Cross Training

The Midnight Midlands Sevens was a huge success in the Rugby Club on Saturday. I was there all day and I didn't have to ref, as two extra refs turned up on the day.  I kept the score for all the matches on one of the pitches instead, and then I was an In Goal judge ( just to confirm try's or conversions ) for two of the finals. The day was really well organised with loads of volunteers helping out. When the last match was over, I headed home, my leg and also my back was quite sore. I got to bed around 1am but there are stories that some of the others didn't make it home until 10am, so it looks like I missed a great night. However, waking up with a refreshed body on Sunday morning has its own rewards.

I went to Physio, Chris Coombs today, to get my sore leg checked out. He diagnosed tendonitis, which he says is quite common for people who start running long distances without building up the muscles gradually. His advice was to rest the leg and then continue running a maximum of 3 days per week with recovery sessions in the pool or on the bike in between, until I've built up the muscles in my legs. He gave all my leg muscles a rub, which was sore at time, but the legs were feeling great afterwards.  Chris also advised me to stretch for 15 to 20 minutes each evening, and he gave me some exercises to perform, to increase my flexibility.  I thought it was great that my calf muscles were feeling hard, but Chris described them as tight, and says if I don't stretch them properly, I'll have problems later on.

So, this evening I went for a swim instead of a run. I'm not sure how far I swam, as I lost count somewhere around 18 lengths, but I swam for 40 minutes.  I feel I could have gone for a run, but this time I listened to the advice I was given.  I will probably go for another swim tomorrow, and then I'll definitely go for a run on Thursday. With the Half Marathon so close, I don't want to fall back in training. If I had more time, then I'd ease down on the training, and build it up more slowly, however as I want to run the Dublin Marathon this year, I just have to increase the workload. I think the trick will be in working hard at recovery, i.e. stretching and cross training. That's the update for the moment folks. I'll post again on Thursday after training, until then Slán.