Running Blog - 15th August 2022
Paris 24 – reduced to walking
Sadly, having stopped running due to a bad back, then Covid, followed by headbutting the pavement whilst on a ‘recovery’ run, my left Achilles decided to reduce my chances of achieving the qualification time for Paris ‘24 even further.
Reduced to hobbling despite ice-packs daily and Ibuprofen I have been well and truly humbled. The thing is ‘we’ that is, I, carry around in my innermost some competing wisdoms which occasionally have a punch up with only one winner. In my case, in the blue corner, stands ‘Regular Exercise’ and in the red Corner ‘If it Hurts Stop’.
Boots not trainers for a while
Round One: Regular Exercise comes out swinging but I’m afraid when If It Hurts Stop lands a few jabs and maybe a nasty uppercut and Regular Exercise is down for a count, he gets up and carries on, despite his corner yelling and throwing towels around. That third voice is ignored and Boom! Knock-out follows on like night after day.
A week later and my training plan has been rewritten. I’m not going to return to running for a month…at least. But I am going to walk. Yesterday was the first pain-free day so up and out for an hour’s stroll round Blaise. The hills of South Wales will have to wait. Patience.
Today up and out round Blaise. A slightly hillier version and the intention is to do that twice today. And so on, building up until I can’t stand it anymore and break into a trot, a canter, and…well I’ll be happy to canter.
Just a fallen log. Dusty orange colour in early morning light not quite captured but it made me stop and stare
Today’s wander was accompanied by Rob Bell’s podcast No Tangents. He’s exhausting! How can anyone talk so fast about so many topics? I doubt he would like to be walking at my relaxed pace. Halfway through he stopped. Abruptly. I fished my iPhone out of my pocket to see why only to find myself staring at Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton about to launch into Can’t Find My Way Home. So, for five minutes, strolling through the woods, I was carried along by the two guitar masters blending their art before returning to Rob Bell.
Not a bad way to start the day.