It’s been two months since I last ran. There are a couple of reasons for this. I went on holiday in November last year and didn’t want to obtain an injury just before I went that could have spoiled my holiday. Then when I got back I succumbed to various cold/flu-like illness that were doing the rounds as they usually around Xmas. I’ve literally only just got over them. Whilst I was ill, running was the last thing on my mind. And also the current cold snap really isn’t helping.
It’s within this context that I tell you about my first run of the year; or rather my first couple of runs.
Prior to Xmas I’d built myself up to running 2 miles, 3 time a week. And I’d been doing this for around 3 months. This was to try and build up a tolerance in my soles without damaging them, that the previous strategy of trying to build up to longer runs fast was causing. I kept having to be out of the game for weeks at a time due to overdoing it and ending up with blistered pads.
So I set out on a very cold Tuesday evening after work. It’s dark before I even leave work at the moment, and this combined with the treat of rain didn’t make it a very nice environment to step out into. I planned to do just one circuit of a mile loop that starts at my house. The ground was almost frozen, probably about 1 degree. My feet soon became numb and it’s this that I blame for my choice to continue running when I’d finished the first loop. I decided that what the hell, I’d do two loops, with is the two miles I’d spent a month building up to at the end of last year. It feel okay, even though I kind of knew that I was kidding myself as I couldn’t feel my soles due to the temperature.
Oddly though, it wasn’t my soles that had suffered that day, but my calves – yet again. Although this wasn’t a patch on this injury. That time it took several weeks before I could even walk properly again. This time round it was just uncomfortable to walk for about 7 days. I guess the past three years have seen some changes in my legs. But I’m still amazed that I can’t have 8 weeks off and then not be able to run just 2 miles without bother.
Anyway, having left it 10 days, on Sunday I once again braved the cold. This time I made my mind up to do just the one lap, 1 mile (1.6k), no matter how I felt. I completed this no problem, again with numb feet. The morning after I’m happy to say that there are no problems with my calves. I’m going to do a few days in a row with this shorter 1 mile route, then step it up to twice around next week interspersed with rest days and other 1 mile runs. Let’s see how I get on and how fast I can make it back to where I was back in November.