The last couple of years have been a testing time for the BK running career. Struck down by a calf tear in 2017 and Plantar Fasciitis in 2018 I have been unable to string together a full racing season. I never really have a ‘down time’ and the last 10 years have been a continual circle of train, race, train repeat, always a race to get ready for and then a small recovery period before of we go again. This has served me well over the years and I was probably a few months short of a good 10 year of unbroken injury free running. Of course as I always say on this blog eventually the piper comes calling and he needs to be paid. I consider the last two years my payment, in full !

2018 started well with an Australian Ultra Association (  https://www.aura.asn.au/data/Records/AURA%20Age_Group_Records-MEN-18December2018.pdf  ) Age Group 100k record and 8 gold medals at the Australian Masters ( four state and four national) but it all went downhill pretty rapidly when Plantar Fasciitis came calling. As soon as I knew I had PF I just about wrote the year off. PF is an injury that just takes time to heal due to affected area having little blood flow and the fasciitis itself. This combination just makes the whole healing process a slow one. Personally I think I was quite lucky to return to full training after 7 months of trail running on sand. Speaking to my fellow runners there was stories of 1-2 years recovery and at my age that isn’t an option.

So after my return in December at the 6 inch ultra I was ready for another crack at the AURA Age Group record for 100k at the Australian Day Ultra. Unfortunately I got ‘man-flu’ a week out and just couldn’t recover in time, truth be told I’m still recovering now a month later. This leads me to the point of this post. Recovery is all part of a runners journey and if it is approached with the right attitude can be just as stimulating as full on training. The knack is to take it slow and just try and get a bit better every day/run. Don’t worry about pace or even distance, every recovery run is judged on its own merits and how you feel on the day. Want to cut it short, fine, or go a bit longer , ok . The point is for recovery you can free yourself from the tight reins of a training plan or daily run expectations. It can actually be quiet liberating.

As you can see from the graphic below I was building up nicely from the 6 inch before ‘man-flu‘ struck, I’d say on January 11th ! With hindsight doing a double-double day the day before (A Yelo progressive, commute to work on the Elliptigo, a 10k lunch time run and then a commute home; three hours of exercising) was probably the straw that broke the camels back. Of course that is easy to say now but I must admit to feeling weary after the Thursday morning progressive run at Yelo and promising myself I’d have the lunch time off but of course when midday comes all is forgotten and off you go. Even when I retired to my bed on Friday I was confident I could make the ADU the following Friday, it was a taper week anyhow so a few days in bed would probably do me good. Not to be this time I was still weak as a kitten a week later and as you can see from my training log was out of action for over two weeks.  So back to recovery I stumbled starting with a long run with the NSRG ( http://www.nsrg.org.au ) , 18k that probably should have been 10k but mission accomplished I was back. I even stumbled out for a second run but this proved to be my undoing and I had to have Monday off before building up again, putting in the time on legs without worrying about pace or distance. So far I’m on track and starting to enjoy my running, although I never really don’t enjoy my running but running with a post man-flu glow can be testing.

As you can see from my Strava extract above ( you are on Strava aren’t you? ( http://www.strava.com)) I have also been loving my time on the Elliptigo and the Bionic Gen1 . These extra hours spent commuting I’m sure will pay dividends when I eventually get myself back to full fitness and race ready. The Bionic especially is a hard stand up bike to master and I only managed a week before I scuttled off back to the Elliptigo. I’m blaming my recent illness but the Bionic really is just plain old fashioned hard work and I feel I need to be better prepared for the beating you take. Of course when I say ‘beating’ it is in the best way possible. I’m stoked that I’m now getting 6-8 hours a week extra aerobic/cardio fitness time compared to sitting on a train of commuters glued to their phones. Commuting to work on the Go or Bionic is hard work , yes, but so enjoyable and its doing me so much good it really is the ultimate win-win situation. Hell I even save money daily, albeit the running costs of the bikes probably cost as much as the train fare but that’s not the point is it.

Living in Perth I am so lucky with the climate which is either ‘perfect for running,  anytime ‘ or ‘prefect for running but you need to run early mornings (summer)‘ ; it also has hundreds of kilometres of bike paths so you can ride all day and never enter the territory of those nasty ‘bike hating’ cars! I understand a lot of you don’t live in such a hospitable environment and commuting on a bike is out of the question but if you can even drop the car a few kilometres from the office and run in that would help; anything is better than nothing. As I said in previous posts I was inspired by Tim ‘the man in the Halo‘  Don who still averaged 15 hours a week exercising with a broken neck wearing a halo. ! ( https://www.on-running.com/en-au/athletes/tim-don ) For me to average 15 hours a week running would be injury suicide, thus my commuting on the stand up bikes , running without the pounding and thus no chance of injury. So fast this has worked well and the 6th place finish at the 6 inch ultra marathon in December showed my lack of running mileage could be supplemented by the cardio benefits of the Elliptigo. ( http://www.elliptigo.com )

Back to recovery , which was the reason behind this post I think, I sometimes just ramble on and never know where these posts take me. After an injury or illness treat recovery as a ‘gift not a hinderance’. Embrace the feeling of just running for the pure love of running and slowly increase the distance/pace of each recovery run but if for any reason you ‘aren’t feeling it’ , pull the pin. Arthur Lydiard was a big believer is this and that man knew a thing or three about running ! ( http://www.runningwizard.com/lydiard-principles ) Don’t be forced back into racing too early, a sure fire way to regress and also demotivate yourself when you run a slower than expected finish time. Nothing demotivates a runner more than slowing down but you can slow the process with a good recovery plan. I’ll be putting this to the test over the next few months and I’ll keep you informed of progress, right, I’m off for a run albeit a slow one.

Follow me on