Earlier in the year, my dreams of running a half marathon ended abruptly with me gasping for air and crying on Brighton promenade while out for a training run with my Dad. I can’t say that I recommend this panting/wailing combination as it makes you feel as though you are choking/will never breathe easily again. Imagine that Kim K crying face with lot of sweat thrown in. Yeah, not great. Turns out increasing my mileage a little too quickly, when partnered with my weak butt muscles isn’t great news for your lower legs and I’d ended up with the ever so painful and much dreaded shin splints. Ouch. I’d muddled through runs with the help of copious use of Arnica Balm and Compression Sleeves, but enough was enough and with each stride feeling like my legs were about to snap into two, I pulled out of my half marathon dreams and training in the most dignified way possible (NAWT!).
That was almost five months ago now and in all honestly I felt scared to run again. I’m not a natural born runner. Working up from not even being able to run round the block without heaving to 10K’s was bloody hard and the thought of having to go through all that again was enough for me to postpone each run I had planned for the next morning to the following day and so on and so on. In the running interim I found Yoga which is now my favourite way of working up a sweat. It’s just challenging enough that it’s a good workout and I find myself improving each time I crack out the mat which is what I find to be the best motivator. But, deep down I missed pounding the pavements, mouthing the words and rap bit to Blu Cantrell’s ‘Breathe’ and weaving a bit of cardio into my routine, so two weeks ago I dusted off my running shoes and although I’m back to where I started, I’m actually enjoying it…
Do I feel like giving up when I turn the corner at the end of the road? Hell yeah. But do I feel all the better for when I’ve completed my lap without stopping? Even more so. I am quite literally back to where I began, by doing one lap around the block three times a week which is roughly one mile a time. We’re talking baby steps here people, but hey – I don’t much fancy struggling to walk down stairs with shin splints again. One thing is different though, I’m currently going phone-less and therefore music-less for my runs. Safety-wise I’m not too fussed because I’m never more than a five minute walk from the flat and from my previous runs I know the distances of all my usual routes so I don’t need to clock mileage. I quite like the quiet – especially because I tend to head out early morning when there’s barely anyone out and about – and it’s helping me concentrate on and control my breathing better because I do tend to sound like that wheezy penguin toy from Toy Story when I up my heart rate.
You fallen off the wagon too? Head back on. It’s not that bad – if you’re anything like me you’ll have a red-face that takes about five hours to settle down, but at least you can skip on blush.
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