I GIVE UP

Well I'm blogging again today, I was going to stop as I just didn't feel in the right mood to carry on, does anybody ever read the stuff I write??? Maybe it's not about other people reading and more about me keeping a diary of my efforts or lack of them that is the key to carrying on.

I'm still flaming injured, sore Achilles, its rested, its stretched and it's not being put under the stress of running at the moment. I haven't run for 2 weeks, this is a regular thing at the moment, I've got a 5 mile run next Sunday, Easter Sunday across Runcorn Bridge, this is also Run for Fun's 1st anniversary run so I can't back out of that. It's so annoying and soul destroying that I cannot get into a regular 2 or 3 runs a week without feeling there is going to be pain at some point, perhaps I'm not meant to be the runner I want to be, maybe just a mid life crisis dream that I should just give up on and ride a bike instead.

Trying to get into my doctors surgery seems to be a hard thing at the minute, the Doctor who was recommended for sports injuries only works in the mornings so i can't see him, if I'm driving at 830am I miss out on the appointments so it's all about timing I think. Will keep trying next week before all the Doctors go on their Easter holidays, must be great to have all these holidays, still I'm lucky to be working so will have to wait for my turn, maybe taking up the offer of a trip to Morocco to do a half marathon there should be in my sights, bit of sun would be nice.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Last Sunday I took part in  10k run in Delamere Park, Cheshire. I had only done a couple of runs before hand since my latest injury, so I was determined to go slowly and make sure I got round in one piece. I arrived early to a slightly snowy Delamere, it didnt last long it soon turned to cold rain, there was also an icy wind blowing so I stayed wrapped up in my thick fleece, Ron Hill running pants, tracksuit, hat and gloves and made my way to the registration tent, signed in and got straight back in my van and put the heating back on.
Slowly but surely the place started filling up, athlete after athlete turned up, looking like Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe and I felt quite unfit, I am so that wasnt a problem. 30 mins from the start I made my way downt to the start area, I'd text my running friend for last minute advice on energy gels and dextrose tablets and ended up just having an energy drink. It was bitterly cold so I ended up warming up, I dont normally warm up very much but i had a good 20-30 minute warm up running slowly up and down a small grass bank, stretching and keeping as warm as I could. It was lmost time and the 2 warm up girls decided to get everyone moving, I already was so I didnt get involved in the dancing and waving and just wanted the raace to start, I was ready, I was eager, start the flipping race!!!!!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

and we were off, very slowly, too many people in too small a space and there was only 500 of us. The course was a loop through the forest, around a large mere and a lap was 5k, some people had decided on 5k but I had signed up for 10k so had to do 2 laps, the course was reasonably flat but quite muddy and slippy in places, plenty of people were avoiding the puddles, in my eyes they were losing time going around them instead of through them, its this winning attitude that makes me so fast , yeah right.

first lap, once we got going seemed to go quite quickly but I was puffing a bit and wondered should I only do 5k instead of 10, but there was a nagging voice in my head, "DONT GIVE IN", so I kept going past the 5k finish line and there was no going back. I took a bottle of water from the drinks station, bit of a waste of time as the water went more down my top than my throat so I only had a few sips and then threw it by the marshalls post not like the inconsiderate people throwing them wildly into the forest. There were signs at every kilometer and at the 7km marker my achilles was beginning to suffer a little, I wanted to ease off a bit but I also wanted to finish as strong as I could too, so I just plodded on, kept leaning forward and picked a target in front of me, which happened to be a blonde girl about 100 metres in front of me. I got to the 9k marker and tried to speed up a touch, there was the sound of the tannoy at the finish line in the distance and it was getting louder, the blonde was getting closer too, as we took the final bend I made my final push, breathing hrd I overtook the blonde and sort of sprinted as fast as I could for the last 50 yards, i'd made it, I was pooped, I grabbed a medal nd a bottle of water and snuck off back to my van to have a breather and a protein bar. I had finished the run and checked my time, i had done the 5.97 miles in 58 minutes and 34 seconds, I was very pleased with that and a bit surprised it was so fast.

my achilles was sore afterwards and still is today almost a week later and I am planning to run slowly tomorrow morning. my next race isnt until the end of March, 5 miles over the Runcorn Bridge

Am I back?

well since i last blogged which is too long to make this an interesting read, probably why nobody reads it or comments, I have had some physio done on my Achilles and calf of my left leg. the physio Ed, is the witton albion football team masseur, he has given me a lot of pain but I think hes done a good job so far. He has found an indentation in my left calf, which he says indicates  bad tear of the calf muscle. the muscles surrounding this have tightened up and that's what he has worked on. when i originally went to him it was my Achilles that was painful, once he had massaged a few muscles the pain in the Achilles went, but it hasn't gone completely.
So since then I have tried a slow run of 2.8 miles, I walked a lot of this as I didn't want to do too much and set me back again, then today I did the same run but this time I ran slowly again but I did 2 miles non stop then I stopped to stretch for a short while and then ran the rest of the .8 miles home, all with no pain. As on the first run I think I'm just so conscious of the injuries that I'm not relaxing enough and tentative that I will hurt myself again.
So far so good, I've taken it easy, ran slowly and now I have another test, this Sunday I am running at Delamere forest in aid of the Stroke association, 10k so fingers crossed I can make it round in one piece if I m sensible.
DELAMERE FOREST 10K CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE DETAILS