Back to Week 4 C25k.....

[northernlass1965]

And it was A LOT harder than I thought! Having become an injury couch potato - on and off, but mostly on it for over 6 weeks - a sales guy in a running shop advised me to "try and run and see how you go".

I'd gone into Sweat Shop to have a look at the sales and got talking to him after deciding to get a second gait analysis done because of my suspicion that it could be my shoes causing me problems. I was wondering if they weren't giving me enough support. But more about this later.

I'd also had a stinker of a cold which played havoc with my asthma so I couldn't do any exercise at all for the last couple of weeks. Finally the asthma settled, my calf pain was gone and today I thought I would take that shop assistant's advice and get out there because it was a beautiful, sunny, crisp winter's day!

I got well rugged up in a few layers, not quite Nanook of the North, so I was still able to run, lol.... and tuned in to my podcast. I was so happy to be out there again and the park looked so beautiful with the frosty grass sparkling in the sunlight.

I thought that going back to Week 4 R1 would be a breeze but NO! I puffed and wheezed my way through it (lungs still a bit dodgy) but there was no doubt I'd lost almost ALL of the fitness I'd had when I was running for 50 mins continuously only a couple of months ago!!!

Not quite all of it - as I will never forget how bad I felt after W1 R1 (I couldn't move for 3 days!) - and I didn't feel THAT bad.

Injury-wise, I was fine until halfway through the last 5 minute run when I had new niggling aches (right knee/hamstring) but at least there was no calf pain . Swings and roundabouts. So I will rest tomorrow and think about going back to Week 3.

As for the gait analysis, I originally had it done at Runners Need, and they told me I overpronated and needed stability shoes. I'd had no problems with my ancient Nike gym shoes throughout all of C25k and beyond until I bought these new pronation shoes, then I had one injury after another. Which may have been because I was pushing too far, too fast in an attempt to achieve 10k. But it did seem a coincidence.

So the guy in Sweat Shop analysed my gait and to my astonishment, said he thought I had a mostly neutral stride and I would be best off in neutral shoes. He said he wanted to be sure and get a second opinion from an older, very experienced colleague. The colleague went over, they both stared at the video of me on the treadmill for a few minutes and the assistant came back and said the colleague agreed.

So now I'm completely confused! How can you have two totally different gait analyses??? In the meantime, to deal with my confusion, I'm off to have a look at the Decathlon sale

Happy running everyone and keep warm!

[Millsie-J Graduate]

I'm so glad you have managed to run again at last. Remember to build slowly and you will regain any stamina and fitness lost, whilst not overdoing things.

Good luck with the shoes😃🏃🏼‍♀️

[northernlass1965 Graduate in reply to Millsie-J]

Thanks Jacs-W. Yes, it was lovely running again, but I had an asthma attack a couple of hours afterwards - don't know if that was brought on by running again - but I will have my rest day tomorrow (Friday) and all being well will do a wk3 run on Saturday.

I bought some nice trail shoes reduced to less than half price so I'm looking forward to trying them out - there'll be no stopping me! That boring old asthma can sod off, lol....