It's been a while since I posted on here, at least partly because I haven't been able to run as I would have liked. Having graduated on C25K and Bridge to 10k in July 2019 and late 2019 respectively, I continued to build up my speed and distance, raching the peak of my running career so far almost exactly a year to the day after starting C25K. I ran a half marathon at the end of May 2020, taking advantage of what was my travel time to work to run a lot during the early part of lockdown.
I continued to run, but as work (from home) got busier, I had less and less time to do so, and so the number and length of runs gradually reduced. The last time I managed 10k was April 2021. So by June 21 I made a concerted effort to start running more regularly again. The problem was that I tried to run as I knew I had been capable of. I did a couple of 4k runs - on the third, where I thought I would get to 5k, I felt my knee twinge at 3k. Being me, I thought I could run through that. 10 paces later, the twinge had turned into sharp pain and I knew I wasn't running home.
Now you should all know that I always carry my phone with me when I run, though I use a Garmin watch to record my runs. Not on this day. I had to hobble the 3k back home, which didn't help my knee.
I'm still not entirely sure what I did to my knee. My suspicion is that I strained the ligaments in my knee, but the physio I saw thought it was more likely to be cartilage related. Either way, I did various strengthening exercises, setting back my recovery a couple of times by attempting to run on it too soon. By the end of September I was able to run 3k very slowly. I could feel my knee but it was an ache rather than painful. By the middle of November I'd built up to 4k. Another month and I'd extended to 5k, with my knee feeling much stronger. My times were slow compared with before my injury but with almost no pain, I was beginning to enjoy my runs.
By the end of the year I had managed a couple of runs round my go-to 6k route - but again the time was slow. Since then I've built up more distance and over the last couple of weeks, I've managed a slow 10k (67 minutes against a PB of 59 minutes), then a slightly quicker 10k, then a sub 36 minute 6k and today, a 5k in less than 30 minutes. Even at my fittest, running any distance at less than 6:00/km was a good run, so I am really pleased with my progress.
I now want to extend my distance a little further - the two 10k runs have made a big difference to my 5k and 6k times. I'd like to push to 12-13k, with 16k a longer term goal. I'd love to get my 10k time down to a comfortable 60 minutes, but to achieve that I think it will help to run further at a slower pace.
Lessons learned - don't overdo it - don't try to go too fast to quickly, particularly if you've not run as much as you once did. Don't rush back from injury - work on leg strength and avoid too much impact on the joints - Strava says I cycled a fair bit in August and early September last year to help me build up strength.
I'm really enjoying my running again, and I am looking forward to doing some hill walking next weekend, which I've always found beneficial to my running.
Simon
Getting back in my stride
Back to it!
Back to the training 🥳
4K, new ‘form’, no pain but so out of breath!!!
Back to the drawing board
