Herald heroes

I’ve created a fundraising page for my City to Surf race.  It’s for breast cancer research. I want to run run this race in memory of my mother who died from breast cancer in 1987.

My fundraising page is called Run for Grace.

http://city2surf.everydayhero.com.au/paul__sheringham

I WIN KNEE PAIN

Sometimes the things you have to work hardest for give the greatest sense of achievment.

I’ve done it. I’ve won the battle of the maltracking patella.

Tonight I walked 5. 3km without my knee taped. Only I know how hard I’ve worked to achieve this. I’ve done the Muttonbitd Island walk countless times in various stages of pain over three and a half years.

Down past the Jetty restuarants hoping that my knee might be alright. Waiting for good trains that shake the earth under my feet at the railway crossing, when the boom gates close and the red light flashes. It hurts when I stop walking.

Out along the breakwall near the Marina, the tightness and pain starting. A big swell sweeping the wall and sometimes overtopping it. The 8:30am Virgin Blue flight coming into land; the spring carpet of Senecios turning Muttonbird Island yellow;  the winter tide washing the rocks at the base of dog beach, or the tide miles out to sea.  Many seasons have come and gone during this battle. Turn around at the base of Muttonbird Island, try to stretch hammies and ITB to loosen up.

I recall saying to my knee, I just want to walk without pain is that too much to ask? The vice like tightness, the burning nerve pain, everywhere, the eye watering pain behind the knee cap. With me everyday of my life.

Out across the dog beach the burning nerve pain used to really set in. Back along Orlando Street pushing through the pain. A pain that I knew would make my life a misery walking down the mall during the week. The stress making me feel dizzy and heavy.  My thoughts spiralling down into darkness, frustration, anger and despair.

Drivers on Orlando honking their horns, or screaming abuse at me. Leave me alone with my pain will you hoons! The drunks rolling home from the Pier Hotel. The pink light of 19 Orlando Street shining. Thinking do people really go in there?

The little girl riding her bike who looked at me and asked “Why so angry?” 

The wonder when I discovered McConnell taping and got immediate pain relief. No knee pain? The screaming had stopped for a moment.

The brief moments of pain relief when I thought I was getting somewhere, the knee cap falling back into its groove; then the horrible setback when a new physiotherapist suggested taping my knee more lightly. The knee cap went further off track that time, I could feel the cartiledge peeling off the side of my knee.

Up the hill on Harbour Drive knowing that I would pay for this walk later on. The pain screaming again like a voice that would never be quiet.

Those days in March 2007 when my foot felt like it was on fire and I’d get an eye watering burning pain in my knee while sitting at my desk at work and not even the tape would work. My life dimished in so many ways. Thinking that I needed surgery.

Obsessed with stretching my hammies, ITB and VMO activations.

People at work no longer wanting to hear, calling me lazy. That was the most frightening thing of all, not even my family wanted to know. A battle I had to fight on my own.

Only my counsellor, Peter, listened. Thanks for that. And of course Brad the physiotherapist who turned the injury around. Am I lucky I saw him? You bet! He said I took the prize for the weakest vastus medialis obliquus (inner quad muscle) he had ever seen. He said that it might take 12 months to rehab my knee and then I might run up to 5km. That was November 2006.

Well it took two and a half years, but I have run up to 20kms. How is that for exceeding expectations?

A knee cap that sounded like a tree branch was breaking. I couldn’t walk to the car without a strangling tightness grippng my inner quad.  I’d dip my leg into the Sawtell Pool to get repsite on the weekends. I actually learnt to swim, depsite hating the pool. Walking around Woolies was a challenge.

Never giving up, doing the strenghtneing and stretching and massage. Trying to eke out every ounce of strenghth in my wasted VMO. Like chipping away at a mountain. Imagining every sign of improvement, resigned to every set back.

Going to sleep with a pillow under or between my knees. Falling to sleep after another set of quad squeezes. Squeezing the pillow even in the dark, obsessed with fighting the battle. Swearing that if I never beat the knee pain I would keep fighting it until my dieing day!

The lunch time walks around Maclean Street oval. Three laps, stretches before and after. Swearing at the knee pain so much one of the neighbours complained as I went past.

The around the block walk after work. The long walk through the car park at Park Beach Plaza.  The fire in the knee always reaing its ugly head.

I kept fighting and figthing and there were moments when my knee started to feel better.

September 2007. One day my knee cap moved over a notch and felt alright. I saw the Eels play the Bulldogs at ANZ. I even ran for the train.

In Perth in Christmas 2007, doing a pain free walk in Meelup Regional Park, playing a round of golf.

Like the field trip to Royal National Park in May 2008. Full days out in the field doing what I love, botany, and no pain.

I ran first on the 18th June 2008. I started to run near the Coffs Sailing Boat club, angry with everything. I ran screaming out loud along the cycle path.

“Come on knee pain. What have you got?” I challenged it.

I swore about how much I hated Coffs Harbour.

I ran all the back to my unit and collapsed on my welcome mat, and curled into a ball and cried for I’m not sure how long, before going inside.  

Remarkeably I found the knee hurt just about as much running as it did walking.

Over the next few weeks I taped my knee and braved some more runs around the Muttonbird Island Circuit. I ran like a zephyr and a slight breeze.

The knee would hurt medially for about a kilometre but then it would warm up.

I went in my first cross country run in two decades in July. I did 24:45 and finished about 20th out of 28 runners. Sometimes the nerve pain stop me running during the week.

Often I’d throw the knee tape off because the pain would be too much. I ran in serveral more races with varying levels of pain until a run at Emerald Beach in early August.

I ran pain free that day and experienced the most unbelievable runners high.

I’ve run 800km with my knee taped.

But tonight I walked 5.3km without pain, without knee tape

I WIN KNEE PAIN

Running is good for my knee

There has been recent research looking at runners and non runners and knee pain. The research reveals that there is little evidence to suggest that running is bad for your knees and will eventually wear them out. It is a myth apparently, along with the popular tale that cartiledge will not repair itself when damaged. It can! 

Robert DeCastella in an ABC radio interview, said that while he was running competitively he had few injury problems. It was when he stopped running that he suffered knee pain. The muscles around his knees became weaker,  causing some biomechanical problems The answer was to strengthen and exercise the muscles and get back out running.

In fact the stronger you can  get your muscles and tendons around your knee, the better off you will be in fighting knee injuries. Running helps to lose weight as well, so there is less impact in the joints.

People who are unable or will not exercise are worse off. Their muscles and tendons become weak, they gain weight and this puts pressure on the heart and lungs.

In my opinion the reasons knee wear out it possibly more to do with long term biomechanical dsyfunction causing wear and tear. If you can sort out the biomechanical probelms like pronation, quad and glute muscle imbalances, ITB tightness etc etc, and run with the knee tracking smoothly, then running will improve your knees.

I think I have proved this theory correct. By running, I am fighting fire with fire. The more I run the stronger my quads and glutes get, and the less knee pain I get, the closer I get to having a normal knee function again.

Crucial in getting me started down this path to recovery was McConnell knee taping. It cheats by giving me closer to normal quad balance than when I am not wearing tape.

Clear skies ahead

I’m tired of walking in the rain- with clear skies ahead

Out of the darkness open-eyed with clear skies ahead.

Spy v Spy

I ran and finished the toughest possible 10km race last weekend. Wasn’t very happy with my time or my placing…..but the fact that I ran it all considering where I’ve come from the last few years is incredible.

There is a sense of unreality about all this. Like I have woken up into a dream that I never dreamed would come my away again.

Until June last year I never dreamed I would run again.

My battle with knee pain has been a long, long nightmare. However, without this nightmare, this running miracle might not have happened. Without the nightmare I might not have been forced to find answers for  my knee problems. Without the nightmare I wouldn’t have been forced to work so hard, to go to Sydney to see a doctor and physio who saved my knee.

Right now I am glad that the nightmare of knee pain happened. Yes that’s right, even when I could hardly walk, even when my foot felt like it was on fire, all the horrible set backs, the endless days of pain, every one of the countless hours of physio I have done. Glad it all happened! I am running! All the pain, all the frustration, all the hard work, was worth every minute to be able to run again.

Back from Perth

I have been back from my holiday for two days now. Now I am gearing up for the Sawtell Fun Run on New Year’s morning. Getting rather nervous at the prospect of red lining it in a 5.5km run. It will hurt,  and I haven’t done a fast race since last years.

I have run 23:31 and 23:48 in moderate intensity training runs. So I am quite fit, and should go much better then the 24:41 I did three years ago in the Sawtell Fun Run on very little training and with a knee cap that was just starting to sublux and really go off track.

My holiday in Perth was a happy sad one. I ran one day and went for a bushwalk the next, having fun with my new digital SLR camera taking macro photos of wildflowers.

Guinea Flower with tiny spider.

On the running side of things I did

4 x10km

5:25, 5:03, 5:16, 5:06, 5:27, 4:43, 4:53, 5:27, 5:23, 6:04 (53:24)

5:21, 5:13, 5:20, 5:10, 5:20, 4:41, 5:03, 5:24, 5:18, 5:16 (51:59)

5:15, 5:05, 5:02, 5:05, 5:34, 4:40, 4:56, 5:25, 5:27, 5:12 (51:42). The garmin made me run 70 metres further for 5km on this run.

5:03, 4:41, 4:52, 4:50, 5:09, 4:30, 4:44, 5:05, 5:20, 5:08 (49:24)       

2 X 8km

5:27, 5:03, 5:26, 5:18, 5:20, 5:32, 5:26, 5:32 (42:55)

4:57, 4:42, 4:52, 4:47, 4:34, 4:57, 5:13, 5:03 (39:02) 

The course I did in Kings Park was on concrete footpaths and along the grass of the ‘boardwalk’. There where three hills on the course that helped my fitness along nicely.  The first was a gradual incline between kilometres three to five, along the path that runs alongside Thomas Street. The next started from the bottom of the Poole Avenue and climbed up to May Drive.  And the last was the long gradual haul up the Boardwalk, across Lovekin Drive and up to the nature trail near the DNA tower. I was getting stronger on the uphills as the holiday went along, which is reflected in my times per kilometre.  One day there was a bicycle race on and I had to watch out crossing Lovekin Drive for the cyclists crossing my path.

http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/c/bgpa/pub/stories/community/memorial-map-large.gif

I had a good system going, walk about five minutes from the car park; stretch, then slowly roll into the run. Easy running until I felt I had warmed up. In all the runs I kept saying “roll it out” in synch with my breathing. I was not flat out on any run, but certainly was working it.

The fact that I ran as much as I did on this holiday is remarkeable given that at the same time last year I was in pain just walking around Kings Park. On Christmas Day I thought “Being able to run is the best christmas present ever.”

Pom Poms

On the sad side of my holiday was the fact that my father wasn’t well. One day he lacked the energy to put his shoes on to get out to the shops. He had a fall out of his bed one night and landed on his back, which was already badly bruised by a fall on a bus. They had to winch him back onto his bed. As I watched him on the bed sleeping I could see he was in pain lying on his back. Dad has a very bad cough, his lungs are not the best, he lost a lot of weight, he is in fact lighter than me at 76kgs. This is the first time in my life that Dad has weighed less than me.  Still he wanted to get out last minute shopping to get chocolates for the staff at the hostel where he is staying. This really knocked him around.

On the hugely positive side of my holiday was that on several occassions I walked around the city reasonably comfortably without the knee tape, just a ITB strap. Last year I could not do this. My knee is light years better. Also my achilles tendon gave me little trouble, just a few twinges in the mornings before I warmed up.

Several times my mind turned to negative thoughts about work  The most positive response to these negative thoughts was that I will work even harder.  I should also turn my thoughts to the possibility this year might bring in the area of my resurgent running career.  This is the inspirational postive side of my life. 

The fact is I AM working hard and have achieved extraordinary things with my return to running.  I have also taught myself to swim depsite a deep seated fear of water. I am inspired by this. I have beaten panic attacks; managed haemochromatosis; sought answers to the damage done to my health by clueless GPs and physiotherapists;  avoided knee surgery by patience, hard work and courage.

 I have thought I was dieing, I have though there was no future for me, I have been too scared to walk into a shopping centre in case I have another panic attack, been too fatigued and dizzy to walk around my unit, felt that my chest would explode, felt that I might collapse at any time. 

Despite all this I am alive and doing amazing things. This is only due to hard work and amazing COURAGE. I will give myself credit for that if no one else will.

  Also on the positive side was catching up with family over there. I met with their cute little dog, full of beans and personality.

Pool Interval Run

I did about 35 minutes in the pool.

Down the pool slow, back up the pool fast, trying to imagine I am doing a 4 minute kilometre. The intervals really sorted me out.

It was good in the pool today. People swimming squads in lanes in one half of the pool. I had lane 8 all to myself.

I have dropped Lenny my pet cockatiel off at the Pet resort. I’m ready to head over to Perth.

Hope Dad is OK. He had a fall on a bus a few weeks ago, and is losing a lot of weight apparently. I haven’t spoken to him for a while because his phone is currently disconnected.

Track

I ventured on down to the running track at Toormina. It had cooled down overnight and there was a dew on the grass.

I walked 400 metres as a warm up. When I hit the timer button on the Garmin I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run or not. That is the element of risk with running: are you going to have a good run or are you going to get injured? Take a deep breath, start to run and find out what cards fate will deal you.

Running is hard word. Lazy people don’t do long distance running.

So I rolled into the first kilometre. 2 minutes per lap X 20 laps that is 8km in 40 minutes. I tried to see if I could better that. I did the first kilometre and picked it up from there.

5:10, 4:47, 4:31, 4;35, 4:40, 4:39, 4:43, 4:33. =37:38

I wasn’t flat out by any means. Perhaps 60-70% effort. I was pleasantly surprised by the 4:30 kms. It was a good hit out, and I felt the good old tired buzz of runner’s high.

Saw the physio he was pleased with the progress on my achilles. He gave me some balancing exercises to do. I thanked him for getting me to the starting line. His treatment on my achilles realy has helped.

Also bought some speedos. The pool shorts I am wearing were causing very bad chafing.  

Looking forward to my holiday. Jogging around Kings Park should be enjoyable. To be honest I should feel more upbeat, but I feel strangely down.

1.2km without tape

This morning dawned clear, sunny and hot. I headed down to the pool for an hour and a half pool run. I estimate that to be the equivalent of a 15km run. The first hour or so was good very few people in the pool.

A young girl who was a particularly strong swimmer splashed water on me from three lanes away. Her bow wave pushed me towards the side of the pool.

I wore a shirt because an hour and a half in the sun can cause sun burn. I’ll have to purchase some other swimming attire because I got bad chafing from the pool shorts I was wearing.

Then two girls dived into the pool and splashed me and swam across my path. They got in my away as hard as I tried to get out of theirs.

In the afternoon I took the McConnell tape off and drove down to Toormina. I had seen a photo in the local newspaper showing little athletes competing with a Woolworths sign in the backgorund. I thought there might even be an athletics track there, and it turned out there was. So I walked a couple of laps around the track without the McConnell taping. It felt OK.

This is good thinks I. So then I decided to jog. I jogged three laps or 1.2km, and the knee felt pretty good. I even sped up a bit the last lap or so.

This is the first time I have jogged without tape for three years!

It looks like that after three years of hard work and of being in  pain that I  I am finally getting to the stage where I can live my life without my knee taped.

I went shopping at Toormina centro. I walked around knee untaped. I can remember the times that I couldn’t walk from my car to the shops and back without the knee cap becoming tight and running off track. 

Before last Christmas I tried to get around without tape. At the end of the day my knee would feel horribly tight. Christmas 2005 was the last time I had a normally functioning knee.

That is a long time with a disability.

Today I walked at least 2 kilometres, ran 1.2km kilometres and so far it has stayed on track. I have not worn tape for seven hours.

The 14th December 2008 is  going to be a day to remember.

Quagmire

The grass playing fields were I run where a quagmire this morning. It was raining only lightly, but Iwas slowed down by the soggy puddles that had formed on the ground.

I managed to run 8km my furthest since hurting my achilles. Again I was hampered a little by a pain in my ankle and towards the end a pain in my back.

splits were: 5:41, 5:28, 5:38, 5:26, 5:36, 5:38, 5:49, 5:51

The slow time might have been caused by the Garmin not receiving enough satellites due to the heavy cloud cover and rain.

8km 45:07

Yesterday as I finished work I felt very down. Hopefully this will clear up the longer I spend away from work.

I thought as I was going to sleep that I want to really train hard possibly twice a day. To see if I can maybe next year go in a half marathon or marathon. To prove to myself with the achievements of training and competing that I am a hard worker that I am not lazy.

This afternoon I also did a 35 minute pool run. Afterwards I felt tired and feel to sleep for about three hours.

A hot run

Hot and humid. 28 degrees at about 9:00am when I did my run.

First I did a five minute walk to warm up, walked 450 metres. 

Then I ran for 25 minutes

0.55k 3:24

1k  5:30

2k  5:18

3k 5:14

4k 5:03

Warm down walk.

Total distance covered 5:3 km in 32:26.

The confidence in my achilles is returning. I probably pushed a bit harder than I should’ve.  Probably I should look to average around 5:20 5:30/km on these training runs.  A toenail was cutting my skin, and my right hamstring was a little sore.

The day out in the field yersterday really sorted me out. I was very stiff in the legs. The amazing thing was that when I got home and took my trousers off I noticed that the knee tape had worked free. So I was walking around for seven hours, a good proportion of it without my knee cap supported by tape. I really am beating the maltracking patella.

I really felt the heat towards the end of the run this morning. The sun was beating down on the back of my neck, and there wasn’t a breath of wind. I was sweating profusely for an hour after the run.

I thought to myself if conditions at the Sawtell fun run are going to be like this, then it will be a tough race. The Sawtell Fun Run is on in only 26 days away now.