LEJoG 2017: Following Along - My Progress

Race report: Wimbledon Half

tldr; I raced the Wimbledon Half yesterday and it was absolutely fantastic! 

Looking back at the Hitchin Hard Half as a data point post-surgery, I targeted beating the time from that race (02:18:xx official race time, but I stopped to help someone and had to run back to the marshals down the hill to get official help, and my watch said moving time of 02:15:xx, so I'm taking that).  It was very much achievable goal given the relative lack of hills at Wimbledon - the Hitchin route has 676ft total ascent and the Wimbledon one only 480ft of total ascent.

You can see where I stopped to re-pin my number near the start

The goal was to manage a faster average pace than 10:18/mile to beat that time of 02:15.  The slight fun was that the first mile of the route is mostly uphill, so the first mile was always going to be slow as well as wanting to take it relatively gently for the first 20 mins or so. 

The race was due to be started in waves separated by 3 minutes, the first of which for those expecting a race time of 01:40 or less.  The following waves for 01:50 or less, 2 hours or less, 02:10 or less and then over 02:10.  I decided to go in the last wave, mainly because people frequently over-estimate how quickly they will finish plus go off too quickly at the start so even with slower runners I'd have plenty of room at the start with people disappearing off ahead of me who I'd eventually overtake and beat in the end.

We jogged across the common from the Windmill car park to the race start/finish on the rugby fields and as we arrived and registered it started to drizzle.  So we sheltered under the trees and drank tea while we waited the 45 mins or so to the first wave start.  MrTOTKat  had decided to go in the 01:50 or less wave so I'd be starting well after him and unlikely to see him again until the finish, given the route of the course.  I hung back and decided to go for a final wee after the 2 hour wave had started only to hear that the final two waves were being merged due to them being so small.  So I had to yank up my shorts pretty swiftly and trot swiftly to the starting arch to get going.

Given the uphill in the first mile, I wasn't too annoyed to see a 10:33 first mile given that I'd hiked a bit up that hill already to keep my heart rate down and save running effort for when I could do it faster than I hike uphill.  There was also the few seconds I had to stop to re-pin my race number, having yanked it off with the thumb of one hand while over-enthusiastically swinging up arms up that hill.

Then I managed to keep a relative lid on things for the first 5 miles.  The rain fell harder and harder and I was loving the route and the weather and feeling great, so I decided to wind it up a bit and carry on picking people off to overtake.  Having started in the last wave I ended up making well over 100 places by always targeting the next 2 people in front of me and reeling them in.  Hiking the steeper ups (a couple of smallish hills), taking the flats with a bit of push and enjoying the downs I made sure I kept pushing a bit all the way around the two laps.  Mainly not looking at my watch at all until after half way, I ran on feel and my legs felt like they wanted to have a go.

The end of the first lap had a good 1.5 miles of full-on downhill which I bombed down the first time, hitting my fastest ever mile since coming back from surgery.  Having practiced downhill a bit more than it appears a lot of people do, I flew past quite a few people on that first go down that hill.  After that I kept pushing all the way; targeting the next person to reel in and overtake over and over again.

I unexpectedly saw MrTOTKat  at mile 7-ish and waved - he was looking perky and I was slightly jealous that he had only 4 miles to go where the two bits of route touch each other and I still had 6 to go.  Things got a bit tough in miles 9 and 10 and I slowed a bit around there as I fought with myself to carry on pushing.  By that point I knew I'd be easily beating my 02:15 target as I'd taken a look at my watch and seen the average pace showing as 09:45/mile.   But I zipped up the Yuki suit and got on with it, finding the love again quite quickly by mashing through the puddles that others were mincing around trying to keep their feet dry (pointless as there were unavoidable puddles later in the lap) and then thinking about that gorgeous downhill in the last couple of miles.

Mis-judging the last little bit of the race, partly because I hadn't noticed a landmark right near the start of the route, it was a few hundred metres further to go than expected when MrTOTKat (having already finished and come to the final water station to cheer me in) yelled encouragement that it was "4-5 mins to go!" - I was expecting 2-3mins at that point and the extra made quite a bit of mental difference.

Battling it out with a couple of other ladies around the final couple of bends, they were more timid about the surface and weather than I was, but then I almost killed myself on a slippery tree root when I saw the giant Womble cheering people at the final water station. Then just before the end, I had a tiny little blow-up; my legs decided they weren't playing any more and I even had to walk a few steps to avoid throwing up.  Zipping up that Yuki suit again, I forced past it to run some more for the final 200m and had the only person to overtake me for the whole race go past at that point! Argh!  Throwing myself headlong across the field towards the finish I did manage something of a sprint at the end, but nothing sustainable and really had to have a sit down pretty soon after crossing the line.

It was great that the rain started just before the race and then only got harder all the way through until it stopped about 10 mins before I finished.  I love running in the rain and I'm totally happy to run through mud and puddles.  Overall I'm very pleased with how the morning's running went.  Having targeted 10:18/mile average as a target to beat 02:15 overall, and achieved 09:41/mile I'm really very happy with that - OK it was not quite as hilly as Hitchin, but that's still quite a difference (I officially finished in 02:06:44).  I'm very happy that I managed to keep pushing the whole way round - something I've had inconsistent results with in the past (the main reason I don't get on with multi-lap courses - it's too easy for me to give up at the end of any given lap :o)) - I could easily have thrown in the towel after one lap and just been annoyed with myself later (I'm pretty sure the lovely route plus positive mind-set I set off with rather helped this time).  What you have to bear in mind is that 5 months ago I was re-learning to walk after ankle surgery, and I've only been back exercising again for 4 months since 4 months off!  (And I'm not a lifetime athlete, so I don't have years of fitness in my body.)

What's also awesome is that this race looks like it's run 4-5 times in the year from March to October so it could be a local fun series for future years too!

A little behind schedule

But still positive.

This is 14 weeks on from surgery and I'm not running yet.  I can't even run a step; it's almost funny when I try.  My brain says yes and when I go to do it, it doesn't work.  It's hard to explain really, but quite simply nothing happens.

However, I have been doing some exercise.  I started sitting on the bike on the turbo 6 weeks ago, with 4 weeks of 3 spins a week and two of just one in the last two weeks.  And today I actually felt confident enough to go out for a ride on the roads.  50 minutes of glorious, confident, self-powered freedom.  It was fabulous.  Despite being over-optimistic about the temperature and thus under-dressed, I enjoyed the heck out of that little ride.  Despite taking quite a gentle hill and feeling like it was really bloody hard, I really enjoyed it.

The confidence came from hugely improved stability and balance on my left leg.  My physio work has been focussing really well on getting me improved from the quite appalling state of balance I had after the boot came off.   I was unable to stand on that foot at all.  Couldn't get dressed standing up, couldn't do anything on one leg and now I can stand on one foot and bend my knee and touch my toes with the opposite hand.  I can step up on that foot and raise the opposite knee and hold it.  This is *huge* progress.

I'm hopeful now of possibly being able to try jogging in a couple more weeks.  That'll be 4 months after surgery, rather than the predicted 3.  A bit disappointing, but shit happens sometimes.

I am grateful

I am indeed grateful for the health insurance provided by my newest employer.

Having had to fight for the last 3 months with a health insurance provider who had me by the short and curlies as I was mid-claim when I left the employer who I was covered under.  I had the choice of paying thousands of pounds for the treatment I was in the middle of, or a few hundred pounds a month in insurance premiums to cover that treatment *and* chasing up every single invoice 4-5 times because my account wasn't transferred properly from the corporate account to a personal account.

Now, all I had to do was call the insurer, answer some questions and make an appointment.  Of we go.  Seen & much more confident in my rehabilitation.

That's the positive bit.

The less than positive bit is that tomorrow is the end of week 12 after surgery and there's no way on god's earth I'm going to be running a single step tomorrow.

Despite the physio saying the power is there in my calf, the movement involved in running simply doesn't work.  I can walk, but I limp like a pirate unless I concentrate.  I can go up and down stairs and up on my toes; both legs at once or battling hard through pain for the lower section of it with one leg (it's easier in the upper range of being on my toes).  And I think that's the main problem with running as I don't strike with my heels; I mid-ish foot strike so that last few mm of the up/down-on-toes range is exactly hit.

The physio noted that my foot collapses inwards and takes my leg with it.  She's given me exercises to help with that and I think I'm progressing with those.  She also noted that my ankle is still swollen and congested in the joint, and my foot is still a different colour to the other one, and she's planning on working on that in our next appointment.  Annoyingly, due to choices I've made with travel for work, that'll be 10 days after the first appointment, rather than only a few days as the physio would have preferred.  Hey ho.   My choice.  Tough poop for me.

But.  I am grateful that I am being looked after properly now and I feel like things are moving better and I'm getting decent feedback from someone who's in tune with my preferences around sport.

Recovery update

Yesterday, I had the first hospital check-up and physio appointments since I have my surgery.  The hospital check-up involved an x-ray to see how things were going with the plating and alignment of all of the fragments (shame I didn't get hold of any images, I really must ask at the next appointment 'cause they look really cool!).  A quick trip to radiology for that and then back to the consultant for a chat.  The consultant of the day, Mr Sharif, looked at Mr Pearse's notes from the surgery and laughed at the capitals and underlined; "ABSOLUTELY NO resistance, lifting or weight bearing till week 8 and only after a full range of movement has been obtained."  I don't think anyone expected the improvements I already have on that front, but anyway... next was having the dressing taken off, the butterfly stitches removed and the ends of the dissolvable stitches trimmed so they don't irritate me any more.  I'd been getting quite itchy from those.

The nurse peeled off the dressing and unstuck the butterfly stitches.  It felt pretty weird, to be honest.  I have absolutely no sensation at the end of my shoulder; the nerve serving that area was severed during surgery.  I was warned that it was about 80% likely that I may at least temporarily, if not permanently, lose sensation somewhere around that area, so that wasn't a complete surprise (you can see in the diagram below how many major nerves there are around the clavicle and where the incision would have been made - I am not a doctor, but I can imagine there are a bajillion minor ones around there and it'd be almost impossible not to end up cutting .  What was a surprise is where the sensation loss is and the effect on the surrounding area.

Credit:- MEDICAL RF.COM/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

I was expecting the area just below the clavicle to be numb, but it's the end of my shoulder (where the knobbly bit (or, acromion) sticks out,) and below that for about 4 inches, in a rough circle of 4" diameter, that's affected.  What's annoying is that the skin around it is super-sensitive in some kind of compensation for it and the slightest brush against those bits of skin gives an overload of feedback to the point of feeling painful.  Also, when the dressing and butterfly stitches came off, there was a good amount of top layer of skin lifted off where the road rash was, and those bits were a bit weepy.  No matter, I got a clear dressing to get me home from the appointment and an instruction from the nurse to "give it a good scrubbing" and "use your normal moisturiser on it 2-3 times a day" to minimise the scar from the incision.

Anyway, I asked the consultant what I was and wasn't allowed to do, exercise wise, and came out with an understanding of; running (as long as I don't fall over *cough*) is allowed, using a spin bike with no hands is allowed, immersing the wound in water is allowed (as long as I don't lie in the bath for hours), I can swim in a couple of weeks (as long as I don't use that arm - so finning out to the Coffees of Hawaii boat at Kona will be OK :o)).  Still "ABSOLUTELY NO resistance blah blah..." for another 6 weeks and a follow-up appointment in 6 weeks to take another x-ray and assess progress.

So, all good there.  Off to the physio next.

Having been utterly religious with my exercises since I was discharged from hospital, I knew I'd done pretty well with recover of mobility so far.  When I saw the physio, he was amazed at the progress.  He said it was incredibly good at this stage, almost unbelievably good.  Check out this more typical progression.  At exactly 2 weeks from surgery, I already have almost 100% mobility across all of the ranges of motion for the joint; I'm just missing 5% or so in the external rotation.  This is both brilliant and awful.  Brilliant in that I'm recovering so quickly, awful in that I still cannot use that arm for any resistance, lifting or weight bearing of any kind (anything up to and including a cup of tea is fine, more is not fine) and with such great mobility it will be all too easy to absent-mindedly do things (to be honest, the mobility reduction was my most frustrating experience.  I have to be mindful and careful and... well, really careful.  The bone bits may well be held together with a titanium plate and screws, but they still need to stick together and heal and loading up the joint will retard, prevent that process or even make the whole situation worse.

All in all, I'm really happy with the status at the moment.  I'm happy to have had 50 minutes on the spin bike today and I've got parkrun tomorrow.  Looking good!

Oh, and...

I took my body fat reading this morning and I've clawed back Christmas/New Year and a little extra. Down to 26.1% :oD