Andaluces por el Mundo - Helsinki

Hola corredores!

Ya podéis ver mi aparición en Andaluces por el Mundo en el siguiente link:

http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/television/video/helsinki--finlandia/8948/12

Si tenéis curiosidad de como vivo en Helsinki y como me van las cosas, soy el segundo andaluz del programa, a partir del minuto 13.

Sigan sumando kilómetros!!!

Educación y cultura en el desierto

Check this out:

http://documentalessahara.blogspot.com/

Cortisone shot

and now three days no walking and no standing. This is the last chance I give to my fasciitis plantar after 3 months trying different treatment. If this works, I might be running next week and blogging weekly!

Sorry for the long absence!
Love to all of you.

Acupuncture does runners good

Or so they say.

As many of you already know, I am dealing with my first running-related injure since I started this sport. What I found out being injured is that there are as many option on how to treat the problem as different doctors are. The only advice they all share is one: stop running until I recover. Something that we, runners, hate to listen to.

The Sport Doctor I first visited recommended me some pills for the inflammation and rest. He also added "If this treatment do not alleviate the symptoms, a cortisone injection can be considered. I followed his instruction for long enough until I decided that pills won't work and after reading online and getting some other advices, I decided not to get the injection and find about other solutions.

I bumped into a friend who is teaching at Suomen Urheiluhierojaopisto (Finnish Sports Massage Academy) and checked my foot (we were in a party). He recommended me to go to his clinic and get some sports medicine acupuncture. As I always do, checked online and read that "the acupuncturist places fine hair-like, sterile needles at specific acupuncture points and motor points in the body. The safe and pailess insertion of needles can help to release muscle tension, relieve pain and help maintain a healthy running body." I was excited to try this option and positive it might help to solve my problem and I went to the appointment (I just came back from there).

The true is that "painless" is not what I exactly would call it. For me, the feeling was weird and couldn't relax enough because there was something going on on my legs: needles. I was sweating and uncomfortable (let's say I don't like needles). Although not painful, it's neither painless. Right now I have some tape covering my foot to protect the injured muscle which I have to keep for 3 days and a new appointment for next week. I will let you know as soon as I feel some improvement but I will have to stop training for a while.

There are a couple of races coming in the new future (including Helsinki Midnight Run) I feel positive that I will be injure-free by then and be able to run.

Social Media Runner

As you could read/see in my last post, I will be visiting a few countries for my next holidays which start next Sunday.

I am taking 3 weeks off from work and will pass by France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Istanbul. I didn't want to stop training so I planned ahead the routes I could run in the different cities I will be staying. For that reason, I created an account at walkjogrun.net and found routes around the areas I am visiting. In this sense, I just need to log in on my account and put my running shoes on every time I want to go for a run. I love sharing my experiences on running and social media is a great tool to do so.

I have been updating my profile with different routes and I will continue to do so. If you want to see where I am running, you just need to visit my routes here:

http://www.walkjogrun.net/members/EFESOR

I was in Paris some months ago and I can do the same routes I did then, but here you have screenshots of the routes I already created for the other cities:

1. Munich (it doesn't look like a very nice area, but good enough):

2. Budapest (this one is my favorite one):

3. Istanbul I (this route is around the first apartment we are renting and meant for a long run):

4. Istanbul II (for our second location and for a shorter run):

I just hope I get fully recover soon and can enjoy the opportunity to run in so many countries! I will let you know if I managed to follow the routes or if I got lost and will take as many pictures as possible. Wish me luck!

PS: At the left column of this blog I added three polls you can answer to while I am on my holidays. In case I won't be able to update anything, you can still interact with the blog by answering. The poll will be open till 10.08 at 9pm.

Plantar fasciitis and holidays

The true is that I was getting ready a much nicer post about a new training plan I prepared 2 weeks ago. The idea was to train for the Amsterdam Marathon which will take place on 17th October. But I have two problems now:

1. Plantar fasciitis won't let me follow the training program for 1 week and I will have to take it easier when I start running again. The doctor recommended to stop running for a whole 1 week, also stretching the area and put ice. I also got a prescription for anti-inflammatory pills.

2. Three weeks holidays, traveling around Europe on a train, making very difficult to follow any training.

Nonetheless I created routes around the cities I am going to visit on my holidays (Paris, Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Bucharest and Istanbul) and I will try to run as much as possible. If after my holidays I feel strong enough, I will register to the Amsterdam Marathon and train for my first full marathon!