My appointment with Larry Cohen (Sports Physio Bondi Junction) went well this afternoon. Initially, Larry was concerned that my recovery from races seemed to be very poor. Ice packs, ice packs and more ice packs are his answer. Immediately after a race, I should apply ice packs to quads, calves and ankles. Better still, he says, I should jump in a cold bath. Better than that - put a bag of ice in the bath ! Brrr. He said that I would be amazed with the difference. Um, ever heard of hypothermia Larry ? Now to the main problem. He says that my shins and calves are inflamed - not because of over training - but rather because of the lack of strength in the calf. This causes increased pressure on the shin bone and can or will lead to stress fractures. Solution is eccentric calf/archilles exercises. Eccentric exercise is the lowering action of an excerise rather than lifting. The exercise: Stand on a step on two feet and raise myself onto my toes. Then lower myself down on one foot only. Swap the process and do 15 repeats on each foot. Do the same thing with knees bent, 15 repeats on each foot. Two times a day. After that he's keen on me skipping in a few weeks. Should be fun. Larry had a look at my training program as I edge towards the SMH Half. He said that it needs to be reduced to avoid injury. Essentially, my Sunday long runs need to be cut back by about 25% until I build up a better base. I can start running again on Thursday with a 5/7km light run on grass. I go back to see him in a week. :)

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