The last seven days have been an emotional roller coaster and not just in regards to running…but for today we’ll focus on running.
Because I’m a good little runner, after work on Friday I donned my trainers and running gear and headed off to the gym. Friday evenings at the gym are awesome as it’s fairly quiet, plus being a Friday I have that smug (and slightly sad) feeling of being at the gym instead of the pub and earning my gin and tonics before I’ve drunk them. However this Friday didn’t go so well; I got on the treadmill and started running, trying out some new ‘running’ songs to see how they transfer from solo car karaoke, to motivational move my feet soundtrack.
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| Friday Nights have changed...#icedknee |
I think I may have got into the music too much, and I had a little stumble on the treadmill, which kind of shook me up a little, so I lowered the speed and just started brisk walking to compose myself for 30 seconds or so. As I started to increase the speed and running again I felt a twinge in my knee, almost like the bones were rubbing against each other – I’ve spent enough time on running blogs to know that as soon as you feel a pain like that you stop. So I stopped and went off to talk to the trainer at the gym, who made me stretch it out and move it in all kind of funny motions, then told me to go home, ice it and stay off running, the treadmill and any high impact sports. So I headed home, put me feet up, iced my knee, held back the tears and felt like my world had fallen apart.
So now I’m one of those stupid crazy people who cry about exercising (or lack off). I feel like I’ve worked so hard to reach my half marathon goal and just as that goal is becoming reachable I’m hit by a massive road block. On Friday I felt determined that I’ll rest it on Saturday and that by Sunday I’ll be back to running, but when I woke up on Sunday it still hurt, so instead of running I stuck to the low impact machine that is the cross trainer. It’s Thursday today and it does not feel much better….I’ve missed out on 3 runs now and my average weekly mileage is decreasing dramatically. The finish line of the Oxford Half is looking the furthest away it’s ever been.
HOWEVER…because I’m not giving up, I am becoming a runner, and I have not let all these months of training go to waste, I have made myself a contingency plan. Half Marathons happen all the time, so if I’m not able to make Oxford, I’ll just run the Reading Half Marathon instead, which is in March. It means these months of falling in and out of running have not gone to waste, I’ll still run 13.1 miles, I’ll carry on training, I’ll be able to run off Christmas Pudding and I’ll still get a shiny medal at the end of it. So it looks like the goal post is going to be moved from October 12th to March 22nd, with some knee rehabilitation and extra training thrown in.
So as this blog url is thejourneyisme – my running journey has hit a little block in the road, but that doesn’t mean the road stops there. As the saying goes ‘the road goes on forever and the party never ends’.
This also means I’m now going to keep blogging (ranting / complaining / moaning) till March at least, you lucky readers!
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