Getting better all the time

My foot is definitely on the mend. On Tuesday my physio said I was “Doing very well,” and gave me a return to run plan that starts off with some walk/run intervals and graduallly increases them to run/walk.

I’ve continued to work with the golfball under my foot. This sometimes means I get funny looks at work as I’m gripping the edge of the desk trying to get a bit more pressure on ‘that’ spot. And it’s meant a return to the treats as I’m not inflicting that amount of pain on myself without having something to look forward to. Actually, this week I’ve found it harder to find ‘that’ spot, which I think means the muscle fibres are relaxing again.

I’ve continued throwing myself into my cross training, and really enjoyed the row, bike, row session that my PT suggested. I don’t much like being stuck on machines that go nowhere in the gym, but I stick on some killer running tunes and get my heart rate up for a good old cardio work out.

One of the many, many advantages of working with a PT, especially one as expert and helpful as mine, is that I do get a personal service. So, while much of my training is focused on general all round fitness, we talked at the beginning of the year about the races and events I wanted to do and what my goals are.

But when things change, such as when I’ve taken some time out from running to sort out my plantar problem, he’s helping me find new ways to stay active, get my buzz and work on balance and stability which will help with the whole hip, knee, foot alignment.

We’ve been trying new ways of doing familiar exercises with the kettlebell, focusing more on using the glutes and hamstrings than the thigh muscles. It took me months to get confident doing one move with the kettlebell in the early days and now Ian’s come up with a slightly different technique for it, I was worried I’d be back to struggling again, but I seemed to pick it up quite easily. He’s really good at explaining and demonstrating what to do and then keeping an eye on my form until I get it right.

This morning I’d volunteered for parkrun, knowing it would be bitterly cold on the Town Moor and figuring only the foolish and hardy would be tempted out to run or stand around in fluorescent bibs. I officially reached maximum layerage and for one moment thought I wouldn’t manage to do up my jacket over the combination of thermals, fleeces, scarves and assorted paraphernalia.

I don’t know who had it hardest today – the runners out in far fewer layers, or the volunteers, wrapped up but standing still. Sue was sporting a very alpine looking hat and gloves combo and it was nice to have a chat as we waited for the runners to come in.

There were some cold hands fumbling as I scanned tokens and barcodes. Regular runner Kev Lister was a star, finishing his run and then standing in nothing more than a T-shirt, shorts and gloves holding the bag for us to put the tokens in. He must have been perishing!

But what a lovely load of thankyous I got from the runners. Real, “Thank you, we appreciate you doing this, thanks for your time,” thank yous. That was lovely. But of course I do it because I’ve got a lot out of parkrun and I really support the aims and openness of it. They make it very easy for me to volunteer and I like going along to see my friends. Of course, I hope to enjoy running the course again soon.

Volunteer duties finished, I headed home ready to try out my first walk/run session. After some advice from Susie, I dressed more for a walk in trainers, rather than a run and wore a layer or two more than I would usually. As a result, I was super snuggly.

After a bit of Garmin faffage, setting up interval timings and then realising I still had it on bike, rather than run, I took a rather random loop out and about. Found a nice new path around some sports fields and took in a couple of slopes. My 5 min walk sections included some drills, such as heel kicks and knee raises, partly to help keep me warm and make it more of a work out.

The first run minute felt odd. Sort of slow and quick at the same time. I felt out of breath quite easily. I felt slow and heavy. And then it was over before I knew it and I was back to walking and hopping and generally making a spectacle of myself among the dog walkers of North Tyneside.

I was super warm though and looking forward to each little run section. On the last one, I tried quite hard, just to see what kind of speed I could find, but without full on sprinting. I still felt slow, but I wasn’t really and the adrenaline buzz was amazing.

I can feel it a little in my foot now. But not a great deal. If I wasn’t aware of having a problem in that area, I probably would barely notice it. So I’m still treating that as a positive run.

I may do the same walk/run session again on Monday rather than moving up to 4 min walk 2 min run, and run the 1 min intervals at a more sensible pace. I’ll see how it feels. Right now, I reckon it will be back to normal after a night’s rest. But slowly, slowly, cautiously, cautiously for now.

I have settled with myself that I’m not running now, because I want to get this fixed. Not manageable. Fixed. So that I can enjoy the rest of the year and all the events and races I have coming up with the same freedom and excitement as I have in previous years. I’m still counting myself as getting off lightly.

Stats and stuff:
2.55 miles 32 mins

I did a 3 min warm up walk first – then:
1) – 0.11m – 1:00(8:58/m) – 11cal
2) – 0.39m – 5:00(12:42/m) – 35cal
3) – 0.1m – 1:00(10:31/m) – 10cal
4) – 0.37m – 5:00(13:29/m) – 29cal
5) – 0.12m – 1:00(8:02/m) – 13cal
6) – 0.34m – 5:00(14:53/m) – 27cal
7) – 0.12m – 1:00(8:33/m) – 11cal
8) – 0.38m – 5:00(13:19/m) – 36cal
9) – 0.14m – 1:00(7:16/m) – 13cal
10) – 0.36m – 5:00(13:47/m) – 30cal
11) – 0.13m – 2:03(15:55/m) – 9cal