Building a stronger body

I was going to do a post this week on how well my recovery from injury was going, but those plans went out the window last Thursday. So instead of focusing solely on my recovery I’m going to talk about building a stronger body.

Over confidence during injury recovery is a fine line that needs to be balanced properly. I fell victim of being too confident and upped my mileage too quickly. Last Thursday I came off my last night shift and was determined to get a solid run in before Steph went to work and I got Isabelle from school.

In recent weeks I’ve been doing at least 2 sets of glute exercises with my resistance band before going running as the apparent cause of my IT band syndrome is a weak left glute. This has been working well as I’ve built up from run/walk intervals on grass to gradually increasing nonstop running from 2 miles to 5 miles. It was a 5 mile run that I was targeting on Thursday when I felt my IT band flare up again.

Doing my glute exercises

I made two mistakes. Firstly, after significantly upping my mileage in a short space of time, I should have been sensible and gone for just 2-3 miles rather than 5, and secondly, as I was pushed for time, I rushed my glute exercises and only did 1 set. Now, the lack of glute exercises before a run may or may not have had a bearing on it flaring up again but I honestly believe it has helped my recovery massively overall and that its warmed up my glutes before running.

So for now I’ll be easing off the running for a couple of weeks. This has to be the most frustrating injury I’ve ever had. I mean, how do I know it’s getting better? How do I know I can start running longer distances without having to worry about it flaring up again? Will it ever completely go away or is it something I’m going to have to continue to manage during my running “career”? I don’t have the answers to those questions but I may go back to seeing a physio to try to get some of these questions answered.

In the meantime I shall be fully focusing on my strength work. Strength work is vitally important to a runner and its something I feel I have neglected in the last 6-12 months. I think became consumed with numbers. The number of miles I was running every week and month and then since January I was so obsessed with following my marathon training plan, which contained no cross training, that I viewed fitting in strength training as an inconvenience and I didn’t see it being worthwhile trying to fit it in.

My first CrossFit workout in years

How wrong was I! Many years ago I LOVED the gym. I was going 3-4 times a week doing mostly free weights. I was never massive and I don’t think I ever could be but I like to think I was pretty strong for my size and I got into pretty decent shape. When Steph fell pregnant with Isabelle I started going to the gym less and less and slowly I stopped doing strength work altogether.

I dabbled in it on and off in several failed attempts to get fit but it wasn’t until 2016 that I really got into it again and even then I didn’t stick with it consistently once I discovered my love for running.

Catching up with my boy Matt

One of my biggest issues has been my dislike for the only local gym that allowed me to pay as you go. I didn’t like the place or its atmosphere. I remember my good friend Matt, who I have been friends with for about 23 years, saying he was working as a PT in a gym about 10 miles or so from where I live. I never followed him up on his invite until just over a week ago when I text him asking him for the details of his gym (CrossFit Wyvern) as I knew I needed to get back to doing strength work if I was ever going get over this injury and hopefully prevent any future injuries.

Checking in at CrossFit Wyvern

It was honestly the best thing I’ve done in a long time as I when got to the gym I realised it was exactly the sort of place I wanted to train in. It has all of your everyday gym equipment but its primary function is being a CrossFit affiliate. If you are unaware of what CrossFit actually is then click the link to find out but it’s basically forms of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) but using functional movements. Its hard and intense and I LOVE it!

I have now been twice in the last week, videos of my workouts are on my Instagram page, and I plan on going again this week. My body aches like never before and its a feeling I relish as it’s the ultimate sign of a good workout.

So moving forward, strength work is going to be my primary focus while I can’t run properly and even when my running picks up, I’m determined to stick with the strength work in the hopes of a stronger body meaning fewer injuries in the future.

Stay tuned for further updates and also a possible YouTube channel in the future for my workout videos for those that are interested.