My body has definitely enjoyed the past 10 days with no running. The first week I was overwhelmed with tiredness and on a couple of occasions had to take myself off to bed for a couple of hours in the afternoon so I had enough energy for the evening, it did make me feel rather like a geriatric but hey how many grannies to you know that have the excuse of running 290 miles!
I had been given a sports massage on the Tuesday following the race but had to go back on the Friday to have another one on the legs to get the remaining fluid moving. Since the Atacama in 2008 where I twisted my ankle badly I have always had problems with it. My “achilles heel” is my left ankle and no amount of strengthening exercises will help. Thankfully I have an excellent osteopath who re-balances my body to enable me to keep running. During the Double GUCR my ankle felt fine, yes I went over on it a couple of times but nothing that caused any problems. However by the end I had a swelling around my ankle (just above where the shoelaces tie) which felt very bruised and didn’t seem to be going down. After the second sports massage there was a marked improvement, the fluid disappeared from my leg except for this area which remained red and angry.
After 10 days with no running I felt it was time to test my legs out with a gentle run, so a phone call to my running partner and we met up last Friday. It was with great excitement that my trainers were reacquainted with my feet, always a sign that I’m ready to run again.
The run went well we did 17km very easy, there was after all have a lot of catching up to do! My legs felt heavy but good and the angry spot on my left ankle was uncomfortable. I had an appointment with my osteopath later that day so knew it would be sorted.
Appointment time arrived and he was delighted that I had no blisters, a sign that my body was well balanced which is marvellous, however on inspection of said angry area he worked his magic and then told me that I wasn’t allowed to run for a further 5 – 7 days as I had put too much pressure on the tendons at the top of the foot because the ankle wasn’t able to cope and if I ran before the swelling had gone down it would cause more problems – so no running it is, but thankfully I am able to bike (ElliptiGO here I come) and aqua-jog, so I’m happy to wait; I would rather take the time off now and fully recover than be an idiot and start running, the body needs time to heal however frustrated we get. Over the years I have learnt that once you think you are fully recovered from an injury or a big race, always give it a couple more days after you feel ready to run just to make sure then pop your trainers on but not before or you will at some stage down the line suffer the consequences. Your whole body needs time to recover, not just your leg muscles.
I’m extremely proud of Wayward Daughter No. 1 who took part in her first Race for Life in Tunbridge Wells on Sunday. The whole family were there to support her armed with pink Pom Poms which the boys thought were fantastic and we cheered her very loudly across the finish line in just over 31 minutes, absolutely fantastic and a huge achievement and a great role model for her sons. I was in my element being surrounded by Pink!
This week my goal is to finish the Race Report on my second half of the double – it took me ages to write the first section. I do apologise but it will be out this week at some stage!
Tomorrow I giving a talk to Sarah’s Runners in Tunbridge Wells which I’m really looking forward to. They are a group of ladies who are all at different levels with their running, but all started from scratch and I can think of no better way to spend a morning than drinking coffee, eating cake and talking all things running!
Right, time to put my gym kit on and head out of the door, exercise for me followed by the dogs!
Happy training
