Being inspired by Irish-John ’s 3-year runniversary post (at healthunlocked.com/couchto5... ) I had started to ponder about how I would celebrate my own Runniversary, which I somehow let pass without any celebration!
So here my Runniversary post, not quite as inspiring as John’s, but it allowed me to contemplate a bit on my own journey last year.
My official 3rd Runniversary was the 10th of April, and I think I didn’t even run that day! But I’m still running regularly.
And today, I realised there was a perfect NRC audio-guided run to celebrate the past year of my 3 year running journey: The NRC 40min Best of the Year run.
So even if this celebration and reflection post is a tad late, I still want to take a moment and reflect on the past year, using Coach Bennett’s prods of recalling the “bests” of the last 12 months:
★★★ Best thing I started ★★★
The best little thing I started in the last 12 months was to start every run with dynamic calf stretches, as depicted in this video by James Dunne.
My typical start to a run thus includes a warm-up walk for 5 minutes, which gets me to the start of my trails, but it also features a handy set of street signage with two parallel signposts. And these are perfect for grabbing them whilst doing these calf stretches. I’m not always doing them quite as long as in the video, but I go through all 6 motions to warm up my lower legs.
I actually came across them when a group of us over at Strength and Flex, led by Beatlesforever were doing the 30Day James Dunne “Transform your Running” challenge this year, and that programme gave me quite a few things that I integrated into my running life! We also had a lot of fun going through the whole 30 days here healthunlocked.com/strength... )
So best thing I started? The brilliant pre-run dynamic calf stretches by James Dunne.
★★★ Best teacher ★★★
Coach Bennett also asked me to think about who my best teacher was in the last 12 months. Now the coach would probably suggest it’s myself, as he has drilled the notion of being your own best coach into me over quite a number of runs.
But maybe teaching is not the same thing as coaching. So when pondering who was my best teacher in the last 12 months, it came back to the notion of a more collective. My running teacher is a collective entity, made up of the whole HU community, as well as Coach Bennett himself, talking to me on all of the audio-guided runs, and thirdly, myself, engaging actively in this community, learning and reading, and discovering all sorts of things around running, and being a runner.
Even the act of writing here allows me to pause and reflect. What worked well? What didn’t? What’s my next plan? How will I move to the next phase?
And looking back at my 1st ( healthunlocked.com/bridgeto... ) and 2nd Runniversaries ( healthunlocked.com/couchto5... ) I can also see how much I’ve learned!
So best teacher? The award goes to our HU community of runners, plus Coach Bennett and myself!
★★★ Best error I made ★★★
I really couldn’t think of a specific identifiable error. Still, when pondering this, my thoughts returned to repeatedly pulling my calf muscle this year, misdiagnosing the source of the strain but getting into Jeffing as a result (and buying another set of lovely Altra shoes!)
Back then, having pulled my calf muscle whilst walking (WALKING!!!), I did my own detective work on why it happened:
The case of the pulled calf - A muscle mystery! healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...
I got into jeffing as part of my return-to-running plan healthunlocked.com/bridgeto... )
Of course, my sleuthing didn’t stop there, as I think I made an error in my original sleuthing, as can be read here in this post, but go straight to PEG 5:
Pegs, calf-strain mysteries and thanks healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...
So from the calf strain, I came out with two brilliant insights that changed the way I support my running:
1) Jeffing is great. I love it. Systematically trying out different jeffing ratios as part of my return-from-calf-strain plan was also a real find. I’ve found all sorts of ratios that fit all sorts of running days. So since this plan, jeffing will remain a form part of my running for now!
2) I’ve bought a new pair of shoes! As part of my plan to change over all my shoes to zero-drop, flexible at the ankle, wide toes box, I acquired a new pair of Altra Road shoes, and once I have saved up a bit, the Altra Lone Peak hiking boots are next!
So yes, the error of having misdiagnosed the sources of my calf strain led me to jeffing and more running shoes. How good can an error get?
★★★ Best win ★★★
And the best win I probably had was completing my 30-day British Indoor Rowing plan: Row31, with challenging sessions off and on the Rower. That medal was just so great to receive! It’s probably my 12th medal or so, but some medals are special and hard-earned. This was one!
healthunlocked.com/strength...
★★★ Best friend I had ★★★
The coach also asked about my best friend, who is not afraid to give me some hard truths when I need to hear them but cheers me every step of the way.
And my hubby gets this award every single year! With disarming charm, he sometimes lands killer blows of hard truths (“Why I am likely to never be able to do pistol squats”), but he is there also every moment to cheer me on! (“But here is how you get to doing 100 squats”)
He’s rarely on the forums, but sometimes he makes a rare appearance and pops in. Here you can spot him in the replies: healthunlocked.com/strength...
So the award for best friend goes to….. my hubby.
★★★ 3rd year running and counting ★★★
So those were just some of my thoughts that went through my mind when Coach Bennett asked me about my bests for the year. He had a few more for me, from best runners meal (protein smoothies), best goal (off the IC and into regular running again), best place (new discovered trail section), and best laughs ( Daniel the engineer! On NRC audio-guided runs. 🤣🤣).
And I finished my great little 40min Jeffing run on another high, allowing me to finally celebrate - albeit a bit late - my 3rd Runniversary.
Happy running, everyone!
