Maybe the title of this blog with its Christmas song lyric title would have been better if I had have sat down and written about it when I actually thought about it a couple of weeks ago, as it happens Christmas is now just a dim and seemingly distant memory but with the job I do and the way my life is I just didn't have the time to do it.
Remember that Indian summer we had? Remember how lovely and warm October and November were?
So do I. Pounding the pavement in the relative warmth of the 10 degrees or so that it was might have seemed cold at the time but looking back it was unseasonably warm and something I should have perhaps appreciated more given that the during 6 week gap between running (I was off with a foot injury) the temperature has plummeted, dipping in to the - figures far more than someone in lycra shorts and tshirt would like.
Im fairly new to running, I started in Spring 2014, so I haven't faced a winter as a runner. I run with a small local club and even back during the tail end of that long summer I was wearing what I thought was my winter kit: silly tights and a long sleeve tshirt, sometimes even a coat and thin gloves. Then I had my few weeks off, I came back and it is more than a little nippy to say the least.
Now, too, the floppy short and tshirt wearing runners are all covered up from head to toe in funny skin tight material, they sort of look like high vis ninjas!
Although I now feel underdressed, its not too bad once you've ran a couple of miles but the cold will always find a way in and for me its the ankles: Being 6'4" with size 12 feet the running tights don't go down all the way and the socks don't come up that far either!
And I can't wear knee high socks, I just can't.
So, cold ankles it is then.
Saturday 3 January 2015
Thursday 1 January 2015
RUNNING - The Foot Saga
I promised you a foot update in this blog, so here goes:
One of the many, many benefits of being a Hair dresser is that you talk to, and get to know, a lot of people and sometimes the knowledge or skills they have can be of benefit. In this case a client of my wife's is a nurse at Accident and Emergency so a quick text to her and I knew the perfect time to go to A and E and what to say when I got there.
You may read that and think that if I can choose when I go to A and E that its not a real emergency and you would be right. Yes, my foot hurt and it hurt a LOT but was it an emergency? No, but sometimes the stupidity of the good ol' NHS forces us to make such a decision. Initially my doctor told me to rest it for two weeks then try running again and if it still hurt then then I should call him back and he would refer me for an X-Ray. I ran after my rest period and it was still the same so I called my Doctor back as and when I had been told to do so yet he was apparently on holiday for a month and as he actually saw my foot then he would have to be the one that writes the referral. I was offered another doctor but that would be a two week wait too and I would be going back to the start of the process and taking up an appointment that someone else could have had.
So I went to A and E instead.
The nice, cross, lady at A and E had a poke about and asked me a series of questions that made no sense to me before deciding that I definitely haven't broken a bone and its all soft tissue thats causing the pain. So she sent me for an X-Ray (I know, I thought that was a bit odd too). The X-Ray confirmed that nothing in by foot was broken at the moment but there was evidence of a previous metatarsal break and several toe breaks, mostly the little toe.
She said that the way I was limping was making it worse, I was allowing bits that needed to heal to not stretch in the way they needed to. She offered me a very very different remedy to the first doctor: Get my trainers on and get moving, do my best to use my foot EXACTLY how I would if it didn't hurt and you know what? I could feel it getting better almost straight away.
Imagine how annoyed I was then when just as my right foot was showing signs of recovery while pushing my trailer back on to my drive I ran over my little toe on my left foot and broke my little toe! Its all black and crooked now but it doesn't affect my movement so that's a bonus I guess.
I took it easy though at first, it took a while to even perfect walking properly but after a few weeks, about 6 weeks after the initial injury, I was back out running!
And my god, had it got cold in those 6 weeks!
One of the many, many benefits of being a Hair dresser is that you talk to, and get to know, a lot of people and sometimes the knowledge or skills they have can be of benefit. In this case a client of my wife's is a nurse at Accident and Emergency so a quick text to her and I knew the perfect time to go to A and E and what to say when I got there.
You may read that and think that if I can choose when I go to A and E that its not a real emergency and you would be right. Yes, my foot hurt and it hurt a LOT but was it an emergency? No, but sometimes the stupidity of the good ol' NHS forces us to make such a decision. Initially my doctor told me to rest it for two weeks then try running again and if it still hurt then then I should call him back and he would refer me for an X-Ray. I ran after my rest period and it was still the same so I called my Doctor back as and when I had been told to do so yet he was apparently on holiday for a month and as he actually saw my foot then he would have to be the one that writes the referral. I was offered another doctor but that would be a two week wait too and I would be going back to the start of the process and taking up an appointment that someone else could have had.
So I went to A and E instead.
The nice, cross, lady at A and E had a poke about and asked me a series of questions that made no sense to me before deciding that I definitely haven't broken a bone and its all soft tissue thats causing the pain. So she sent me for an X-Ray (I know, I thought that was a bit odd too). The X-Ray confirmed that nothing in by foot was broken at the moment but there was evidence of a previous metatarsal break and several toe breaks, mostly the little toe.
She said that the way I was limping was making it worse, I was allowing bits that needed to heal to not stretch in the way they needed to. She offered me a very very different remedy to the first doctor: Get my trainers on and get moving, do my best to use my foot EXACTLY how I would if it didn't hurt and you know what? I could feel it getting better almost straight away.
Imagine how annoyed I was then when just as my right foot was showing signs of recovery while pushing my trailer back on to my drive I ran over my little toe on my left foot and broke my little toe! Its all black and crooked now but it doesn't affect my movement so that's a bonus I guess.
I took it easy though at first, it took a while to even perfect walking properly but after a few weeks, about 6 weeks after the initial injury, I was back out running!
And my god, had it got cold in those 6 weeks!
Wednesday 26 November 2014
RUNNING - My MS kit is here
I'm finding this foot pain very depressing now, so much that I can't even bring myself to go through my MS kit that is now here.
From that I take it you have gathered that I still can't run, I'm planning on being better by Monday 1st December for a little run. Don't pull that face! The doctor said give it a couple of weeks and try again so if it feels like I can then I will. It can't get better soon enough though, I feel so restless.
This kit has spurred me on to get moving with the charity stuff though, I need to get cracking at it if I am going to meet my target of £2000!
Feel free to help me out a little here
www.justgiving.com/PhilipPowellMarathon
Thursday 20 November 2014
RUNNING - The Foot Setback
Eugh, it was all going so well.
I was smashing out runs at speeds I could only have dreamed of even weeks ago and still wasn't feeling like I had pushed myself, I was right at the top of what I have been able to do.
Then, well, then came the tiniest mistake: a barefoot clump of my right foot on the bed. I hopped about for a bit clutching my foot in the way you do when its night time and you don't want to make a fuss then when it settled got back in bed and fell straight back to sleep.
The morning was sore, I'd been to the pub the night before so there was a couple of seconds where I wondered why my toe hurt before I remembered what had happened. My self diagnosis a mere few seconds after waking and without an examination from even me let alone a trained professional I was pretty sure I'd broken my little toe. This was, of course, the end of the world and something I mentioned over and over all day to anyone that cared to listen but by early afternoon it felt OK. Not good, just OK.
I convinced myself that its only the little toe which does nothing anyway so got ready and went out for a run. I managed the 5k but after the first kilometre every time my foot hit the ground it was feeling increasingly like someone was stinging on the top of my foot, it wasn't the toe that was causing the problem at all.
I came home, declared I had broken a metatarsal (Google decided for me when I asked on the limp home) and readied myself for the 8 weeks of no running I was just about to face.
That might not seem long to you, as a non runner or even if you are but it really is for me. I have nearly gone two days without running since I took up the sport and I feel exactly the same knotted feeling and drive to run as I would have had when craving my next cigarette back in the day.
So after resting well, by which I mean the Friday of the same week, I ran again. 10k this time and a decent time I got too, even though it hurt a bit it was OK but the following few days were agony!
I sit here on the Thursday night, its not even been a week since I ran and it feels like a lifetime!
Ive been to the doctor now, more on that next time :-(
I was smashing out runs at speeds I could only have dreamed of even weeks ago and still wasn't feeling like I had pushed myself, I was right at the top of what I have been able to do.
Then, well, then came the tiniest mistake: a barefoot clump of my right foot on the bed. I hopped about for a bit clutching my foot in the way you do when its night time and you don't want to make a fuss then when it settled got back in bed and fell straight back to sleep.
The morning was sore, I'd been to the pub the night before so there was a couple of seconds where I wondered why my toe hurt before I remembered what had happened. My self diagnosis a mere few seconds after waking and without an examination from even me let alone a trained professional I was pretty sure I'd broken my little toe. This was, of course, the end of the world and something I mentioned over and over all day to anyone that cared to listen but by early afternoon it felt OK. Not good, just OK.
I convinced myself that its only the little toe which does nothing anyway so got ready and went out for a run. I managed the 5k but after the first kilometre every time my foot hit the ground it was feeling increasingly like someone was stinging on the top of my foot, it wasn't the toe that was causing the problem at all.
I came home, declared I had broken a metatarsal (Google decided for me when I asked on the limp home) and readied myself for the 8 weeks of no running I was just about to face.
That might not seem long to you, as a non runner or even if you are but it really is for me. I have nearly gone two days without running since I took up the sport and I feel exactly the same knotted feeling and drive to run as I would have had when craving my next cigarette back in the day.
So after resting well, by which I mean the Friday of the same week, I ran again. 10k this time and a decent time I got too, even though it hurt a bit it was OK but the following few days were agony!
I sit here on the Thursday night, its not even been a week since I ran and it feels like a lifetime!
Ive been to the doctor now, more on that next time :-(
Wednesday 5 November 2014
RUNNING - Registered and raring to go
So now I'm a tad nervous. Yesterday the MS society finally sent through my confirmation email, all I needed to do was pay the £50 registration fee and I'm set.
I filled in the forms (next of kin bit is a worry) and paid the money while planning where I would run that night. I worked out I had time to do about 7.5 k (4.5 miles ish) while the dinner was in the oven. Eager to go I packed up my bags and left work only to be faced with rain.
I thought about going out as I sat in traffic, the wipers doing their best to keep the screen clear and I'd decided I would but as soon as I got out of the car I got a giant freezing cold raindrop right down the back of my neck.
I stayed in.
That's tine though, I have a long time to train yet but all of the training happens over winter and if one dribble of cold and wet down the back keeps me from going out then this marathon really might not go well.
www.justgiving.com/philippowellmarthon
I filled in the forms (next of kin bit is a worry) and paid the money while planning where I would run that night. I worked out I had time to do about 7.5 k (4.5 miles ish) while the dinner was in the oven. Eager to go I packed up my bags and left work only to be faced with rain.
I thought about going out as I sat in traffic, the wipers doing their best to keep the screen clear and I'd decided I would but as soon as I got out of the car I got a giant freezing cold raindrop right down the back of my neck.
I stayed in.
That's tine though, I have a long time to train yet but all of the training happens over winter and if one dribble of cold and wet down the back keeps me from going out then this marathon really might not go well.
www.justgiving.com/philippowellmarthon
Thursday 30 October 2014
RUNNING - Running in Vegas
As a place to run I thought Vegas would be easy, I took a look at Google maps and decided that a quick run up and down the strip from my hotel at the bottom up until the hotels thinned then back again would be about 3 miles, 4 tops. How wrong I was on both fronts!
Its a great place to run though, the pavements are really smooth (so smooth that I'm sure with just a light drizzle they would turn in to a death trap!) and easy to run on and there is absolutely loads to look at along the way. I went out at 6:30 ish just as the sun was coming up and Vegas is a very different place then, sure you see the odd card on the floor promoting "Girls to you!" or similar and the occasional drunk wobbling along the strip making their way home after a night of gambling but it is very different that early to even just a couple of hours later.
Mostly, the only people you see are other runners, lots of other runners and workers. People cleaning, gardening, maintaining and repairing, it all happens before people turn up. Amazing really.
Anyway, I digress. The point is its actually not the easy run I was expecting, the strip is much, much longer than I thought and crossing the road is not as easy as it is over here. On my runs around Maidstone a quick glance in both directions to make sure its safe then a quick dart across is all it takes but over there the roads, 8-10 lanes wide, have foot bridges over them that you have to use because its not just illegal not to its also impossible not to.
Trying to cross the road without the foot bridges will almost certainly leave you run over and in prison! Remember too that these bridges have to be pretty high, I would say you could fit an average UK house under one of them just so the massive American trucks can rumble underneath.
Not only that but even in October at 6:30 its still 30 + degrees.
Hard work but I'd go back in a shot, if only to run there again.
www.justgiving.com/PhilipPowellMarathon
Thursday 16 October 2014
RUNNING - How I lost the weight.
For me, I didn't want to feel like I was on a diet, I wanted to slightly change my lifestyle so I would gradually lose the pounds without always feeling like I was going without. So when I started off 2014 looking down at the scales that were flashing 15:7 back at me as if they were shouting "I've told you how much you weigh now get off me fatty!" I came up with the rules that would see the weight slowly slide off.
1: Where possible, move more. This one is tiny little things like using the stairs rather than a lift or walking to the corner shop rather than driving.
2: Eat what you want, when you want but only if you are hungry. This is my downfall, (and, I suspect, the downfall of most bigger people) its very easy to eat something through boredom or because its nice or even just because its there. I was always guilty of going back for seconds just because dinner was so nice even though I'd had enough.
Sticking to these rules saw the weight start to slide off and I didn't even feel like I was dieting, just that I had slightly changed my eating habits and before I knew it eating that way was second nature. For example if we went to the chippy I would get a large cod and chips PLUS a pie or a large battered sausage and quite happily chomp the lot, not though a small cod and chips is more than enough. The dog is happy too, he gets all the leftover chips!
Even though this diet saw the weight drop off it wasn't until I got in to running that the numbers on the scales really got smaller, more on that next time though.
See you then. :-)
1: Where possible, move more. This one is tiny little things like using the stairs rather than a lift or walking to the corner shop rather than driving.
2: Eat what you want, when you want but only if you are hungry. This is my downfall, (and, I suspect, the downfall of most bigger people) its very easy to eat something through boredom or because its nice or even just because its there. I was always guilty of going back for seconds just because dinner was so nice even though I'd had enough.
Me in 2010
Sticking to these rules saw the weight start to slide off and I didn't even feel like I was dieting, just that I had slightly changed my eating habits and before I knew it eating that way was second nature. For example if we went to the chippy I would get a large cod and chips PLUS a pie or a large battered sausage and quite happily chomp the lot, not though a small cod and chips is more than enough. The dog is happy too, he gets all the leftover chips!
Me in December 2013 and in September 2014
Even though this diet saw the weight drop off it wasn't until I got in to running that the numbers on the scales really got smaller, more on that next time though.
See you then. :-)
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