Your Peak Potential

My face when someone tells me they're fully recovered because their legs feel good...

Because I'm wondering what those legs could do if the REST of them was recovered too. 👀

I'm looking at....
They are a bit wired
They look tired underneath all that
And their data - HRV is down, resting heart rate is up

I'm thinking about......

How much fatigue is accumulating underneath that wired energy?

How much extra bracing and tension is your body using to compensate for that fatigue?

Which muscles and joints are having to work harder as a result?

Has all the repair and rebuilding actually finished?

Your legs might feel great.

But they're still attached to the rest of you. 😂
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your next run is give your body the chance to finish recovering from the last few.

Oooooh. This is the face of someone whose QLs have FINALLY let go.
It's a muscle. You can step out of the gutter now thank you 😂

What the hell is a QL, I hear you say, and why am I so excited about it releasing?

It's a muscle either side of your lower back that often gets the blame for back and hip pain.

I used to stretch mine. Daily.

Now...

A bit of pelvis and rib movement to find a new position.
Some light breath to switch on some trunk (or core) support.

And boom.

Or rather...

I'm melting.....

My whole body just went, "Ohhhhhhh. OK. We're doing THIS."

I may float around on a cloud for the rest of the day. ☁️😂

No stretching required.

One of the many injuries I had back in the day, when they seemed to happen every week...
A strained butt cheek.

Funny? NO.
I couldn't sit down 😱

It was embarrassing enough constantly being at the physio having my ass loosened. But rocking up with it actually strained was another level.

But more than anything, it was really frustrating.
Because through all these treatments, no one seemed particularly interested in why it kept happening.

"It's just running."

I can pretty much assure you our ancestors weren't heading to the physio for an ass massage every few weeks after chasing down their dinner.

The focus was always on getting the painful bit better.
Rest it. Rehab it. Strengthen it. Get back to running.

But I wanted to know why my butt had ended up so overloaded in the first place.

For a long time I thought I knew why.
My core wasn't doing its job properly. My spinal erectors weren't doing enough. So my hips were picking up the slack.

It made sense.
And it got me looking beyond the bit that hurt.

But over the last few years I've realised I was still looking at my body as a collection of individual bits and asking:

Which bit isn't doing its job?
What I've learned since is that the answer is often bigger than muscles.

And that's taken me down a whole other rabbit hole...

More on my overworking ass later this week. 😂

Dear runner, I'm doing my best down here. But I'm getting tired.
Love, your toes. 🦶

😂

I was reading a runners' thread about toes rubbing and couldn't believe how many people said:

"My toes stick up when I run."

For lots of them, it seemed to be just another normal running thing.
But those toes might be worth noticing.

Today I was working with a client who has been dealing with back pain.

One of her automatic patterns is how her toes lift when her body is trying to solve certain movements.

She doesn't have painful toes. They weren't the problem. They were a clue.
And we didn't work on her toes.

We worked on helping the rest of her body create more support so her feet and lower legs didn't have to do so much of the work.

Her toes dropped.
And she was able to take that into some squats, with toes relaxed and down.

Her toes hadn't suddenly got stronger or more flexible. Her body had simply found another way to support the movement, so her toes didn't need to jump in and help.

Toe socks can help stop your toes rubbing.
But they don't change why your toes are lifting.

And that's the bit I'd want to know.

Because the problem with something your body is doing to keep you moving is that the cost might never show up there.

It might be your lower leg that keeps getting tight. The knee that keeps complaining. Or, like my client, your back.

Sometimes the thing that looks odd isn't the problem. It's the clue.🕵️‍♀️

This was supposed to be a strength workout. 😂
Instead I went down a movement rabbit hole for over an hour...

It started with a normal horse stance practice.
Then a lightbulb moment - I noticed something new.

So, over to the mirror. Changed something. Tried again.
Took it to sitting. Then standing balance. Then step downs with poles and the mirror.

I'd found a layer of support in my body I hadn't had access to before and got completely absorbed seeing where else I could find it.

At some point I realised my planned strength workout definitely wasn't happening. 😂

But I'd learnt a s**t tonne about how my body chooses to move and how I can influence that for easier, more efficient running and hiking.

Deadlifts can wait. This was much more useful for my running that day. 🏃‍♀️

Cracking weekend... 17 miles of gorgeous Peak District joy yesterday.

Lots of runnable stretches and undulations (what a word). Good climbs and descents - about 1100m. And it was perfect weather. Warm without being melting hot.

Up at 5.30am today to crack on with a busy week.
Errrrr NOT 😂

Bit of Kindle time in bed.
Found these amazing quotes from a writer's mum on social media.
Had a brew.
Hung out with the cat.

And eventually I'll start work.

Not that I was tired. I actually woke up feeling pretty good this morning.
Decent HRV and RHR after three days of varying loads. Body feels good. Not wired. Not flattened.

I've learnt that having energy doesn't mean I have to spend it.

Slow Monday mornings are one of the best things about how I shape my week these days.
No guilt because Phil is up and at work before I've even left bed. 😂

Turns out I don't need to start Monday at full intensity to have a productive day. Who knew!

Right, suppose I'd better do some work. 😂 Have a cracking week, people 🫖

3 mile ruck this morning - slightly humid!

Got to the top of Project Hill feeling good and thought, I'm in no rush today. I could just carry on.

But I didn't.

With weekend training planned ....3 miles was enough for today.

Much better at stopping when I could do more. 😂

Although apparently my training plan didn't account for the very unhappy, very vocal cat waiting on the lane for me to come home. How dare I leave her behind ! So short cat walk to win back her affections. 🐈‍⬛

Me training for repeated laps of Helvellyn.
Both pictures are important aspects of my training plan.

I'm very good at spending resources 😂
So part of my training is getting equally good at recovering it.
Not being better at rest days... better at making days off training count.

It's to be able to do more of the fun stuff on the hills and recover well enough to go again.

Here’s me planning my training for this week.
(This was Monday. I've just spent two days not pressing post 😂)

Making choices so I:

✓ Make meaningful progress towards my mountain goals without building problems along the way.
✓ Do back-to-back miles and recover well enough to go again.
✓ Build strength alongside my running without one taking away from the other.
✓ Stay mellow enough that I'm not relying on stress and intensity to power me through work and life.

Which means I don't:

✕ Squeeze training into any gap just because technically it fits.
✕ Assume going to bed means I've recovered.
✕ Stack training, work and social demands without enough recovery between them.
✕ Ignore the cost of "normal" life because I'm used to doing it.

The runs are only one part of my training plan. The way I organise everything around them matters too.

The hardest part of my weekend wasn't the 13-mile trail run.

Saturday: 13-mile trail run.

Sunday: helping at my mum's charity garden event.

Honestly...

Sunday was harder. 😂

It was brilliant to see so many people supporting such good causes. But after hours on my feet, chatting, carrying, serving tea and cake and barely stopping, I was definitely more tired than I was after the run.

It did make me smile though. It's easy to think training is the biggest thing our body has to recover from. Sometimes it's just life.

Huge well done to my mum and everyone who helped make it such a successful day. ❤️