This post is the second post in my “The road to 26.2”-series in which I take you along the ride of training for my very first marathon and contains my training notes for the period of 26/12/2022 to 08/01/2023. If you didn’t read the previous post in this series, I recommend you to go there first.
Over the last two weeks, I’ve been mainly focussing on ankle rehab and making sure that the tendon in my ankle heals as much as possible. Because of this injury, I am following a recovery program with a physical therapist at Ghent University Hospital. She helped me a lot, back when I suffered from some kind of IT-band problem in my knee and I trust that she will be able to help me again this time.
Not a lot of running happened over the last weeks. I started off just fine, but as you can read below, I quickly started to get more problems with my ankle and needed to stop running for a week in order to settle everything down. Right now, I’m trying to find a out what weekly running mileage my mildly inflamed tendon is able to handle at the moment while still being able to heal and things are slowly starting to get better again.
Ankle rehab exercises
During the first rehab session, I was told to start with some very basic tendon strengthening exercises with a resistance band in order to improve the resilience of my ankle, which I’ve been doing now every other day. On Thursday, the 29th of December, I headed back to my physical therapist for the second session and we increased the intensity level of the strength exercises. I am going to describe each of the new exercises that were taught to me below, but please note that I am in no way a trained physical therapist and that I recommend you to always get proper care and professional advice whenever you’re suffering from an injury.
Heel raises with a tennis ball
Now, for the first exercise, I need to stand up with my two feet close to each other and put a tennis ball in between my ankles. While holding the tennis ball in place, I slowly stand on my toes (it should take you around 3 to 4 seconds to raise) and afterwards you can slowly go down again (also take into account 3 – 4 seconds for this downwards movement). Check this video for a quick demonstration.
Squat with a resistance band around the lower legs
The second exercise consists of a simple squat, but with a resistance band looped around my lower legs (just above the ankles). During the squat, it’s important to focus on the position of the feet and make sure they don’t wobble or tilt to the in- or outside. The arch of my feet should clearly be visible and strong and the purpose of this exercise is to teach me how to use my ankle properly and to strengthen all the little muscles and tendons that are involved in this movement.
Walking sideways with a resistance band around the lower legs
Finally, the third and last exercise that I need to perform is very simple, but surprisingly hard on my glutes. But the more muscle groups are involved in the training, the better, I guess? 😅 For this exercise, I need to put the resistance band from the previous exercise just above my ankles (around my legs) and slowly walk (with small steps) sideways. This video demonstrates the exercise. Again, it is important to focus on the position of your ankle and to make sure that it doesn’t bend or tilt inwards.
For all of the exercises above, I started with 3 sets of 15 – 20 repetitions per leg, every other day.
Cross training
Ever since I started working, I’ve been cycling to work approximately 3 – 4 times a week with an electric speed bike (which can go up to 45 km/h). Because of COVID and the mandatory “work-from-home” regulations that where in effect in Belgium, however, I barely cycled for 1.5 year and started to run more and more. Since May of 2022, almost all Belgian COVID-restrictions where lifted and I slowly started to take cycling up again. I was very careful in the beginning because of my knee injury of 2021 and decided to build this cycling up very slowly. Making matters even worse, I’ve also had a lot of issues with my current bike up until November and eventually decided to buy a new one.
Since two weeks, I’m cycling to work very regularly again (on average 3 times a week) which will definitely help me to build up aerobic fitness without putting too much stress on my joints and tendons. The one-way distance from my home to the office in Ghent is around 36km (thus, adding up to 72km a day). As I said before, my bike is electric, but I still need to provide a lot of strength in order to go the full 45 km/h. Looking at the heart rate data that my watch provides, my heart rate is between 125 bpm and 160 bpm on most rides (depending on the direction and speed of the wind), so these cycling trips to and from work do actually also count as training 😁.
The plan for now
Over the next few weeks, I plan to keep on running, but at a lower weekly volume. I’ll try to keep the volume somewhere between 25 and 30 kilometers a week and spread it over 3 or 4 runs (each no longer than 8km). I will keep this schedule on for at least 3 weeks in order to allow my muscles and tendons to become stronger (by consistently doing my strength exercises) and properly heal. I hope to feel some improvement in a few weeks and be able to slowly build up running volume again.
Training notes
From now on, I will be sharing a detailed logbook about what I did each week and how each of these training sessions felt to me. I will try to report any pains or problems that I experienced during the sessions as detailed as possible. This will also help me in the future to find out what might be the cause of an issue that’s been developing over the cause of a few weeks.
Logbook week 52, 2022 (December 26, 2022 – January 1, 2023)
| Day | Activity |
|---|---|
| Monday, 26th December | – Cycling 45km (80 minutes) |
| Tuesday, 27th December | – Running 8.2km (166BPM @ 5:23 min/km) – Strength and Conditioning (mostly core and ankle rehab) – Cycling 60km (120 minutes) |
| Wednesday, 28th December | – Strength and Conditioning (mostly core and ankle rehab) |
| Thursday, 29th December | – Strength and Conditioning (physical therapy session) – Running 8.6km (156BPM @ 5:29 min/km) |
| Friday, 30th December | – Hiking 8.6km |
| Saturday, 31st December | – Strength and Conditioning (mostly ankle rehab) |
| Sunday, 1 January | – Running 7.9km (163BPM @ 5:19 min/km) – Strength and Conditioning (mostly ankle rehab) |
The last week of 2022 started out very good. I didn’t have a lot of pain or issues in my ankle and I’ve been able to run quite consistently. I started out by cycling to a friend (who lives a little over 20km away, which adds up to 45km if I come and go) and I had a very active day on Tuesday. Since this was a week of holidays (Ghent University is closed between Christmas and New Year’s), I had a lot of time to really focus on my training and trying to improve the strength of my muscles and tendons as much as possible.
On Thursday, I had an appointment with my physical therapist. The session was quite intense, I was there for 1 hour 30 minutes and we focused on some exercises that should improve the problems that I’m having with my ankle in the future. Since I am now trying to run somewhere between 25 and 30 kilometers a week (with at least one day of not running in between each session), I decided to go for a short 8km run in the afternoon. After about 4km, I could start to feel some minor aches in my ankle, but I was a bit too far away from home to immediately go back. I continued the run and things didn’t really get much worse but I could really feel the tendon tingling afterwards. I think the strain put on by the physical therapy session in the morning, combined with the run, was a bit too much.
Friday and Saturday, I continued to focus on the strength exercises and ankle rehab prescribed by the physio and I waited until Sunday to go on another run and ended the week with a last strength session. Running is possible, but I really need to stay below 10km at this point.
Total running this week: 24.7km
Total cycling this week: 105km (200 minutes)
Logbook week 1, 2023 (January 2, 2023 – January 8, 2023)
| Day | Activity |
|---|---|
| Monday, January 2nd | Rest day! |
| Tuesday, January 3rd | – Cycling 75km (140 minutes) – Strength and Conditioning (Hard ankle rehab session) |
| Wednesday, January 4th | – Foam rolling and stretching |
| Thursday, January 5th | – Cycling 75km (140 minutes) – Strength and Conditioning (physical therapy session) |
| Friday, January 6th | – Cycling 72km (135 minutes) |
| Saturday, January 7th | Rest day (although I did walk a lot while visiting Brussels) |
| Sunday, January 8th | – Strength and Conditioning (Mostly core) – Cycling 12km (25 minutes) |
This week started out pretty bad. I planned a rest day on Monday, just to let everything cool down and settle a little after my run of last Sunday. I only did a short walk of about 2km to stretch my legs, nothing more, but I did have quite some pain today. I feel that my injured tendon (and the muscles around it) need enough time and opportunities to recover.
On Tuesday, I cycled back- and forth to work (which adds up to around 75km) and did more ankle rehab strength exercises in the evening. This was a pretty hard session, as it was the first time that I tried standing on my toes (and doing calf raises) without the tennis ball squeezed in between my ankles. Before, I always did these calf raises using both my legs at the same time. Now, I need to perform the exercise for each leg separately which is significantly harder. I barely managed to get to 15 repeats per leg (during 3 sets) and was really glad when this session was over.
On the sunny side, I could feel that the sideways walking with a resistance band around my legs was starting to pay off. My glutes didn’t start to hurt as fast as before and I could more easily reach my goal of walking up- and down 4 times (per set). I had actually planned another short run (around 5km) in the evening together with some people of the local running club, but I had to cancel since I was having too much issues with my ankle and I didn’t want to make things worse. Since I started running, I learned the hard way that it’s never a good idea to push through when your body gives you the sign that there’s something not completely right.
Now that Wednesday has come, I wanted to do yesterday’s short run and catch up, but I was still feeling pain in my ankle and just decided to stop running for a few days. It’s clearly not working this way and I think resting my ankle is the best I can do for now. At this point, I hoped to be able to start again on Monday (when my running club resumes runs after the winter break) and I think that focussing on my ankle rehab is of more importance now than to catch up on a missed run.
On Thursday, I am booked in again for a physical therapy session (my third one since the ankle started to act up). I have a lot of questions at this point. I feel like things have only gotten worse compared to a few weeks ago and I’m not sure what I can and cannot do. As long as I’m using and moving my foot, everything is ok, but once I rest and I don’t use my ankle for some time, the pain just starts to come back and gets worse. This is something apparently typical for inflammation of tendons. Whenever you start to cool down and the tendon starts to stiffen again, the pain returns. The physical therapist tells me to dial back the strength exercises and teaches me some new exercises that put a little less stress on the tendon. We schedule another appointment in 5 days to see how things are progressing and I’m going to take it easy up until then.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday continued with me feeling some discomfort in my ankle after walking or cycling, so I’ve taken enough rest throughout the days to hopefully make things better soon.
Total running this week: 0km
Total cycling this week: 234km (440 minutes)
The last week has definitely been a challenge, but I try to keep positive and I really feel that I can come back stronger if I just continue to run consistently and well balanced (taking into account my current limitations) 😊.