Week 1 Magic Plan completed

[MilliePuli]

Hi. Completed week 1 of Magic Plan last Friday - I was planning on following the 10k plan but may have to switch to time plan. I did NRC speed run on Monday for the first short run/intervals, ran 5 km in 32.50 on Wednesday and 5.5 km in 37.39 on Friday. Discovered two great outdoor gyms at our local recreation parks and used those after the runs for a bit of stretching and strength exercises. Great find. Disaster struck on Friday afternoon on my way to Sainsburys - I decided to start jogging as I was going through the planted area at the edge of the car park and suddenly my right leg just gave way - no strength in it at all. I hit the floor badly - lots of 'road rash' on both legs and hands but my left knee had a huge tear in the skin - full of debris and was like an open crater. Had to go to A&E and have it cleaned out (ouch) and stitched - stitches in for 10 days. I thought it had completely put paid to carrying on with the bridge to 10 k but it has been feeling much better since Monday. On Monday I went to our local green and did a really slow, light 20 min jog using an NRC led run. Very slow and just testing out my leg but it felt ok and I enjoyed it. Had a bike ride today (about 25 km) and my knee felt fine and flexible again. So I might do the 2nd run of week 2 tomorrow - aiming for time rather than distance and see how it goes. Fingers crossed. Great weather for the Magic Plan here at the moment - hope it continues.

[Fionamags Graduate10]

Oh dear that sounded a bit alarming! Good to hear that you're OK again. You are doing a great time for the 5k so the distance plan could be feasible for you. But if you feel its a bit much then switching to the timed version is a good option. I did it by time then switched over to the distance version at the distance that I achieved in 60 mins. It sounds like you'll probably manage to tick off the 10k pretty quickly after you've reached the 60 mins mark.

[MilliePuli Graduate10 in reply to Fionamags]

Thank you Fiona. Yes, it was alarming and I will probably need to investigate why leg just gave way. Thanks for your advice and encouragement - I'll have to see how it goes this week. I was feeling very fed up on Friday at the thought of having to postpone the magic plan but maybe I will be able to continue on schedule - or just take an extra week and use this week as recovery. Will see how it goes tomorrow

[Fionamags Graduate10 in reply to MilliePuli]

Did you come across from the 5k forum or have you been running for a while? Just asking because I wondered how much information you had/knew about already about injury prevention etc? I have got a cheek to talk having just had a few weeks off with injury, but the strength training and stretching stuff is really important. I'm not in a routine with that at all, which is probably why I ended up with an injury not long after my first 10k. I think JuJu posted some good info on strength and mobility training - might be in pinned posts.

[MilliePuli Graduate10 in reply to Fionamags]

Yes I came from 5K forum - I started c25k and graduated at the end of July. I have never been a long distance runner - always a sprinter in my teens - so I am new to doing longer runs - but I am generally fit as I cycle and do karate and used to do lots of gym classes such as spinning and core / body pump / strength circuit training. I do stretching and strength exercises every day - it is part of our karate training. When my leg just gave away I put it down to being a running injury as this is the most new thing for me - and I had done the 5.5k run during the morning before my fall. I'll introduce some new leg/ankle/calf strength exercises over the next couple of weeks - I've been reading up on them this week. Thanks for your help again.

[Fionamags Graduate10 in reply to MilliePuli]

Sounds like you already know what you're doing then. That's good.

[Comfortnotspeed Graduate10]

Hope you’re recovered! Enjoy the MP 🌸😊🌸

[Cantsoimgonna Graduate10]

Ouch. Poor you! When i got my 4 stitches in my knee I didn't run for 2 weeks. I was too frightened of popping the stitches and then when they came out after a week I was scared it would pop open without the security of the stitches. Happy healing.

[MilliePuli Graduate10]

Me too - I've been worried about bursting the stitches but my run on Monday was a really light slow jog and I did it on grass just in case my leg gave way again (which is my big fear). I'm finding I get more mobility each day - so I'm just taking it slowly. I had 4 stitches too. So painful over the weekend. Thanks for your reply.

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I hope you recover well! I do think that if you are able to run, then slow and steady is actually better because it'll help you with stamina until you're back to push it again. Best wishes 😊

[MilliePuli Graduate10]

Thank you. I was thinking this morning that I will take this week to recover with very slow runs and then push on again next week if I feel I can. Thanks for your advice. Best wishes.