Still going

Had my best run in a long time last weekend. Ran to my parents and altered the route to go well over 6ks. I felt great... Running in the rain and of course the route is mostly down hill.

I felt virtually no pain, just a bit of heaviness and discomfort in my legs. There are a few uphill portions that usually wind my legs up to the point I have to stop, but not this time!

I also had a shorter mid week run which didn't go quite as well.

Today I get to run to my parents again so let's see how that goes!

Re-evaluation of my goals

I still want to run. I see people all the time of varying ages, sizes and shapes running. My Dad runs 5k 3 times a week now on his treadmill (at 62 years old).

My body does not want me to run. It's time to re-evaluate what I can realistically accomplish here.

Despite many months of trying different shoes, slowing down, resting, ice, gait analysis, positive attitudes, forum posts, pressure point foam rolling, easy routes, different running styles, interval training, walking breaks and bike rides, my body still does not want me to run.

I've gotten so down and frustrated with the experience that  I simply have to put aside my competitive, goal driven thoughts and just accept that:

• I will never be a runner, only a jogger. 
• I will never run a Marathon 
• I will never run a Half Marathon 
• Likely I will not be able to run a 10k. 
• I know that I can and have run 5k, but at my pace. 
• I will never be competitive in a 5k.
• I will experience some discomfort and a fair bit of pain with each run
• I may need to take a walk break every 10 minutes or even 5 minutes.

However, 

• I am much fitter than I was when I started running
• I can run more that 60 seconds like when I first started
• When I run or walk, I am losing calories and getting fitter
• Running helps stress
• I am reducing my chances of heart problems, blood pressure, stroke etc by exercising.

Look, I'm a glass half empty person - I know that. It's allowed me to be objective about things but at the same time I tend to move into perfectionism. That's bad.

My attitude for future runs is "Well done for getting off the couch, for trying, for being active. Whatever you manage today, whether 100m or 5k is better than just sitting there doing nothing". I promise to congratulate myself at the end of each run and make it a positive experience no matter how much of it I stop or walk or feel pain.

I'm still tracking my runs and my progress of course. I still have a target - I want to be able to run a half Marathon by December 2014. I recognize that's only achievable if my leg situation where to drastically improve.

I just need to get back to enjoying my running.

How depressing

1.27k was all I managed before my ankles locked, my soleous burned and I had to stop. Hurt just to walk  back. So frustrating, so depressing. Don't know how to improve this. Just trying my arse off here for no gain. 

If at first you don't succeed.

Boy, sometimes it can be difficult to get going. It's definitely been the case for me recently. I've been averaging about 2 runs per month over the past 3 months. 

I'm grateful that I've got this blog and it's shown it's value to me. Simply because I can look back on past struggles and see that actually I can overcome because I have in the past. 

I just feel a bit hopeless at the moment. Very small runs (2-3k) and even with those distanced still feeling pain in my legs and puffed out - needing to walk. Perhaps its just perseverance and patience that I am lacking - being too hard on myself.

I'm going to go for volume this time - running more days than not, rather than the usual 3 times a week. I'm wary of getting injured again but I'm just trying to get into some sort of rhythm here to get out of the rut of sitting on the sofa not wanting to move.

Minimalist Running - Week 2

Did my final run of 1.5k today with my New Balance MR00 shoes and it hurt. Very painful by the end of the run and I felt that I had to ice my legs. My Cardio is also suffering because of poor diet and short exercise. Pretty depressing really :-(

Put your best (front) foot forward - a fresh start

Ok, so I am back blogging again.

Catch up on the months that have passed and my progress has not been where I have wanted it to be. I've had several periods where I've just not run. This has been down to time, priorities, stress, injury and plain laziness.

Since my last post, my best 5k time is around 28 minutes. My longest run is just 8km unfortunately.

I've helped my Dad (61 years old) get through C25k and we've been running 5k's together once a week on a Sunday which we both really enjoy.

Over the past 3-4 weeks though I've noticed that I've had a lot of leg pain and numbness in my outer right foot, so I am hoping that this is mainly down to my shoes showing their age. But if I am honest, I've pretty much never had a pain or discomfort free run, not one. The last run I had, I had calf and shin pain and most disturbingly, my entire foot went numb near the end.

I've decided to have a go at relearning how to run from scratch and with that a switch to minimalist running.

STEP 1: New Shoes.
I find the concept of barefoot running quite appealing. It makes sense that our bodies would work best when unencumbered by modern comforts doesn't it. The problem is simply that the streets of this not so beautiful UK city are littered with glass, cans and other such delightful debris. Sensibly I think, I'm moving to a "Zero Drop" shoe. Here's what I've chosen..

New Balance MR00 Minimus Zero Drop

They arrived today and they are super light. Really amazingly so!

I've done some research online about the minimalist / barefoot scene and picked up some nice tips. The advice is to start of VERY slowly at VERY short distances. So onto my first 1km run...

Well, I'm pretty sure I was running front/midfoot, it definitely felt different. The run was easy enough being only 1k, but worryingly, the outside of my right foot went numb again.

I'm back to biking as my main exercise whilst I build up muscle strength for front-foot running, but I'll build up slowly and surely.

At last some running success

Well all in all it took me 10 weeks to get back to being able to run 5k again due to my injury. But I'm back strong.
I had an initial couple of 5ks, felt pretty tiring but I just plugged along with them.

I've gone back to trying Hal Higdon's 13.1 novice plan and did my first "Long run" of 4 miles (6.5k) on Sunday. I had to do it in intervals and my time wasn't great, but I completed my longest ever run. Since then I've had two 5k runs that have felt great.

On Tuesday, around the 4k mark, I looked down at my watch and thought I had a good chance of beating my 5k record so I pushed very hard (uphill all the way to!). I did beat my record with a 30:50 time.
On Thursday, I just thought to myself that if I had pushed a little harder earlier on, I could have hit that target of a sub 30 minutes 5k. So with Garmin primed and the "Virtual Partner" set to 6:00min/km for 5k (exactly 30 minutes), I set off.....

After about 1.5k, I looked down at the Garmin, I was 110 metres ahead! I felt like I could drop off the pace a little bit and though I had, but at 2.5k I was 200 metres ahead. The furthest I observed myself being ahead was 232 metres. I knew that although the last 1km is steep uphill, I still felt strong enough to not slip back and I was jubilant even then. I finished in 28:15 and was over the moon.

To have come from a place where I didn't think I could take up running again to this is wonderful.

I've not really kept up with the P90x as the running has come to the forefront again. I will still use some of the workouts in between though.

One negative point is that my big toe is sending shooting pains up my leg when I put pressure on it a certain way. Hopefully it's just something very minor.

Another 6.5k run on Sunday!

My latest Triumph on DM HERE