than having a stress fracture of the hard bone on the outside of the tibia/ shinbone, I have a stress reaction in the centre of the bone. From the doctors diagram basically the central section of the bone is made up of a honeycomb/ scaffold - esque structure and is surrounded by the hard bone which forms a ring around it. The honeycomb in the centre of my tibia is cracked in multiple places. These tiny cracks are what cause the pain I'm getting from within the bone whether I'm stationary, lying down or on the move.

Red Section - hard outer bone, blue section - where mine is cracked

So the good news is that I now know what the problem is and the root cause of it which is basically deficiencies in my diet. I've had some blood tests to distinguish exactly what it is I'm lacking in but the doc is expecting it to be vitamin D and Calcium. My bone density is through the floor which means the hard ring of bone around the cracked centre is much thinner and weaker than normal. If I continue to run on it, the cracks will move through the honeycomb centre and straight through the hard outer bone causing a fracture which will take months to heal. So at least it hasn't reached that stage yet. 

The bad news is I'm out of Comrades. There is no way to turn the weak bone and stress reaction around in time to guarantee I won't suffer a fracture by running on it. I could try, but it would be naive to go against the doc's advice and hope that it'll be ok. I can't risk damaging my chances of starting Western States and The Grand Slam.

So from here I get to spend more time on the stationary bike and in the pool and make sure I start eating a lot better. I have a 6 day course of 50,000 (thousand) mg of Vitamin D per day which is apparently enormous and should redress any issues with deficiency and speed the healing of the bone. I am aware that I'm lacking protein in my diet and so I'm making a conscious effort to take in more. 

Travelling to South Africa to watch and not run Comrades is going to be extremely hard to bare but we'll try and enjoy a holiday out of it with 5 days in Cape Town after the race. When I come back it will be time to try the leg out. 

So Western States and the start of the Slam is just 5 weeks away. I'm already aware that race is going to be a mental battle rather than a physical one. With 4 months completely off running I'll be in no shape to take it on, but it's a race I've always wanted to run. On the plus side, being forced to slow down because of a lack of fitness may mean that I pace myself better and keep more in the tank for Vermont, Leadville and Wasatch Front which come so quickly afterwards. 

This last 4 months has been really difficult to get through, I've missed running and racing and there isn't really anything to replace that with. Staying motivated to keep going to the gym which happens to be right by the office, 7 days a week including the weekends has been pretty tough but it will be worth it when the strength in my leg returns to a level where I can run on it safely again. 

4 days of work left before I leave for good and then it's focus 100% on getting to the WS start line ready to go....

An Injury By the Numbers

I fractured my shin on 7th February. I resumed training after the fracture was diagnosed, in a cast. Since then 10 weeks have passed and I have had the cast on for just over 6 weeks of that time. There have been a couple of 2 day gaps where the will to continue dropped significantly because of worsening of the injury (too much too soon). No real reason for posting this other than for my own records if this ever happens again. Also, if god willing I start and finish Comrades with almost a total absence of running, just what an effect that has had on my fitness/ time/ pace/ subsequent muscle soreness/ ability to run:

Time frame: 10 weeks/ 70 Days
Cycling time: 52 hours 50 minutes / 973 miles
Running time: 8 hours 30 / 58 miles (43 miles in a 1 wk come back which caused the 2nd round of problems)
Cross training time: 16 hours (Spinning/ Stair Machine/ Swimming)

Total: 77:20 hours
Average Daily Training time: 1:06 hours


 

18 Days to Go

18 Days until I'm supposed to line up on the startline of Comrades. I don't want to say too much right now as I'm so disillusioned with this whole process of injury and recovery. Really not sure where I stand right now. I finally commenced walking again last week and ran for the first time a couple of days ago. I've clocked 5 miles each of the past 2 days in a very easy pace, my fitness feels ok, my legs are a little tight after each run because they're not used to that movement too. I don't have any specific pain in the left shin but it doesn't feel right. The calf is withered away and whilst much stronger than a month ago when I attempted comeback number 1, it still pales into insignifance against the strength of my right leg. 

There is an interesting feature on the new spinning bikes at the gym, allowing you to monitor over the course of a ride how much of the overall effort is being transmitted through either pedal. On average at the moment after about an hour the right leg is performing 53% of the work and the left 47%. That isn't intentional it's just a case of the left dragging as it is weaker. 

I have all my fingers and toes crossed that if I am sensible and stick to 5 miles a day or less I might be able to start in South Africa. The question then is whether I am going to injure myself further and put myself out of Western States and the Slam. I'll have to make that call as I go, but 55 miles of road running is probably the last thing my leg needs right now. Ian Sharman messaged me this week (4 time Comrades finisher). His note read 'even if you run 1 mile and get in the sweeper bus you'll still get a chance to experience the race'. I may just have to do that. I won't jeopardise Western States for Comrades. It was and is the Goal/ A race of this year. 

On the Centurion front, the entries are flying in. We are up to 125 for the NDW races and over 50 for the Thames Path. A phenomenal response for races in their first year. Logistically we are ironing out the final details of the aid station locations and I've been lucky enough to enlist the help of Henk Van Der Beek the RD of Caesar's Camp Endurance Runs in ensuring I've thought of everything going in to race day. Nothing substitutes experience and Henk has bucket loads of it having been through all of this before. For that I'd like to thank him.

Happy running out there. I'll blog once more before Comrades and then it's prayer time!!!!

Three Forts Marathon A Year On

Just a little gauge of how I'm currently faring vs this time 2010, today last year was the Three Forts Marathon which I ran in a time of 3 hours 13 minutes, not too bad for a 27 mile trail race with 3500ft of climbing. Today, I managed a 4.2 mile walk in just over an hour.

BUT the pain in my shin is improving. I still can't run and I'm not sure when I'll be able too but you know what as long as it keeps improving I might just yet be able to scrape in with a start at Comrades.

Training partners are extremely important and mine is in a filthy mood this weekend as his shingles came back at the end of last week. I am lucky enough to get to train with Webbo 3 or 4 times a week. A typical training session will be stair machine for 30 minutes where he gets annoyed because I'm a better climber than him and then 30 - 45 minutes on the bike where the competition is always to go as far as possible in that time. Sometimes I let him win so that he doesn't give up but I've got 10 years on him. On a serious note he does put up with an inordinate amount of moaning on my part, particularly during the last 3 months (3 MONTHS!!!!!) that I have been unable to run because of this stress fracture. If you don't have anyone to train with, find someone, find a club, find a team. It doesn't really matter who but at the end of the day you'll end up pushing each other far harder than if you go it alone. It helps if you're pretty evenly matched. Webbo is the most competitive person I've ever met when it comes to sport. Works out pretty well. When we race together 'as a team' it does not because it becomes a competition to see who can be in front whenever there is a camera. Below picture South Downs Way last year sprinting down a hill half way through our second 35 mile day. Children (I am in front though).

The Centurion Entries keep on rolling in. Places for the North Downs Way races are up over the 100 mark across all three distances. I don't think we'll reach our limit, imposed so as to keep logistics manageable in our first event but we're at a level now where all three distances have a good number of entries. I am delighted and we'll continue to work as hard as ever to make things as good as possible on the day.