I’m attempting to do it on a unicycle, which is probably completely mad, but i thought it would be an interesting thing to do, and a good way to raise some money for my favourite charity The Anthony Nolan Trust!

I’ve just set up a justgiving page and if you’d like to sponsor me i’d be really grateful, and so will the charity!

So today i managed to get half way up the hill (to the entrance of Highgate Cemetery), which may sound like a good start, but its at the halfway point that the road starts to steepen beyond belief!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the sad effort…….

Will i get to the top of the hill by the race day??

But, although i had more energy than i needed to finish the race, my legs at mile 22 decided otherwise. The cramp started mildly in my left groin, then the right, then right quad, followed closely by both calves, and then the left buttock by which time i could literally not even walk properly let alone run at all!

So i turned off my stopwatch in anger, and walked for the next two or so miles, trying to run every couple of minutes….. by mile 25 i was able to lurch like an elderly gorilla for the last mile…….. I didnt even look at the finish time, my pride was too hurt!

Of course, a day later, i can see the wood for the trees, and can see that a number of things hampered my training…. one was that i was severely dehydrated about 5 weeks before the marathon (my fault entirely!) so i sabotaged two of my longest runs….. then i had tried a strategy of 3 runs per week instead of the normal 4 or 5 in training……. obviously didnt get the mileage up high enough……… and lastly i did next to no speedwork in training, just a few tempo runs here and there…… all in all a pathetic attempt at something which i should know by now requires dedication and effort to train up to…….. a classic example of being smug! Never again will i take my fitness for granted……. the next marathon will be a good one, i have promised myself, or if its not a good one, i will at least have trained properly for it!!

Although there are many different possible causes for these pains, it is often because of the wrong footwear, or worn out shoes, both resulting in undue stresses being applied to the lower limb whilst running, resulting in pain.

Most of the running stores are very good at putting you in the correct shoes, using video analysis and a keenly trained eye. However one element is never considered……. that after a few miles of running our feet and legs start tiring, and so we will most likely have a very different gait to when our legs are fresh.

The muscles of our calves, and the muscles underneath our feet, that hold up the arch, and keep the toes in check, are all subject to fatigue, and when they do, they need more, or different, support to when they are strong and fresh.

Of course, it is usually with fresh legs that we go to the running store and get analysed. So, my advice is to go for a longish run before you get to the store and have your shoes checked. Make it at least an hour of running, and with seasoned runners, you may want to go one and a half hours or more.

Oh, and the reason the running stores will hate me, is because they will start getting many more tired, sweaty, and sometimes smelly runners in the store!

The only problem was that the organisers had told us to get to the start by 8.40 so that we could load our bags onto trucks heading for the finish line. We figured the start was at 9.30 and this is Italy, so they probably wont be doing it all on time….. how wrong could we be! I got to the start at about 8.45 only to see the last truck heading off into the…. er…. sunrise…..! So many of us ran with our backpacks! Well, we deserved it i guess……

I would give this run a 8/10 for organisation, and a 8/10 for enjoyment, and probably a 8/10 for PB quality…….

Did you run this as well? Do let me know if you did……

It was a fun filled morning, talking about my pet subjects of running injuries, and how to prevent running injuries (i know, i need to get out more!)….. the morning culminated in me taking 10-15 people on a training run in Green Park. It was quite exciting running past where the finish line of the Virgin London Marathon 2012 will be, as we ran along the Mall…

They still have places left, so if you’re interested in running London this year, but havent chosen a charity and didnt get a ballot place, then do have a chat with them…. theyre a great bunch of people, very friendly and supportive to their runners…..

www.anthonynolan.org.uk

what a lovely race it was…. flat, beautiful city, perfect warm temperature (although many did complain it was too hot, I guess I’m solar powered!) and fairly well organised… I say fairly well, as I had only two gripes:

Gripe #1 not enough toilets! I know this is the case in so many marathons, but the lack of provision was noticeable… if it weren’t for a friendly clump of trees near the start I would have been caught out badly on the course….

Gripe #2 a 20 minute wait at the finish to collect our medals, and all of us were suffering!

on a POSITIVE note (and getting to the point!), my finish time was 3:50 which was respectable considering I only did one long run of 20 miles, and even that was with a break of half an hour after ten miles due to the fact I fell over on vauxhall bridge! With proper training I only normally do 15 minutes faster, so why did I do ok despite lack of training?

By sticking to a schedule there are three possible outcomes…..

either…. the schedule is perfect for you, you train beautifully and run a great race…

or…. the schedule is too intense for you and you get injured 6-8 weeks before the race…

or….. the schedule is too long and you peak too early (normally 4-5 weeks before the race) and so even despite a taper you end up on the start line too tired…..

the fact that 6 weeks before the marathon i normally feel in perfect form for running the race makes me think that my normal marathon training schedule must be too long for me, making me peak too early and be on suboptimal form on the day….

so the moral of the story is….. the trick to a good strong marathon is not to go hell bent on a massively punishing schedule but to time your training so you peak on marathon day, not a moment sooner….

This is never more true than in runners. A slight asymmetry in function will create a difference in stride length on one side compared with the other. Over many thousand strides this could cause some damage to the body, or at least create a strain pattern that results in injury.

This is why i think that we should all have a day in the week when every single thing we do is the mirror image of normal. Let me give an example…. if you sit on the right hand side of the sofa at night watching TV, sit on the other side of the sofa for one night in exactly a mirror image position. If you pick up a kettle with your right hand normally, pick it up with your left. and so on and so forth.

By doing this you will be gradually helping to unwind your asymmetrical pattern, and equalise your stride lengths, reducing the likelihood of injury. Just one day a week is enough to make a difference. Itll be hard to begin with, but will become easier with time.

Now, you would expect someone like him to run faster, no? Well, he would probably run it a lot faster if he wasnt going to be running the whole course BACKWARDS! Yes, he will be the second person in London Marathon history to run backwards all along the course, and he’ll probably be the fastest.

His name is Karl Twomey, and you can follow him on www.backwards4cancer.com, and if you’re feeling like it, you can donate through the site too! What an amazing achievement. Most of us mere mortals struggle to get over the line using the ‘old style’ conventional forward running (oh, so last season!).

So i got to thinking what the potential benefits and drawbacks of backwards running are, and so i did a little bit of research into it, which i have outlined here……..

Backward running is also known as Retro Running. Delve only a little and you enter this whole subculture of runners who only ever run backwards! It is a worldwide sport, and here are a couple of websites that are dedicated to the ‘sport’.

http://reverserunning.com/default.aspx - uk site

http://www.retrorunning.org/ – German site

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~btbates/backward/backward1.htm – PhD study on retrorunning

It stands to reason that running forwards is only a part of what the body can achieve, and in many sports, such as football, rugby, hockey, we run in all directions. So in a way running only forward, without using our bodies for any other movement could be seen as detrimental to our system by the inevitable imbalances that will occur in our muscles and joints from moving purely unidirectionally.

So one of the benefits of retrorunning is the completely opposite stresses that go through the body tissues, that helps to balance out the strain and stresses of forward only motion. That applies as much to the muscles and the ligaments of the body as it does to the joints.

Drawbacks seem to be mainly the risk of falling and not knowing how to land. And for beginners, i guess the problem of picking up running injuries from the lack of proper form initially.

I would say try it out. It’s a lot of fun to do as a part of your normal training, perhaps 5 minutes out of each run would be good for the muscles and joints. It cant hurt (well i guess it can if you trip over a tree root!).

If anyone is already a retrorunner, or if you have been inspired to give it a go, do let me know how you get on!

It works in a similar way to the foam roller, (another indispensable tool in the runners toolkit) by rolling over the muscles with a certain amount of pressure, to warm them up, improve circulation, assist drainage of lactic acid and other ‘waste products’, and to iron out those nasty painful knots that build up in a lot of the muscles used for running.

Unlike the foam roller, however, the rolling pin can be used without having to dive onto the floor, which can be difficult if you feel the need to massage a muscle while you’re at work! It is also much more portable, although i have never tried to get one through customs at the airport on my way to a marathon!

The rolling pin i recommend is one which has a centre which rolls independently of the handles, so that it is easier to roll over the skin.

The pin works best for the hamstrings, quadriceps, calves and the ITB (iliotibial band), muscles which, when tight, contribute a lot to running injuries such as runners knee pain, hip pain, achilles pain in runners, and foot pain in runners.

So the best way to use the rolling pin is to roll up and down the muscle with as much pressure as you feel comfortable with, focussing on the isolated parts of the muscle that are particularly tight (the knots). These respond really well to some good pressure with the rolling pin. Roll each muscle for about a minute.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with the rolling pin, so please do post comments.

Happy rolling!

Gavin