Having fractured my foot I was forced into an eight week hiatus from running. You might ask how does an obsessive-compulsive athlete go from running 100 mile + weeks to nothing. Well, I can tell you it wasn’t the easiest transition in the world. In fact it was bloody awful. Thankfully, I didn’t have to rest completely, as long as I didn’t do any weight bearing exercise, which meant I could hit the gym and my new best friend the elliptical trainer or cross trainer.
Of course, I went every day I could and did anywhere from 2-3 hours on the trainer. At first it was quite the novelty, blasting backwards and forwards on the machine in the warmth of the gym while the outside froze in the December snow. The machine even let you watch the TV as you worked out, which was pretty good. I watched everything from a documentary on the North Indian railway to Deal or No Deal. However, the novelty soon wore off as I quickly realised that the cross trainer is nothing like going for a run. I was soon missing the cold winter air rushing through my lungs and the snow’s cold kiss on my cheeks. When the snow melted, I really missed the cycle network, the Water of Leith and of course the club sessions with my friends.
It was a really difficult few weeks. I kept motivated by reminding myself that by working hard on the cross trainer every day I was reducing the recovery time it would take when I was allowed to run again. My appetite was still incredibly high from my running weeks and so I knew I had to keep up a very high level of activity in order not to put on too much weight. That kept me motivated too, because I really enjoy chocolate.
So after eight mentally tough weeks I was allowed to take those first gentle running steps back. My first two sessions have been a combination of jogging and walking.
On Tuesday, with my good friend Colin (twitter.com/colinmcgill), I set out to do 7minutes jogging, followed by 3 minutes walking, which I repeated 3 times. I was really nervous as I walked to our meeting point at the entrance to Inverleith Park. I’d waited so long for this moment and I was just petrified that I would feel pain in my foot as soon as I started running. Pain would mean at least another week’s rest and that would have been hard for me to take, as I would have begun to really doubt my recovery and how long it would take.
Thankfully, as we set off I felt nothing. Well not in my foot anyway. Running again was a real shock to my system, particularly my legs, which ached and creaked, as if they had never run before. It felt brilliant to be running again. Straight away I fell back in love with the sport. Not that I had fallen out of love with it, I had just begun to forget how amazing it was to bounce along the ground, working the legs and breathing hard. I wasn’t going particularly fast, in fact pretty slow for me, or at least the old me, but the effort felt like I was eye-balls out racing a half marathon. It was great.
With Colin for company we chatted all the way round and my run was over all too quickly. I felt great and I would have loved to have just carried on. However, I am a re-born sensible runner and so I knew I had done enough and would have to wait until Thursday to run again.
Getting back on the cross trainer on Wednesday was a real anti-climax, as all I wanted to do was get out and run again, but I knew I would get another chance on Thursday as I had felt no reaction to my first run.
Today, Thursday, I got to run again. This time it was eight minutes jogging and two minutes walking repeated three times. Like Tuesday I was a nervous before starting, as I was still worried about my foot. I guess that is only natural and for the time being I will continue to worry. Today felt even better than Tuesday. My foot felt fine again and although my legs were tight and still a little unused to running I zipped along Inverleith Park with ease. In fact, I had to slow myself down on quite a few occasions. The faster I run the more pressure I put on my foot and I don’t want to put too much strain on it at this stage in my recovery, as that can cause another fracture.
Today’s run also finished far too quickly and I would have loved to have carried on. It feels amazing to be running again and I am already counting down the hours until Saturday before my next run, where I can increase the time again.
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