Week 1, Run 2. Not quite...

[Simon_RM]

Update time, and not a great one unfortunately. I'm not going to consider it a failure as the morning was littered with little personal wins for me, but I am a little disappointed in myself, mainly for being stupid (or perhaps just ignorant that I may have needed to rest for longer).

It was a beautiful morning, up at 6am as planned, ate half a banana, drank some water and set off on the warm up walk. It was -2c but the sun was shining and Bob Marley was wailing sweetly in my ears, I felt good... really good.

Now just getting out of bed at that time and setting off with a positive attitude are huge wins for me. My calves were still a little achy, but they weren't what I'd consider painful in any way, so I figured I'd be good to go.

When my 5 minute warm up walk was done, I was feeling good and started my run at a slow pace, but after about 30 seconds the right hand side of my left calf started to hurt a bit, so I slowed a little more but it just got worse until I had to stop.

Now, with my mental health as it has been these past 8 months, the part of my mind which has been so dominant over this time immediately went to a bad place. "You've failed!", it said. "Just go home loser!" it continued, so I turned back and started to trudge back towards home.

Thankfully, the positive part of my brain which I used to kind of like, but who'd been away on annual leave to goodness knows where decided to show it's face again. "And where do you think you're going?", it chimed. "You can still walk fine, so why not keep up the brisk pace and check out the route you've been planning for the last few days?", it continued. Not a bad idea I figured, it's wasn't painful to walk, only run.

Big win for me again, I turned around and continued to walk briskly. Turns out the route I'd planned seems great, so looking forward to running along it soon, other than the unavoidable incline in the second half that comes with living on a hill.

Out of curiosity, I did try to run again a few times along the way, curious if it was just because it was cold and I wasn't warm enough, but it continued to hurt when I tried so I stopped.

So, plus points, I got up, got out, gave it a go, found a good route for the future, scored one for team positive, kicked little old negativity into touch, and at least kept my heart rate up with a good brisk walk.

Things I've learnt, my rest periods may need to be longer in the first few 'weeks', it may take me a couple of weeks to complete a plan week, but I'm in no rush, my goal is unchanged, I may just take a little longer to get there.

I'm going to take many more good low impact walks between runs until the situation improves. Still positive, still looking forward, and at least I'm off the couch, (or rather home office chair in my case).

Wow, that was a long one considering I ran for less than a minute

[Oldlady57]

👏👏👏Simon_RM. You showed alot of determination to change a negative into a positive. Take it easy, there’s no such thing as too slow. You could always take an extra days rest if your calf’s remain sore/ache. Your doing fab, enjoy your journey👍🏻

[Simon_RM in reply to Oldlady57]

Thank you I'll have a couple of good walks and plan to try again on Sunday 🤞 I'm assuming (hoping) my recovery times improve as I progress.

[Oldlady57 in reply to Simon_RM]

Sounds like a plan!! Happy running on Sunday. Take it steady. Lots of links too in the pinned posts that you might find useful. 👍

[lehcar70 Graduate]

Well done Simon for turning a negative into a positive and for all your little wins. I also live in a hilly area so I just turn around rather than go up one! Everyone is different, but I tried going out in the morning and just couldn't do it. Evenings work better for me. Perhaps it takes me all day to warm up

[Simon_RM in reply to lehcar70]

Thank you.

I decided to go in the morning so no one would see me, other than birds and the odd dog walker, or perhaps sympathetic runner 😊, thankfully though it's been lovely at that time and I'm enjoying being up.

Unfortunately, once I've left my house I can't avoid going up hill if I want to get home 😂 but it all adds to the challenge 👍

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Well done, you did all the right things, both physically and mentally........there is always something to learn.

Follow the advice in the guide to the plan on dealing with injury and when you restart make sure that you stretch after every run.

Stretching immediately after every run, nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/h... while muscles are still warm and supple, pulls out contractions, avoiding carrying tensions into the next run and also improves recovery by improving blood flow.

Take care.