In isolation times fly’s by so quickly (and no one hears you scream, or is that Alien?) though  I have never seen so many people running when in lock down, that one hour of exercise a day (or there about?) is the one thing keeping a lot of people sane right now. After toilet roll, hand sanitisers and baking products the next thing to sell out in our stores was exercise equipment. Who’d have thought it, lockdown is the one thing that may save the human race by forcing people to actually look at themselves in the mirror and realise they may have ‘let themselves go‘ the last few decades and now is the time to put this right.

Personally I have been tying to establish a routine while locked down in sunny City Beach (Perth is experiencing a bit of a heatwave at the moment, aiming to break a record for April of continuous days above 30c. The record is six days , I think , we should break it tomorrow (forecasting 38c !) before reverting back to normal Autumn temperatures after that. Just what the Government wanted, a perfect Easter to tempt out everybody to the beach, albeit 1.5m’s apart at all times and no large groups !! For me my savior has been my bionic bike which I use every lunchtime to escape the home office. It gives you the workout you’d expect from a run without the pounding and impact, perfect for a second cardio session or recovery from injury.

For me , over the last few weeks,  I have used it as a way to get a good 60-90 minute cardio workout in the middle of the day before my running session, on grass with the dogs watching, in the late afternoon. The grass running has helped me recover from a nasty bakers cyst I picked up after the Delirious West ultra. I must also thank my Wife’s prescription anti-inflammatories, saved me getting a cortisone injection while still allowing me to run,  albeit slowly on grass. Some benefits of the Bionic are explained in the image below.  Unfortunately the company went under a few years ago due to Chinese suppliers letting them down and being unable to pursue these suppliers in the Chinese courts. The product itself is awesome and I love my time on the Bionic, it’s a real pity they were let down but ,when you swim with sharks,  you sometimes get eaten. (I’m not sure if that is an actual ‘thing’ but it sounds good?)

Right , a Bakers Cyst, see the image below. A fluid-filled cyst behind the knee. A Baker’s cyst is usually the result of knee-joint conditions, such as arthritis or torn cartilage, that cause the knee to produce too much lubricating fluid. Symptoms, when they occur, may include a bulge and tight feeling behind the knee. Treatment, if required, involves treating the underlying condition. Other options include a cortisone injection, fluid drainage with a needle or physiotherapy. Luckily I think rest and anti-inflam’s has done the trick for me and after 4-6 weeks I’m back running again. Fingers crossed it’s not an under lying issue with the knee but the ultrasound showed nothing more than the cyst, so should be good to go now. Another injury to add to the numerous calf tears and Plantar Fasciitis, the joys of running ?

On the running front some of the Big Kev running crew have been pushing the envelope of the current lock down laws and escaping to destinations far and wide albeit, in their defence, in separate cars and within all local boundaries, just! Personally I have been keeping to my local oval for running and my bionic loop is mainly on the cycle path with little traffic, if any.  In Perth , as of today, we have been in lock down for 3-4 weeks and have little community virus spread so I feel safe enough, at the moment. Of course this can change on a daily basis, we are always one cruise ship or mass gathering away from a pandemic, apparently? Facebook has been buzzing with images of runners completing marathons and ultra-marathons in isolation, either running around their gardens or even flats for hours on hours to make the distances.  To me this is very dangerous as you are usually running in a very small circle, hundreds of times, built for a good old fashioned repetitive strain injury. Not heard of any injuries on Facebook but maybe a few months down the line we’ll start to see runners paying the price for their 15 minutes of fame ?

Below is the route I mainly take, daily, to keep myself sane in these mad times. It’s more about getting away from the dual screens in my study that are always enticing me in. I find one of the drawbacks of working from home is work is always there, calling you and sometimes that break in the middle of the day is what you need to reset the mental clock and also it’s just plain fun ! Funnily enough I had joined a gym a few weeks before lock down and I was also enjoying my time on the cardio machines, especially the stair-stepper. All these non-running activities are about building cardio fitness, without the impact of running, albeit the gym may be a little more about building up my guns again, I do miss my guns but as I keep telling these muscle bound gym junkies , upper body muscles are a runners enemy, not they friend.

On the running front I’ve been hitting the local oval with the dogs. I run around in circles while the boys watch me and join me briefly for a little jog somewhere on the loop,  before retreating back to the middle of the oval.  This is part of a building process. It’s not about building big numbers just building consistency. I’ve ran 9 out of the last 10 days and used  the bionic on a similar number of occasions, slowly adding time on legs each week.  Luckily there is no upcoming races so I have plenty of time to build the cardio engine , one slow run and ride at a time, no rush.  The most important thing for my training right now is to avoid  re-injuring the knee while also adding distance,  and time,  each week. I have a long way to go but if the Irrational South in October is my first race this year I’ll be ready. ( http://irrationalsouth200miler.com.au/ ) My local barista Georges has even persuaded his son Ben to join us and it looks like Amy could be back in the mix. Anybody ultra runner in Australia,  in October,  needs to look at this race, assuming it goes ahead of course? I’d say we’re 50-50 at the moment, a lot will depend on the call of the beach this Easter long weekend of course. Personally I’ll be riding my bionic isolation loop and running around in circles with my dogs, the story of my life really.

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