No blogging means too many other things to do. And, some homework which I‘d like to write about since there are some findings that might be of interest for alle the atheletes out there struggling with cramps in their feet, in their calves or a hurting achilles (achilles tendinitis).
The way to overcome that is so simple. Just change your shoes, buy new ones. Or even better, make some orthopedic soles. And do not forget to eat a lot of magnesium, every day. I have just learnt, it‘s not that easy and simple. As long as it takes to run yourself in these problems as complex is the solution or let‘s say the way out to overcome that. Here are some learnings. Some of these might be self-evident for the more professional and experienced among us. But they were not for a starter like me.
Achilles and the calves
First of all, most of the achilles problem are related to a strong pull coming from hardened calves. When the muscles are constantly pulling then the non-flexible achilles is constantly stressed. This by the may is the most common reason for achilles problems. I didn’t know.
Stretching
I didn‘t stretch after my rides. And I did almost never stretch after my runs. I did never after swimming. My stretching unit of today took me 20 minutes after my 210 minutes excercice. And it was a hard stretching, only focussed on my legs. After my first 4 personal yoga classes in the last 4 weeks, I had to admit, that the runners „fast“ stretching doesn‘t really work for stressed legs. My 61 years old teacher put her fingers directly in my wounds, uaaah. Actually I am using a belt to stretch each of my two legs in three different directions and I have a few favorite positions for special regions in my body (back, hamstrings …). Here are two very interesting positions, just to show how efficient and powerful stretching can be:
but better learn it directly from a professional teacher, it’s not that simple as it looks.
Trigger Points
The best way to release your trigger points is once a again the most powerful. It‘s a long time ago I was screaming from pain, but I did a few times last week. My physio therapist puts his fingers deeply on and in my trigger points (extremely hard parts of my muscles) and is also working with needles. Step by step it‘s getting better. We will later on support this work with massage.
Taping
To work again the constant pull of your calves a tape can be an excellent solution. Here‘s a video illustrating the idea of how you can work with the pull and your achilles in your leg. Important is, that in the lower part (on the achilles, up to the calf muscle) the pull is about 70-80% and in the upper part (where the tape is on the muscle) there is no pull in the tape.
And here‘s another one – unfortunately in German
Sour
As most of us are eating a lot of pasta and meat, our body tends to get sour. This is also having a negative impact on the muscles. I‘ve just checked my PH and it is very low. There are a few ideas I‘d like to implement and maybe I‘ll eat some basic powder to support it. I’ll write more about that in future article.
Training Plan
In addition my coach and I we‘re experimenting about the kilometers I can run for my marathon preparation to find the limits. As it goes better from day to day I‘d like to take out the maximum of my trainings. With green light from the physio therapist we can work on that as a team. The last three days I was running 30km, which is quite a lot.
Once again things are not as simple as we like them to be. And, it‘s up to us to work on that as there is no cure fixing this the next years. And listen to your body. I‘ve realised that quite early, that‘s why we can work fast on that. Fast means, 6 months till there is no more pain. Let’s take this challenge.
@fight inner weak 