Erring on the side of caution

Its been a funny old week, whereby plans to train with my running club have gone out of the window, due to an accident on my bike (Tuesday) and a lack of energy and fear of damaging my ankle again (last night) have meant that I have mainly trained on my own.  I normally enjoy the efforts sessions that I take part in with my club, the camaraderie and shared pain get us all through the sessions but Tuesday I was too shook up and back late to make it to the athletics track so I had a rest and resumed training the next day. Wednesday's session involved 3 x 10 minutes at Threshold, which was a tough session but mainly on the flat, which worries me a lot less than Thursday night's efforts which largely consist of running very fast downhill and around a corner, which I decided were not good for my still fragile ankle.  I opted instead for a short recovery run on the flat, which was fine but not entirely social.  Never mind I managed a run with a friend who is coming back from injury today, so that meant that not all my runs were solitary.  I've got parkrun in the morning, where I'll be running with approximately 500 people so unlikely to feel lonely there and next week I aim to make it to the track to train with my club friends as whilst its great to run on your own sometimes, it can get rather lonely when its all the time and there's nothing like training in a group to make you push yourself that little bit harder.

Wet, soggy but so enjoyable run :)

Well after a week of not running and doing lots of balancing, cycling and spinning, I decided to test out my precarious ankle.  I was super cautious, putting heel supports in my trainers, wearing a compression support and compression socks, I seriously did not want to be limping home halfway through.  I had to post a Birthday card during my run, so ran slowly up for 2 miles up to my friend's house at the top of a hill.  Within 5 minutes, the sky had gone really dark and it started to rain, now I've ran through plenty of rain in my time but this was seriously heavy, the sort that soaks you within 10 minutes and creates puddles everywhere that just have to be ran through.  1 1/2 miles into my run, I fell over adding a grazed knee to my dodgy ankle, but I carried on, ignoring my bloody knee.  Once I'd posted my rather soggy Birthday card, I decided to pick up the pace a bit, which felt good, my ankle didn't seem to be suffering.  I decided to keep at the new pace for about 20 minutes and then pick up the pace to Threshold for another 20 minutes. Without even realising it and probably because I was in a hurry to get the run done due to the rain getting worse, I had increased the pace to near Threshold pace early, so I upped it again and then proceeded to keep it at that pace until I got to 6 miles.  After about 4 1/2 the pace did start to feel pretty uncomfortable but I had to stick with it for another mile and half and then I promised myself that I would run the rest of the way home at recovery pace.  This bargaining with myself and has got me through many a race, training session and tough run, the mental side of running really is so important.  Without it, many people would never be able to run a marathon and it really helped me today, as I would've been annoyed with myself if I hadn't kept the pace up like I'd planned to.  When I got home after it felt so good to be running again and to manage a pretty pacy progression run after a week of not running and dodgy ankle.  Sometimes it takes an injury to make us realise how much we love and miss running when we're not able to, so we should treasure the times when we're running well.

No running :(

Well it appears that my legs of a 90 year old were due to being injured.  My ankle is swollen and I decided that cycling everywhere was my best option yesterday, as it took me so long to limp around. I've always been very fortunate in the past, in that I don't really get injured, I get niggles and just take it easy for a few days and then its back to training.  But this is a proper injury, there's swelling and pain, so I need to be a bit more cautious and attentive to my poor ankle.  I've had a massage, iced it, worn a compression bandage and I've now got some resistance bands to play with once the swelling goes down.  I feel like a proper athlete.  I was supposed to be running a local 5K tomorrow but looking forward to cheering on my husband and other club friends instead.  Sometimes it takes an injury to make you realise how much you actually love running but in the meantime, you can still be involved.

The legs of a 90 year old!

I knew my legs weren't going to be great this morning when I struggled to sleep due to them tingling and aching.  Consequently, I tentatively put my feet on the floor and attempted to walk quickly to the stairs, well  I think a 90 year old would've been a lot quicker.  My heels were stiff, which meant that my whole foot felt stiff, my calves weren't much better and when I slowly made my way down the stairs my right calf cramped up and I began to question whether I should really be attempting to run parkrun this morning.  I ran up to the Countryside Centre slowly (rather by necessity than choice) and chatted to a few of my running friends and it appears that there aren't many of us that having got some niggle or other.  I lined up at the start line unsure as to whether I would be racing or just taking it easy.  As they shouted go, my legs didn't appear to be keen to get off to a flying start, so I just went with what felt comfortable and watched the front runners fly off into the distance.  However, something rather satisfying happened on my 5k run, after a more leisurely start my lungs and legs started to warm up and I found myself picking up the pace, catching people up and passing them.  It felt so motivating after a hard week of training and by the end, I was chuffed with my best time in 3 months.  It just shows that its not all about getting a PB, turning what feels like a tough run around can be just as satisfying.

10 miler with stiff legs

I've been suffering a bit with stiff heels in the morning after a run and I've been worried that its Achilles problems.  On my run this evening I tried out some heel supports in my trainers, which are designed to absorb the impact.  The first 2 miles were tough as my heels, glutes, calves and hamstrings were all stiff (good advert for running aren't I?) but this is often the case after a tough session the night before (last night's session was Kenyan Hills).  The run always gets easier though so I know that I can keep on going at a slow pace, its all about listening to my body and not pushing too hard.  When my legs feel looser I can pick up the pace slightly but nothing too fast on a long run, I don't want to feel too tired for my quality sessions later in the week.  Ten miles is a nice distance, long enough to be a good workout but not too long that you have to worry about taking gels, jelly beans etc.  As I had been running up and down hills for 25 minutes last night I was conscious that I didn't want to be running up too many hills tonight and managed to avoid anything too strenuous, finishing the run strongly and hopefully able to run a decent parkrun in the morning, will let you know....

Running in the rain

My legs are tight, its raining outside but I need to do an 11 miler today.  I know it'll be fine once I've crossed the threshold of the front door but at this moment I have 2 competing voices talking in my head - "have a rest day, you deserve it" v "if you don't run today, you'll have to run Sunday and you know how busy Sunday is already".  Which one do I listen to?  It has to be the second one, as although I could quite easily have a rest day after Kenyan Hills session last night, the guilt isn't worth it, when you miss a scheduled run, the guilt is too much.  Its a nagging feeling that you're a slacker, you won't get that PB or that you're falling out of love with running, which is something that I never want to do.  So on the trainers and Garmin go and I cross the threshold into the rain and it feels good :)