Step forward or step back?

Well after a few minutes of gentle exercise last night, it was clear that I most certainly would not be running a half marathon on Sunday.

But today the leg is not too bad, so a small amount of gentle exercise has at least not set me back.

Most runners I know recommend resting, but when you ask how long, no-one has any suggestions.

So now it is a case of figuring out how to exercise and keep fitness without overloading the leg, and how to strengthen the leg long term for skiing anyway. It looks like the rowing machine might be a way of doing some strengthening and fitness without the impact.

I think I can probably manage to get back to running again within another 2-3 weeks, but I can't afford to lose much more than that.

This has confirmed one thing I have long thought - running slightly slower, I can keep going with relative ease for much longer, and trying to get faster is not going to work without a careful programme of more exercise and some weight loss (90kg is not an ideal weight for a runner). So I need to take the plunge and set myself the target of doing a marathon next year, and also accept that having done it once, I am probably never going to do another sub 2 hour half marathon.

One of the news items today was about the F1 drivers, and how weight matters to them. Cars have a minimum weight with the driver. An extra 10kg adds about 0.3 seconds to a lap time. The taller drivers are typically 10kg heavier than the smaller drivers, and no amount of fitness training can get their weight down whilst maintain the strength they need to drive the car.

I mentioned some time ago about nutrition. Well I put three different gels in the top of a freezer set to -21C along with a small USB sized temperature logger and about every 30 mins, I had a feel of each of them (very scientific). Here are the results

Time	Temp	Maxim gel	Mulebar gel	High5 Energygel+
0:00		-	-	-
0:30	-13C	liquid	liquid	liquid
1:00	-15C	liquid	liquid	liquid
1:30	-16C	liquid	liquid	liquid
2:00	-18C	liquid	liquid	Just liquid but starting to go solid at nozzle end
2:30	-17C	liquid	liquid	Almost all solid
3:00	-16C	liquid	liquid	Almost all solid
3:30	-18C	slightly thicker but liquid	thicker but liquid	Pretty much solid - could probably not squeeze out
4:00	-18C	slightly thicker but liquid	thicker but liquid	Pretty much solid - could probably not squeeze out
4:30	-19C	slightly thicker but liquid	thicker but liquid	Solid

 The Maxim gel is bigger than the others and has a screw top, so you don't have to have it all at once. There is another version of the High5 - the IsoGel - which has a higher water content (so you don't have to take water with it). I didn't test this because with a higher water content it would freeze sooner.

 

The temperature is basically around -19C from the outset, but the thermal mass of the measuring device means that it took time to reach the final temperature. The gels are bigger and so have more thermal mass. So all that can really be said is that in -19C, this is the state of them after specific periods in that temperature.

 

The only control I have is that I did take one of the Maxim gels with me on this year's RR and on one of the coldest days at the end, it was still not frozen after about 8 hours. It was only in a belt bag, so not much protection from the cold.

 

The Maxim ones took some tracking down. I must have bought one locally, but no-one seems to have them any more. Eventually I discovered they are Danish and ended up buying a box from the importer.

At least progressing on other fronts, such as nutrition, keeps me looking forward.