April, the month I ran again. I had expected January, then hoped for March. In the end Sunday 22nd April I braved a junior parkrun with the difficult middle child. Tight calf’s, blowing out of my arse. But I made it around the full 2km course with only a little walking. The best bit, no pain afterwards.
The month started with disappointment of another physio appointment & the instruction to not run ‘yet’. I was given exercises and told if you feel okay in a couple of weeks try it out. I waited and did the exercises. I think for the best although frustrating. While it is not pain free running it is pain free recovery.
Away from running the gym have launched a new box fit class and a new reboot Hiit class. I’ve been regular going Wednesday lunchtimes trying to get back in the habit of hitting the gym mid-day. It seems to be working. The box fit is a Thursday night and I’ve been doing my usual static cycle & rehab work out first to create what I’m calling mega Thursday!
I always say I eat healthy food, but just too much of it. And the odd treat. This true to a certain extent, however recently I’ve not been great. Too many mid week puddings, too much chocolate & cake in the afternoons at work. Lazy dinners & takeouts have become far to regular. For a couple of weeks I took the train to work which meant I was averaging over 15,000 steps a day. Add that to the increase in gym work, means I’m always hungry. Easy & quick snacks and meals are usually the poor choices. One goal for May is to drastically improve my intake. No mid-week puddings, massive reduction in alcohol. I might go for a meat free May, but that can still be unhealthy. I need to drop some of he weight I put on while injured & reset better habits.
Finally running again wasn’t the triumph I expected. It was harder than I thought it would be, like I had never run before. I thought starting back at a junior parkrun would be easy. It wasn’t, not at all. The week after, at the Saturday parkrun 5km. I really realised the hard path I have to follow to get back to my best (hopefully better). I really struggled, I slowly shuffled the first km then had to walk and stretch. I walked a lot. I tried to open my legs out and run normally. It just wasn’t possible. The last 500m I almost found a little rhythm, but not enough. That too was a massive anti-climax. Official time 39:11. The only good bit is the recovery. After all the come back runs, I feel fine afterwards. No aches or pains. No tightness. That I feel is positive, the second junior parkrun the last Sunday of the month was better than the week before. I felt fine after also running on the Saturday.
May is going to be hard. I want to cover over 20 miles, hopefully a long run of 5 miles around the second bank holiday. I need to lose some weight. It is not long until the 10km at the Poole festival of running. I’m confident of getting around, but it most likely won’t be pretty, it definitely won’t be fast. I’ll attempt to play football again on the 10th. I hope that will give be a bit more of a feeling of satisfaction and sense of full recovery. But I fear until I comfortably run a sub 27 minute 5km I won’t feel fully recovered.
As usual thank you all for reading, all feedback (especially constructive criticism) is welcome. If you don’t already you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook & soon to be YouTube @benrunnerpants
BenRunnerPants 