Mind games... So can I continue to run or not?

You know how it is like... when you are injured or not being able to do the things that you use to be able to do, your mind starts to play games with you... Even a positive person like me somehow also got sucked in to the dark side in times like this...

For me, my mind games started in mid June... I had a 4 weeks break after Great Ocean Road in hope that my knees would recover in time to continue training for Gold Coast... I was devastated when I felt pain on my right knee only after 10 minutes of slow run... These questions started to popped up... "Am I running properly? Am I wearing the right shoes? Why is acupuncture and physiotherapy not working?" etc... The biggest question I had was: "Is there something wrong with my biomechanics?"

After speaking to my colleague, I decided to booked an appointment with Jason Agosta Podiatry. I was trying to get an appointment before Gold Coast to see if there is anything he can do or help before the race... guess what, the earliest appointment that I can get was 27 July... nonetheless, I still made an appointment as Jason came highly recommended by my colleagues...

The session cost me $85... but it was probably one of the best $85 I had spent as it answered the big question that has been bugging me for a while... I got the all cleared from Jason!!! there is nothing wrong with my biomechanics... phew and yeh!!! However, the huge mistake was in my training... Too hard too fast, or like the movie "2 fast 2 furious"... so yeh!!! I can continue running!!! yeh!!! Melbourne Marathon here I come!!! sigh.. not quite... I have been advised not to run the Melbourne marathon, but to concentrate on my recovery plan... 

The upshot is that I am not getting any younger and the harder I push my body, the longer it will take for me to recover... Here's the chart that was explained to me... The X axis represents training time, and Y axis represent recovery time... signs of injuries only starts to appear around the 3 months mark...

My training (after years of inactivity) was considered intense and hence, I was considered to be traveling along the red area... hence I am now requiring at least 3 months of rehab and recovery... What I should have done was lower my training intensity to the blue area so that my body have time to get stronger slower and recover faster... make sure you guys do not make the same mistake as me...

Below was provided to me as my recovery plan for the next 12 weeks... This can also be your training plan if you are starting out after a long break... do not worry about the distance, you will get stronger and faster as your training continues...

Week 1-2: walk/run for 20mins every 2nd day  
Week 3-4: run easy for 20mins every 2nd day
Week 4-5: run easy for 20mins 2days consecutive, 1 day of rest
Week 6-9: run easy for 30mins 2days consecutive, 1 day of rest
Week 9-12: run easy for 30mins sat, sun, tue, wed, thu

Jason also noted the key points to the above training, in order of importance:

Step 1: Consistency - Be consistent with your training so that your body can get conditioned faster and easier.

Step 2: Volume - Increase the volume consistently so that it does not harm your body.

Step 3: Intensity - You body will tell you when to add intensity into your training once the first 2 steps have been achieved.

I am already into week 1 of the training... hopefully by the end of 12 weeks, I can still squeeze some running time when my life's next big challenge arrives in October...