Are you the CEO?

Just been given instructions that I am allowed to start some light running again, this is welcome news.

I did my first 30 mins on Tuesday and by Thursday morning I couldn’t walk down steps due to muscle stiffness... how muscles go soft when not in use.

This injury has taught me a lot about what you need to know about the field of specialist health professionals in order to adequately treat a big injury.

My injury has now required 7 medical specialists, all with different approaches and expertise to fixing a low grade stress fracture. I have seen the following:

1. A Physio: to tell me it’s injured

2. A Sport Physician: to confirm its inured and refer me to a radiologist

3. A Radiologist: to do a bone scan to really confirm the injury

4. A Podiatrist: to make orthotics to redistribute the weight that may have triggered the injury

5. An Osteopath: to look at general bone density reasons why it injured

6. A Sports Dietitian: to look at dietary reasons why it injured

7. A Massage Therapist: to loosen and treat muscles surrounding the injury

Now if you had asked me 12 months ago what a podiatrist did I would of probably said "aren’t they people who collect pet rocks?”. I knew very little about all these specialists.

The most interesting thing I learnt was that while all the above are great professionals most didn’t refer me to the other specialists necessary to holistically treat the injury.

They all had different views of the World and for some reason, only after being asked by me, would they mention “well you could see a such and such, but I dont know what they will be able to do”.

If I hadn’t concluded that the cause of the injury had several possibilities (like too much running, bad biomechanics, diet and ageing) I wouldn’t have sought out each specialist. And every specialist had useful information to treat the injury, prevent it happening again and to fix it.

What was even wierder about this situation was that no specilaist even contricted another. They all helped.

My point is that, as a runner or athlete you need to be the person who takes responsibility for knowing this stuff, and making sure you have all the experts working for you properly.

The best non-running example of this is probably a CEO of a big company who will have specialist managers, sales persons, lawyers, accountants, business strategists etc etc working for them.

The CEO is in charge and needs to know how to use each specialist effectively. No CEO goes to his sales manager saying “I have this issue down in HR, can you solve it?” The CEO goes to the HR manager and says “use your skills & training and fix the HR issue please”.

Alternatively, no sales manager will usually say to the CEO “oh the answer to our organisations problems will be solved by better HR advice”, they are more likely to say “everything can be solved by better sales”. Nor would a CEO even ask the sales manager for HR advice.

Obviously, for the organisation to be successful/ profitable all specialists need to be doing their individual job as part of a bigger picture held in the CEOs head, and hopefully shared by others. All the CEO needs to do is set the vision, find the best people, know what they do well (ie their speciality), and get them to play their role effectively.

So my long winded learning is that you need to be the “CEO of You Pty Ltd” when it comes to being a runner, and particularly when recovering from an injury needing holistic treatment. You need to find all the specialists and know how to use them, and realise where they are coming from. No one else can do this but the CEO/ runner.

Anyway off for a 5k- 30min loop around the Spurwood -Rickard Rd fire trail.


Sleep Train

CEO, Sleep Train Pty Ltd

Good Luck All 6 Footers

Good luck everyone racing this weekend in the big one.

Will be at start and finish on crewing duties for fellow BMMC, including one of the official BMMC race photographers.

I usually wouldnt induldge in tipping, but since I'm not in the race:

My tips for top 3 Men:
1st, Andrew Lee (warrimoo local, great bloke and lives only a few hundred metres from my place so will keep tiltle in the suburb)
2nd or 3rd, Matthews and Andrew Tuckey to fight it out.

Women:
1. Bateup (just too good)
2. Middleton (you should of seen her race at the Worlds!)
3. Bespalov (dam good runner).

predictions based on nothing other than last 12 months form, and a few things here and there.

Enjoy the race, think of those poor sods who have the real tough day, yes those who cant participate.

Googling Deeks Injuries

Was reading a great article by Deek in the August 1983 edition of Runners World where he mentions that over his career (up to 1983 anyway) he only had 10 days off training due to injury.

The fascinating bit was his explanation why he was so fortunate in this regard. Deek says there’s 2 types of fitness, physiological fitness (say aerobic condition) and muscular- skeletal strength (bones and how muscles connect to them).

Deek said he was limited in natural physiological fitness so he had to train hard and consistently to build aerobic condition, this took time which gave his muscular –skeletal system the time to develop. His physiological fitness never surpassed what his muscular-skeletal system was capable of handling, hence he rarely got injured.

Hmmm. I found the above article when Googling the following words: ‘Deek’ and ‘injury’ to see how Deek use to handle what I am now handling. Needless to say what I found didn’t cheer me up, but it did help explain why I now have a muscular-skeletal injury, albeit only a small stress reaction in the upper right femur.

Coming from a swimming background as a kid, and then a triathlon background later in life I developed good aerobic ability, and never run the miles beyond what my muscles and bones could handle, mainly because large training volumes were achieved though cross training.

Enter the last 12 months where after dusting off the old V8 engine following several sedentary years, I now discover the frame isn’t actually strong enough to handle the torque the engine can still produce. 15 hrs/ wk of swimming, biking & running aren’t rapidly interchangeable with 15hrs/ wk of running.

The other interesting thing about this period is my own emotional reaction to time off and missing a big race, followed by what others expect me to be feeling.

The bizarre thing (to others maybe) is that I’m not upset at all (though disappointed my long term health was jeopardised).

The following facts outline my self-reasoning for not being upset:
• Running is risky on your body, you run you therefore gamble
• Not all gambles pay off
• When pushing the limits the risks (and rewards) are inevitably bigger
• If you win more than you lose over your career, your still ahead
• 6 weeks is a rest period, and I have no problem with resting
• Its not my job, so I can still eat
• There’s other things in life I also enjoy doing (swimming, biking)
• I love the drama & struggle of big come back

More philosophically however, leading up to each big race I always think ‘will the body hold together to get to the start line?’ Last year I got to 3 big start lines despite many things, with 6 foot 2010 just one start line I didn’t make.

But gees I'm looking forward to my first run back on April Fool’s day (that’s not a joke either)

Enjoy the running.

No time to blog this week.

6 Foot Training Program Launch

For the latest on the BMMC, or to train with us go to: www.thebmmc.webs.com

Last night the Doc unveiled his grand 9 week training plan for 6 Foot 2010. We have been working together for 12 months now and it is by far the best “athlete- coach” relationship I have ever been in over my time in sport. I have had lots of coaches, all have taught me something, even if it wasn’t always a lot about training.

His/ our program is fluid, yet structured. Damn hard, yet with plenty of rest. Overall, it looks like a tough 9 weeks coming up. I like it because it is developed by an expert, but is developed by asking me lots and lots of questions, I feel like I’m in control of it. He then tells me like it is, even if that is: “No you don’t need to do that, it’s pointless, what’s that going to teach your body? we are going to do X, Y and Z”. He will then explain how and what the body will do in response to the prescribed stress from training. This last bit is my favorite part because it builds my belief and confidence in the program.

I will publish the program, but not until after March 13, for two reasons:

Firstly and most obviously, I don’t want to give too much away.

Secondly but more importantly, it would be negligent and unsafe to encourage, or think that others may copy what I might be doing without them considering a range of factors about their own physiology in consultation with an expert, or other qualified person.

For example, I wouldn’t want to encourage anyone to get into the habit of just ‘cut and pasting’ another athletes program, particularly if that program is for an athlete of a completely different background, history and physical constitution, including genetics. You wouldn’t take someone else medicine if you were sick right?

The best advice to devise your own program I believe is find someone who knows 3 things;
1. They know YOU.
2. They know the concepts of endurance training well.
3. They know how to apply the concepts to you the athlete (the most important bit).

This doesn’t mean don’t try things out, not training with others and trying what they do, not experimenting occasionally, not learning from training partners, or from anyone. We all learn from each other. But it does mean being personally careful of key things like, volume, frequency, intensity and how they relate to your body (not someone else’s body).

Once you have your own program you need to believe in it and give it time to work. Have some faith it will get results. When you think about it you actually can’t do anything else can you?

This can mean ignoring everything else you hear for a while. (Eg.Anton K. ran 320k last week, wow!) Not that what you are hearing say from others is bad necessarily, it’s just that it’s probably not in the right perspective for you at that time, and it may allow doubt to enter your head about your program, which is the last thing you need at 5am on an LSD.

Every human has doubts; you don’t need to increase doubt. Doubt can easily turn to fear, which can turn to disbelief and then quitting. For me this meant not buying running magazines. Nothing is wrong with running mags, but I would read training articles and athlete stories, get all pumped up and think ‘yeah I’ll go do that tomorrow’ so I can be like them. This may sound silly, but we have all done it.

Enough ranting and raving for now.
See you out there, enjoy the training!

first few runs for 2010

Picture is at mums house at the end of my first long run, my favorite Glenbrook to Woodford to Springwood 36ks. This picture marks the beginning of build up to 2010. Trying to run as slow as I can to build base and strength before faster stuff in January and February. The strength work is easy to achieve when your carrying 6 extra kilos for 3+ hrs.

Started this first run at 1pm on Monday 28th from Glen N.P gates with the goal to run as slow as I could for as long as I could. Finished at 430pm! Had the Ipod on the entire way and was singing along as I do on the long fire trail. Saw two guys on Mtn bikes at one point (near Tobys Glen junction) who asked if that was me they could hear "singing" a few minute ago - I must be loud when singing to Midnight Oil.

Had done 3hrs, or 2 laps on Kedumba, 40hrs earlier (Boxing Day) but legs didn't feel too stuffed, just real heavy and nursing a tender achilles insertion injury. The new orthotics are taking a bit of time to get use to.

Backed up the following morning with an easy 15k back in the National Park with Scam, Slim Kiwi and Animal.

Yes I ran on XMAS day.

Its amazing how hard running can be when your not in good shape, but knowing its only temporary makes it enjoyable.

Untitled Week

More time spent this week avoiding non-mandatory Christmas parties and eating than training. A few notable attendances however, one being a lap up Kedumba to the High Altitude Training Facility (KHATF) on Thursday night, and Scams ‘Tour-de-Locale-Trails’ on Saturday for 3hrs, 3 mins, 3 seconds (though I did cut one corner for 3 seconds).

Sunday AM was a casual paddle on kayaks with the ones to be obeyed (Scams doctrine not mine, but maybe why he is generally in less trouble than I).

Interestingly, as a kayaking novice and with my boat over turned on my head in the middle of Nepean River, I was abandoned by all and left to fend for myself. As I gasped for my last breath on the inside of the capsized hull, I took a private and mental note of the sympathy displayed to me by other more experienced runners, I mean paddlers. This reminds me, gees I’m looking forward to our next long run.

That brings me to Sunday’s BMMC Christmas party...... thanks Dr Phil for all the effort in organising the party. What I like about the BMMC is that when there is an event on, we rely upon only one person to do all the work, makes it easy for the rest of us.

Training stats: ..... [insert some philosophy here on why you don’t need big miles, hard reps etc etc at this time of the year]. Looking forward to some long hot runs over the Christmas period.