First run today since two weeks ago, the resting period which I used to give my right soleus calf muscles a recovery period.
My soleus muscles were giving me some grief, the pain ebbing and waning over the last three weeks, with walking exacerbating the pain to the point of having to hobble, and gardening (with squatting and getting up and down a lot) always increasing the pain slightly for the next few days. As a result, I experienced such tight calf muscles that I was afraid to run or row.
But after 3 weeks of resting a bit, 2 weeks of no running at all, 7 days of no rowing, and pausing my S&F ankle mobility exercises, I think I’m getting there.
But boy, as a runner, it's so hard to rest and recover! I started doing daily micro arm workouts with dumbbells, and that certainly helped with my upper back strength.
So my fifty-plus-year body has made me very aware of the fine balance it has to strike. Doing a bit more gardening might mean I have to take it a bit easier on running. But running over the last few years has given me immense strength and fitness that makes gardening so much more enjoyable!
So off to a little 30 min run this morning, and I chose to do it with 1/1min Jeffing intervals. This would allow me to ease back in, as I expected to be struggling after not having run for ca 17 days.
But it was fine, even more than fine! Aerobic fitness was strong, and my calves held up. I could feel the faint ache in the background, but rather as an ache to be run off and stretch those limbs. (And stretching afterwards did proof that I had lost some flexibility, with some stretches feeling tight to begin with, rewardingly less so by the end of the 12min stretching routine )
And it was great to be out there again. 2 weeks at this time of the year means the trees and grasses and plans just exploded into lush green-ness.
And I took the opportunity to run a little off course path I’d never run before, just 700 meters or so, but 700 meters of all new running experience!
I was enjoying my run so much, that I didn't even remember to stop and take a photo! A rare thing! So pic is of my container garden! 💚🙂🌿🪴🫛
Jeffing this run 1/1min also meant I was feeling strong the whole way through, wanting to run longer than the 1 min intervals. A great feeling!
And, of course, Coach Bennett kept me entertained, dropping one of my favourite sayings:
You don’t need to run every day to be a runner every single day!
Happy running, everyone!
An 'all seasons' run/walk
