The I's Have It

Impact, Impatience and Injuries 

It’s a while since my last post, but the lack of words is not reflective of a lack of things to say, or of progress...
 The last couple of months have been very full for me. The additional time for training gets trickier and trickier to fit into my schedule, but so far the removal of sleep has mostly been avoided…

As mentioned before, the task in hand – to run a 4 minute mile – is a rather major undertaking and as such has required a full commitment on my part…

 The problem has been that my competitive nature has made me slightly more impatient for tangible improvement and has led to me over doing things slightly.
 Take last week…

Friday - Drive from Sheffield to Birmingham for a conference at the UK Games Expo , then straight down to Aldershot for the Kotei (Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game National Level event), Upon arriving , having eaten some fantastic Vegetarian food from the Caribbean Restaurant “Taste Buds” I spent some time plotting a route for a run the next morning.

Saturday - up early for a 3.5 mile hill run (or as hilly as I could find via Google maps), followed by breakfast and day 1 of the Kotei.

Sunday - no training, day 2 of the Kotei, plus drive back to Sheffield

Monday - 9 mile run.

Tuesday - 3 miles Killer Hill Loops, then a days work

Wednesday - no training, but a double shift at work

Thursday - Strength Training with PT

Friday - Full day at work, followed by Power-plates Strength Training with Running Coach

Saturday - 9 Mile Run before work followed by busiest day of the week at work

Sunday - foot swollen so much I could hardly walk. Went to the gym and did core and upper body work anyway.

Monday – Doctor’s surgery, diagnosis – Sesamoiditis

Sesawhatnow?

A quick anatomy lesson…
Sesamoid - The two small bones located on the underside of the joint where your big toe meets the ball of the foot.. There is one sesamoid bone on each side of the base of the big toe.

The muscles that bend the big toe down (the toe flexors) pass underneath the main joint of the big toe, crossing over the bump formed by the sesamoid bones. This bump acts as a fulcrum point for the toe flexors, giving these muscles extra leverage and power.
 The sesamoids also help absorb pressure under the foot during standing and walking, and they ease friction in the soft tissues under the toe joint when the big toe moves.

Itis - suffix meaning an "inflammation of”

The most common cause of this problem is repeated movements of the same or similar nature.

 So basically, too much running…

 That and repeated impact activity, so basically , too much running…

The body is a very versatile and adaptive thing and can, given enough time, strengthen in the places that these sorts of problems occur. The key thing here is giving it enough time…

Since I started this challenge, it has occurred to me how much we take things like walking and running for granted. We never really consider whether the way we do these things is the best way to do these things...

For most of us, the fact that we went through the learning process for all of this when we were very young, makes it something that we never really give a second thought.

I guess it is fair to say that there is not really a right or wrong when it comes to running, but there is definitely a more and a less efficient way of doing it.

For the Gamers among us it is rather like the move between playing a game casually and then trying to win a major tournament…

  Both disciplines require the use of the same basic skills, but the application of them becomes quite different, as does the precision with which you use them.
Another parallel is the need to undergo the difficult process of trying to unlearn the habits you picked up when you were doing things casually…

According to the sorts of people that make note of these things, it takes about 300 repetitions to learn a movement or skill, but in order to change the same movement or skill to another one (say a more efficient way to move your legs, or a better decision making process) it takes nearer to 3000 repetitions.

The downside of this when doing something physical, is that the new “improved” method can be using a different part of your joint or muscle group that has not, as yet, had chance to develop to a level where it can cope with your impatience to improve. I’m talking to you sesamoid!

More science…

When you run, the part of your foot that makes impact with the floor will greatly influence your ability to utilise the energy that you are generating from your muscles, and how much of that ends up wasted or transferred into the ground.

The foot has three anatomical planes – 1) Abduction and Adduction in the medial plane of movement…
The foot Abducts when it moves radially (or away from the centre of your body) and Adducts when it moves medially (or towards the centre)

2) Inversion and Eversion in the frontal plane of movement…

The foot Inverts when it rotates inward and upward (the sole toward the midline), and Everts 
when it rotates outward and upward (the sole away from the midline).

3) Plantarflexion and dorsiflexion in the sagittal plane of movement…
 The foot plantar flexes when it moves downwards away from the tibia and dorsiflexes when it
moves upwards toward the tibia.

Yeah? So what?

Well this range of movements is undertaken differently in all of us and when it comes to running how you lift, hold and place your foot back down has a great deal of influence on the speed of your ambulatory movements as well as the inclination of injury due to stress from impact.

This is usually manifested in the angle and part of the sole of your shoe that wears away first.

So added to the three planes of motion there are two other Motions of the foot – Pronation and Supination.
These include simultaneous movement in the frontal, sagittal, and transverse planes.
These are termed tri-plane movements.
Or in English – movement from front to back, left to right and top to bottom.

Pronation is motion consisting of simultaneous movements of abduction (Laterally away from the centre), Dorisflexion(upwards towards the tibia), and Eversion(Rotating outward and upward, away from the midline)

Supination is motion which combines the movements of adduction (Medially or towards the centre), plantarflexion(Downwards and away from the tibia), and inversion(inward and upward).

All of which is effected by which part of the foot hits the floor first...

Naturally in my running motion I would always land on my heel with a slight pronation. This, while not anything unusual, is not the best technique for travelling efficiently at pace for any length of time.

The foot has a natural spring system that is the Arch, which , if you land on your toes,(termed Pose or Frontal)  absorbs a large amount of the kinetic energy and in turn uses it to spring the foot back up.
 Landing on the heel, apart from being more likely to injure your shins and knees, basically wastes almost all of the energy of impact transferring most of it directly into the ground and a portion back up your bones to the knees. A large amount of the latter can be mitigated by wearing decent running shoes.
(The other common area of impact is mid or flatfoot)

Lots of hill training has been instrumental in not only increasing my strength and endurance, but in teaching me to run so that my toes are the impact points rather than the heel.

But then we are back to that tiny sesamoid!

As someone once said – moderation in all things (especially moderation).

If you are feeling inclined to start running, I know some of you will be seated in the restaurant at the end of the universe talking to your meal before that ever happens, but , if you are considering it, I highly recommend paying a visit to your local specialist running shop.

As you may well know I am an advocate of supporting your local bricks and mortar store, so keeping to my scruples, rather than purchasing running shoes from the internet at knockdown prices, I visited a store in Sheffield called “Up and Running” to check out some shoes...

I’m glad I did...
The staff were fantastically knowledgeable and helpful. They performed a Gate Analysis by filming my feet whilst I was running on their treadmill. From which they were able to recommend shoes to suit both my intended use and my running style and which provided support in the correct places...

All of which would have been perfect if I was more patient :)

SESAMOID!!!!!