Raheny 5 mile

I did the Raheny 5 mile yesterday. The weather was just awful on the way there but luckily for the race it was perfect. The same could not be said about the weather for the junior's and kid's races!

I did it in 42:56 which is around what I had expected and predicted on Thursday. I could have been 20 seconds better, but I had to stop and tie my lace. Let that be a lesson for when I am going for a personal best.

It was a really enjoyable event and the goody bag was great!

So my next run will hopefully be a short one tomorrow night. If I get the time I hope to do some fartlek intervals to try and build up speed and help my aerobic capacity.

Knee Update - MRI Results

I got the results of my MRI and it was strange. Good and bad news. The good news is there is no problem or injury showing up for my knee at all. According to the images I have a perfectly fine knee, no cysts, no tears.

Great news eh? Well not really. I have a pain in my knee and I want to know what is causing it. I think I am going to do my best to stretch a lot and built up my upper leg to support my knee better. So the cycling is helping, I will try a short run tomorrow to see how that goes.

Up to 20 minutes!

I ran (ok, shuffled) for 20 minutes tonight, my knee was fine. It swelled a bit afterwards but no pain. All the pain was in my lower legs like my shins were about to explode.

I felt very flat footed too. I think it's time for some gait analysis.

In memory of running

Back in 2004 I ran my first marathon, with about 6.5 months training I did the Dublin Marathon in 3.59.59. Every second counts! I continued training and in May 2005 I did the Belfast Marathon in a thoroughly bad time of 4.50 something the website is not working at the moment so I can't find the exact time.

Later in 2005, I fell running for a train in Oslo and I badly sprained my ankle.

I wanted to get back training so I went to a physio and have been over 20 times between now and then and the longest I have run since is 12 miles. And in the last 6 months I have not been able to run 1km.

Firstly I was given orthotics to correct my gait, which then threw off my left knee and I have developed patella tendonitus.

I've had patella tendonitus for over 6 months now and I have completely stopped training and have been to the gym rarely to do some upper body work but it's hard to be motivated when you can't run or cycle.

I do every stretch I have been asked to do, every exercise, worn every strap. Nothing seems to help and I have gone from having a slight twinge in my knee after 12 miles to an almost constant pain and an inability to run.

I would like to run another marathon to do one justice but it is lookin more and more unlikely.