French Revelation

It’s three weeks since my last blog entry. That’s because Special K, Little A and I have been holidaying in Paris. (Capital I chose not to come as he’s going overseas for ~6months from July onwards.) We had a wonderful time and would highly recommend spending more time in just one place rather than doing the whirlwind tourist thing. We thoroughly enjoyed interspersing our tourist days with some chill-out time where we pretended to be Parisiens and leisurely hung out at the local coffee shops, indulged in the extraordinarily yummy fruit and veg markets, and strolled the large public gardens and avenues. Aaaaah Paris...

As for running ... that’s what the topic of this blog entry relates to – i.e., a "French Revelation". Prior to going to Paris, my running had slumped into months and months of slow, painful slogging. The root of the problem was the incessant and escalating osteo/bone pain I had developed in both knee joints and the referred pain that was becoming more and more widespread down both my legs. I have a respectable pain tolerance but running every day with pain around 6/10 had become very wearing. It was also slowing me down and detracting immensely from my enjoyment of training. So, while I had planned on running the Canberra marathon the day before going to Paris, I ended up making two short, sharp decisions on the eve of the marathon. One was that I wasn’t going to run the marathon. I was hurting too much to start and couldn’t face a long, painful slog which would only end in a disappointing performance and probably tears. The second was that I was going to get on top of the osteo pain by taking some of my own advice and having some proper time off running. These two decisions were hard ones but smart ones. I love running the Canberra marathon and I hate having time off running but... Well, actually, there was no but. I just had to do these two things. So... I did no running at all in Paris.

While the first couple of days of not running felt totally foreign, everything about being in another country felt foreign and so in many respects it was easier to deal with than it would have been if I was making myself take time off at home and having to break my normal routine. I also kept up the self talk about the logic and need to take the time off, and how being disciplined enough to do it was just as important to my running long term as training hard is. In other words, I really made myself suck up my own advice. It seems to have been a successful strategy (read on).

What I did do a lot of in Paris was walk. We walked and walked and walked. Our shortest walking day was ~6hrs and our longest walking day was ~10hrs. It was fabulous. It was both a highly effective way of getting around, seeing the sights and soaking up the Parisienne atmosphere as well as being an excellent, low impact form of “training” for my battered knees. Not only did we walk a lot, but we also climbed lots of stairs – up/down the Eiffel Tower (X2), Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur etc. Within a few days I felt my knee pain start to improve and I noticed much more flexibility around my knee joints. Judging by my first run back (8km), my non-running, walking only holiday has had a positive effect. I have 50% less knee pain in both knees, and I have 50% more mental and physical energy. The trick now will be preserving this improvement.

A nice addition to my “French revelation” re: running, was some of the reading I did while I was away. I read two running books – Pat Farmer’s “Pole to Pole” which I read on the flight over, and Adharanand Finn’s “Running with the Kenyans” which I read on the flight back. “Pole to Pole” was tedious and self indulgent. I only gave it 2 stars on the Jog’sBlog Book Review Rating Scale (JBRS). “Running with the Kenyans” on the other hand was terrific – very interesting and informative. I gave it 5 stars and would highly recommend it.

For those who are interested, this is how the Jog’sBlog Book Review Rating Scale works:

* Ho Hum .... boring and/or fundamentally flawed. Don’t waste your time.

** Just gets over the line in terms of being worth reading.

*** The positives outweigh the negatives. Give it a go.

**** A really good read.

***** Top quality. Could lead to a sustainable improvement in own running.

So, that brings my blog up to date. My next running task(s) is to work out how to preserve and build on the improvement I have just achieved in my osteo condition, and where I want to go from here with my running between now and the rest of the year.