Park Run completed

Well I thought I should do a follow up post from the running one I did yesterday. 

Park run went really well. I set off right at the front and took at steady whilst everything settled down and let the 21 minute pacer go past me (I was aiming for the 22 minute pacer) but to my surprise I found myself keeping up with the 21 minute pacer. Well I was stuck about 10 meters behind the group with the pacer. Ideal place for me as (having not run in groups for the past 2 years) I am used to running by myself.

I pretty much forgot to look at my watch but knew I was well under 7 minutes and it turns out it was 6:53. I actually remember being a bit surprised as I knew that sub 21 was faster than this. Sure enough it felt like the pacer picked up the pace a bit and several runners that were near me were dropped as we did the next mile in around 6:30. 

I then felt that the pace slowed a little and as we went into the last 800m I kicked past the 21 minute pacer and tried to stick with a couple of others who were pushing for home. I personally think that I went off a little bit too early as my pace dropped and then I kicked again heading into the finished. I looked down and I was past 3.1 miles before 21 minutes ticked over but didn't cross the finish line until 21:10. 

Sure enough my official park run time is 21:10 but according to my watch I ran 3.16 miles and ran 5k in 20:49. A huge boost to my confidence and shows what you can do on a low carb diet. I actually felt quite good at the end and feel I can go faster given another month of training and the correct tapering. 

Overall I am very happy with that result. To think 3 years ago I couldn't walk without being in extreme pain because of my Ledderhose disease and a year ago I weighed nearly 19 stone and couldn't run sub-30 minutes for 5k. In fact I have only run park run under 30 minutes once before.

My next goal is to make it so that the first digit is a 1. A 19 minute something 5k will be a huge achievement and I am very happy that I can do that this year. 

Being a weight loss mentor?

I got asked again this morning about my weight loss by someone who doesn't really know me and wants to lose herself. She asked me about my experience with this diet and I again went through the details of what I have basically been eating and exercise and the key points of not feeling hungry and being motivated enough to keep going so you know you are going to have the will power. As I have said before I think that knowledge is key, going through the first few weeks of this life-style choice is not easy and knowing that you don’t want to do that again really keeps you on track.

She jokingly? Asked me to be her mentor, I am happy to help anyone that wants to lose weight and who knows if I can get a reputation for it perhaps (as people at work have been suggesting) I can add it to my badminton as a self-employed thing I do. Who knows it worked well for me and the Manley Diet has a ring to it? Perhaps my wife and I should write our weight loss story into a book and go from there. We have both had different experiences in terms of gaining the weight and the ease with which we have lost the weight and stuck to the diet. She is a home baker after all.

Of course time would be a major factor and we wouldn't want people to think we are doctors, we are not and we are purely writing our experience, if others decide to follow our advice then that is their choice. It has worked for us and it has worked quickly and as such others are noticing and asking how we have done it. When we explain people are amazed and want more details. The details are out there but to get everything together that I have read into one place would be fantastic. Thinking about time though it was always our aim to get do this in a year, therefore we still have half a year of working hard at this and perfecting it. So if we start taking notes and build things up I see no harm done, worst case it will make some awesome blog posts.

Hopefully we stay on course to meet out goals, both weight loss and exercise and perhaps others will see what we have done and we will of course be happy to help.

My Ledderhose Experience

Can also do a post on weight loss and running improvement but then intend to do this for my break down of non-technique things any way:

 I think that this is relevant to this blog for the reason that I am now low-carb and I am now running and I am doing both with this condition, for a lack of a better word, in remission.

Where to start my journey, I guess in 2009. I was, at age 22, then starting to play club badminton and using running as a way to increase my fitness as I really needed to lose weight. I remember running out on a trail and feeling a slight twinge in my foot. That put me off running for a bit but I went on with badminton. I honestly can’t say that the twinge was a fibroma as it could easily have been fasciitis. Nevertheless I spotted a lump and thought it was best to head to the doctors. At this point I will add that I was working on a PhD in Cancer Research so I had actively looked up as much as I could and done a self-diagnosis of plantar fibromatosis or Ledderhose disease. I may not have always been a healthy weight but I have always been fairly fit.

The self-diagnosis was confirmed by the doctor who didn’t know anything about the condition and I think I can even remember them looking it up. My research had told me to avoid surgery and that physiotherapy and steroid injections are not really great options. Still my GP referred me to an NHS physio. I can’t actually remember how bad the pain was at that point other than I gave up playing badminton, a sport I love and I am now a fully qualified coach, so it must have been getting quite painful. The wait for the physio was so lengthy that my parents paid for me to see a private physio. The physio (with 30 years+) experience had only seen the condition once before and they couldn’t help and basically said they couldn’t help me, so I had to wait for the NHS physio to tell me the same thing to get me further down the chain.

At this point I was referred to see a foot specialist (read surgeon) on the NHS. They couldn’t really offer me great advice so sent me for a steroid injection. At the time I decided it was worth the risk, so I went for it. It was ultra-sound guided so they at least got some pictures of it and the injection was not that painful… to start with anyway. Once the local wore off I couldn’t walk properly for several days. Credit where it is due though the injection did help to calm the condition and I even went for the odd run (at the time I was only able to get around in running trainers with everything else not supportive enough).

About 6 to 9 months later it came back worse and another 6 months or so later I finally got back to see the specialist on the NHS. This appointment resulted in several different outcomes 1) Orthotics 2) MRI 3) Surgery being my only option. I was pretty unhappy at this point and my foot was deteriorating to the point I had to start using a walking stick at the age of 24 and eventually this led to me having to stop the PhD. The orthotics didn’t work, the MRI showed it was Ledderhose and surgery was not an option, although one I was starting to get temped by. My wife found out about radiotherapy and after researching we decided that this was easily the best option and looked into the choices. We decided that I was going to go and see Dr Richard Shaffer in Guildford.

I know it probably sounds dramatic but I still remember the morning that my Mum, Wife and I headed up to Guildford. At that point I was desperate for some hope and I knew that we would find the money somehow to get radiotherapy as it was only available privately. Dr Shaffer was very approachable, knowledgeable and checked my hands and feet for lumps and nodules. Luckily it was just the one nodule in the one foot and I was a good candidate for radiotherapy. I was ecstatic and couldn’t believe I could start in a couple of months’ time.

The process of radiotherapy is painless, quick and easy. The typical protocol is 5 days of 3gys each day, 8 (ish) week break and then another 5 days. After the first week I did get a sharp increase in pain and I really struggled. I spoke to Dr Shaffer and he assured me that this does happen in some patients but to expect to see some improvement by the start of the second week of radiotherapy. Sure enough by the second week of radiotherapy I was starting to see an improvement. The only side effects that I had were dry feet and that initial surge in pain. Gradually over the coming months my foot started to get better and I started to try and walk without the stick, by the end of the year (radiotherapy finished in July) I was able to put the stick away for good and had played a game of badminton.

In 2013 I didn’t use the stick and actually started running, this was sparked at least in some part due to the impending birth of my daughter and wanting to be able to run around with her. In fact within 6 months of not using the stick I was able to run 5k and I ran a 10k race (slowly) by the end of 2013. 2014 Was a very stressful year and not a lot really happened with my foot, there was still post exercise ache but the pain had mostly gone. My exercise levels did drop. I didn’t really have any additional side effects after the radiotherapy and to this day I am still amazed at how brilliant the results were. At the end of 2014 my weight, which initially ballooned while my foot left me incapacitated, was up to the best part of 19 stone, which was massively unhealthy. At this point my wife and I agreed that something needed to be done and so we started a low carbohydrate diet.

The diet is relevant to this condition as almost as soon as we started the diet the remaining aches and pains from my foot diminished and of course weight fell off. In fact I have now lost 6 ½ stone on this diet and it has had a huge impact on my running and health in general. Last year (2014) I had a really nasty chest infection that had me signed off work for 2 weeks and in part this was so bad because of my weight. This year I have had the odd cough or sore throat but it has not progressed past that, in fact I haven’t really been ill since starting the diet (touch wood). My 5k time has come down from around 33 minutes at the start of the year, and a PB set in 2013 of 29:29 to around 23 minutes. That is 10 minutes a time that is less than 70% of my time at the start of the year, this actually roughly correlates with the amount of weight that I have lost so if I get down to 5 stone I should be able to set world records….

Low carb diets have also been shown to have a potentially beneficial impact on tumours, something I am sure I will go into in time. 

I think that Ledderhose disease is important for me for motivation. In terms of the diet the last real issue remaining from having the condition was the amount of weight that I was carrying and this is turned probably made the condition worse. In terms of running I feel that I have a point to prove, that patients that have had this condition and had it badly are able to get better and are able to do something amazing, well I certainly consider running a half marathon and hopefully in time a full one as something amazing. For many years this condition was something I was passionate about for both selfish and charitable reasons, now I am passionate about patient care and treatment. The treatment option I had is not widely available and hope is not something that I had an abundance of when I was at my lowest, hopefully my running and my progress can help others see that there can be a way through and you can even be better physically than you were before the condition start. 

When I was in those really bad months I often used to dwell on the things I could no longer do rather than the positive things and the things that I could still do. Well not I have lost weight and I am running and these are thing that I can do and I want to make the most of it.

Low Carb Holiday

I am just coming to the end of a holiday, well break away to attend a conference. This was nevertheless time spent away from home and time where I was not in control of my meals and I wanted to try and stick to low carb. 

To some extent it was easy and at other times I had to push to get what I needed. 

Breakfast was easy, I just bought bacon and eggs and one day ended up having this for dinner. One evening I cooked sausages and so again it was easy, the hardest time was when we were out. 

At lunch I went to the caterers and asked for me low carb meal and was given a sandwich! Um no thanks, I said this was not good enough and really was not low carb. So after a bit of talking I ended up going to the local shop and then bought lunch for me, the same thing happened on the second day. 

The dinner out was another issue. We arrived at the restaurant and starters were handed out and there was nothing low carb in them, at this point I was not concerned but more annoyed and this continued when the first course was some pie, again no low carb despite my warning in advance. In the end they sorted me out with a steak for dinner, it was ok but I literally just had a steak as nothing else was any good. It was a good steak and it did fill me up for the rest of the evening. 

I am now about to head back to the airport and have my meat and lettuce ready to go for my lunch and dinner and then I will be back on home soil and back in control. 

On the positive side I was able to go for several runs whilst I was out and it was a really nice area to run in.