Although this blog’s initial raison d’etre is to chronicle my marathon preparations and issues that seem to touch on an injury-free progress to Apr 22, the wider purpose is to explore how to safely increase workload to a sustainable higher level. This is a major issue in our culture, given arguments about work-life balance, educational achievement, and even income inequality. Why can some succeed and others struggle? What can we do if we are among the also-rans – at least to improve our personal best?

There was a tragic case of a City lawyer reported last week, where the cause of death was attributed to a long-hours culture in so-called “magic-circle” law firms. Unfortunately, it is one of those cases where the reader is left with lots of suggestion but insufficient information to draw any fair conclusions. But that should not prevent us from asking hypothetical questions as to how we should work, and expect others we employ to behave.

An ability to sustain a high work-rate is implicit in much success, and is part of what David Shenk is documenting on his blog, The Genius in All of US. The assumption of what I’ve seen of this literature is that success in more complex careers or elite sport requires an appropriate support structure (family, friends, coaches, colleagues, teachers), and a work methodology that avoids exhaustion, burnout and injury. There are other factors of course, like a facility for understanding and taking risk, and resilience in the face of failure. But not all of us are likely to start out with those support structures, or have thought about how we establish them for ourselves or for others – whether family, friends, colleagues or employees.

Continue reading ‘undulating route to higher performance’

It’s the stupidest thing, but this foot pain is worrying. The tendon was damaged in my hallux a few months ago while fooling around doing pull-ups with my 7-year-old. I say hallux, because if I say “big toe”, you’re unlikely to think this is very serious. But the soreness is spreading out across my foot 20-30 minutes into each run.

I’m not so much worried about the pain increasing, but the danger of a longer-term compensating injury occurring somewhere else as my running gait becomes unbalanced. I’ve experienced something of this before. My physio, Ian Andrews, suggested this was possibly the underlying cause of my injury in 2005, prior to my first attempt at the Flora London Marathon. It’s very common among amateur athletes. Incidentally, it’s a really good idea to have a physio check out your running gait occasionally, and also examine your core stability (more on that in a later post.)

I’m told by reliable sources that tendon injuries don’t repair readily because blood flow is limited to these areas, and so nutrients and contaminants don’t get delivered/removed. Heat and ice treatment is recommended to stimulate circulation, but I’m going to investigate if there are some stretches that might help.

I’m big on my stretching regime, but it is very time-consuming. It’s something I used to consider either boring or completely unnecessary. But after at least six months of almost disciplined use, it is finally paying real dividends. Sometimes I’d say it is miraculous. I’ve heard musicians observe similar things about practising scales. After about six months, the effect can be transformative: another example of the benefits of delayed gratification. Who’d have thought it?

Resting Heart Rate 51

Weight 72 kg

Mood

Total exercise energy consumed 757 kcal, 10 mins bike, 45 mins steady run

Foot discomfort again appears after 20 mins