Start Small, Build It Up Again
So it would appear that I haven’t written a blog for quite a while. 7 weeks, 3 days to be precise. And for good reason too; it was to accompany my year of events, and the events had finished.
I didn’t plan on stopping there and then though. I wanted to carry on running, after my final challenge, and do another 62 miles before the years end. This would have given me a years total of 786 miles run, the equivalent of 30 marathons. That sounded pretty awesome. But all was not to be.
I had developed a small stress fracture in my left shin after the final event. Amazing timing. It was very sore to walk on at first, and utterly impossible to run on. This was coupled with my on-going Achilles Tendonitis, which, wonderfully, was in both ankles! Oh the joy. And so, I had to stop. Properly stop.
The last few weeks have been no running, and light gym work. ‘Recovery work’, one might say. From the feeling of it the stress fracture has gone. The tendonitis feels much better, but still needs a lot of work to fully recover. The ankles are evidently more swollen than they ever used to be before the tendonitis, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I saw a rather helpful doctor, who listened to my list of sores and woes and took them seriously. I have an x-ray and MRI scan lined up. I saw a podiatrist, who has given me some inner soles to help relieve the pressure and correct the angle of my right achilles. I saw a physio, who has given me a list of exercises to do to try and clear it all up once and for all.
Obviously though, I had to ask, ‘can I start my running again?’ All those professionals I asked pretty much said the same thing: ‘start small, build it up again, and so long as it doesn’t hurt, it should be fine’. Music to my ears.
And so last week I went for my first run of the year. It’s a weird feeling. 10 months ago, I could run for 6 1/2 hours in a day. Now, it was 16 1/2 minutes. And boy, was it tiring. My lower back has a tendency of hating a run after a long time off the feet, and it gets ridiculously tight. After 8 minutes, I turned back home, for the shortest run in memory.
A couple of runs in though, and this morning I went for a 35 minute light one on my old favourite haunt, Wimbledon Common.
It was time to take the Vivobarefoot Trail Freaks out for their first muddy excursion, and I loved being back in the mud and trees. Again, hard work, sore back, but not as sore, and I had a great time. I’ve thankfully managed to retain most of my speed, which isn’t particularly impressive anyway, but the endurance will certainly need work. Like the doctor, physio, and podiatrist said though, small steps, build it up again.
