Start again

My wandering neck vertebra seems to be staying in place. I received the all clear from the Osteopath this morning, with a warning not to go at it hammer an tongs to make up for what I've been missing.

To summarise - I had a cold for three weeks and then injured my back. The osteopath manipulated me in several places, including my neck which he said had been "out" of alignment for some while. However, it didn't want to stay "in" and he's been pushing it back regularly for a couple of weeks. It now seems like it's staying in place.

In the last six weeks I've managed to keep running but I don't feel particularly efficient and my weight is up.

GOAL
I have two months, until 25th June, to get fit enough to kayak 30km a day, each day for five days, fast. I'll also have to so some running and some biking, but they're not the sports I'm training for.

HERE'S MY WEEKLY ROUTINE
In the coming weekends I'll get out on the water on a SAT and SUN. I know this is the best training, but I can only kayak on these days. SO I'm looking to maximise the rest of my training time and direct it towards upper body. I'm asking my trainer Scott Masterton the questions below:

MON, TUE, WED THR - I work four days a week. Two are long days 9am-11pm, two are short until 9-6. They vary each week.
On the 2 long days, there's not time for much more than a 2 mile run to and from work. Is there a way of maximising the value of this workout? Heart-rate zones?

So the two short days are the days I must exploit to the full. Because I need upper body work, I'm considering joining a council gym (£26pm), just to access the rowing machine and weights on the two evenings a week I'm not working late. It would also help on those occasional weekends I can't get on the water for whatever reason. It would also help on those occasional weekends I can't get on the water for whatever reason. In your opinion, is it worth it?

FRI
A regular 8.15am (ugh!) booking with Scott, followed by an hour cycle ride

I guess I need to know whether it's worth joining that gym for the rowing machine and weights? Or should i give up and start eating pizza again?

ACE'd Out

No ACE Race this weekend for me.

I saw the osteopath this morning, and this is the situation. Last year, when I had similar neck problems, although the pain went away the mis-alignment of my neck was not corrected. At my first manipulation four weeks ago, he did correct it, but one vertibrae had become so used to being "out" it didn't want to stay "in". He has now manipulated my neck three times.

It's important I do nothing to knock it "out" because the more times we play vertibrae hokey-cokey, the more likley it is to keep popping out. "What does this race involve", he saked me. "Spending 10 hours in a van, then running cross country, day and night, kayaking and mountain biking", I replied. Hopefully, I asked, "should I do it". "What do you think", was the reply. Of course I shouldn't.

I can still run, but on road - nothing that might send me out of allignment. I'm getting three sessions of machine physiotherapy this week to reduce inflamation around the manipulated area and try to keep the vertibrae "in".

God, I hope this works. My training really has suffered.

Problems, problems….

Truth is, things haven’t been going well.

Because of my back injury I missed the Team training weekend in the Lake District with Joe Faulkner. An osteopath manipulated me and, while he seems to have fixed my back, he also seems to have created another problem - with my neck!

Before I went in it felt fine, but he said there was something wrong with it, manipulated it. Four visits later it’s still not right.

A couple of weeks ago I rode 65 miles on the Saturday, kayaked on the Sunday and spent the Monday in considerable pain. Because I hadn’t trained for about six weeks, I'd lost a lot of fitness. So I’ve started running again, but I’m really worried about my neck.

The osteopath has been on holiday and I’m due to see him first thing Monday morning, so I really hope he can do something for me. Or I'm going to have to go elsewhere.

We’re meant to be competing in our first training race next weekend (16/17 April). It’s a two day ACE Race in mid-Wales. Frankly I’m not sure I ought to do it with my neck feeling as bad as it is. Also our fell-runner Dominic had the wrong weekend in his diary, and he can’t make the race either. So it may be that only three out of our five strong team can compete in our first race “togther”.

On top of that, we’ve not bothered to sort ferries or a van. Nor have we paid all our race entry fee to the Heb. So naturally we’re getting hassle from the organisers.

All the team complain about being “busy” at work. No-one wants to answer my e-mails, so I can’t organise things on their behalf. Things only get done when I unilaterally decide to sort things out.

We need a manager! And a good osteopath!!