change of plan

Hope everyone had a good Christmas ...

I did except that over the holiday period the pain in my left knee returned.  I stopped running immediately and yesterday afternoon saw a doctor who diagnosed Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.

Saw a physiotherapist this morning and the outcome was ... no running for 10 to 14 days followed by a gradual return to full training over the following 4 to 5 weeks.  During that period I have to do a set of quadriceps strengthening exercises three times daily.  I am also allowed to cycle almost every day and continue with my normal strength and flexibility work.

After every bout of exercise I have to apply an ice pack to my knee and continue taking 1200mg ibuprofen daily for at least the next 10 days.

Now ... what went wrong and why am I injured ?

Well, I'm not too sure.  It's an overuse injury and after looking back over my training (and other factors) with the physio my thoughts are:

(1)  The change of date and venue for next year's World 24 hr Championships has meant that over the past few weeks I've been training without a specific goal.  This has probably led to me taking my eye of the ball at times and overdoing things in the snowy conditions.  Obviously I don't blame the IAU for any injury I have - it's my fault entirely.

(2)  Since October I've been experimenting with a five week training cycle instead of the more usual four weeks which I've used successfully in the past.  Instead of reducing the mileage every fourth week for 'recovery and consolidation' purposes I was reducing the mileage on weeks two and four.

My weekly mileages were:

12-18 Sep ... 25
19-26 Sep ... 40
27 Sep-2 Oct ... 44
3-9 Oct ... 51
10-16 Oct ... 35
17-23 Oct ... 51
24-30 Oct ... 50
31 Oct-6 Nov ... 37
7-13 Nov ... 55
14-20 Nov ... 40
21-27 Nov ... 59
28 Nov-4 Dec ... 62
5-11 Dec ... 45

As you can see it's a bit up and down and that probably didn't help even though it was part of the plan.  The new system definitely didn't work for me.

(3)  My primary goal for 2011 is now definitely the Commonwealth Championships in September but I still plan to take part in three long ultras during the year ... and I firmly believe that's still realistic.

More info soon but in the next couple of weeks I hope to be in a position to be able to enter an ultra race ... which will be part of my build up for the 24 hr race at the end of September in Llandudno.