OK, I don’t want to prematurely start celebrating…but I’m thinking (I’m praying) that my running is almost back to normal. Obviously trying not to jinx this!!
I went to my running school session last night and I was quite nervous. But I did loads of tough speed intervals on the treadmill while trying to maintain a good form…with no pain. This involved a lot of shouting from the coach “hips forward!”, “relax that foot”…that kind of thing. We did speed intervals, high incline intervals, high incline with speed…jeeze it was HARD. I almost fell off towards the end!
Then he got me running on the treadmill backwards. Yes, backwards. Apparently this works a load of different muscles. I have no idea to be honest, I was just concentrating on not falling off.
Then we did lots of stability work. This involved one legged squats on one of those wobbly disk things (technical term there), lunges, core work, bridges… My legs felt fully abused by the end.
But, no pain. And when I got home, I foam rolled, stretched and iced…no pain.
This morning…no pain.
But I’m not going to get ahead of myself. I’m going to see how Parkrun goes tomorrow. I have absolutely no goals. Just run, see how it feels. Don’t blast it, just run it. Sounds so simple, right?
I’m not even going to talk about Sunday. One day at a time.
As I mentioned, this week was gently getting back into things. And I’m fairly happy I did this.
Monday: nothing.
Tuesday: 5 mile run (easy)
Wednesday: strength work in the gym
Thursday: running school torture
Friday (today): 35 minutes recumbent bike, 10 minutes rower
For the moment I’m not doing Spin as I was worried it was putting pressure on my knee (all that standing up and sprinting). So I did 2 minutes easy, 1 minute speed, 30 seconds sprint on the recumbent bike (less pressure on hips and knees) for 35 minutes. Then the rower for 10 minutes.
I hope to get back into spin soon though as I do love it. Sort of?
Saturday: Parkrun
Sunday: I hope to do a long run but I’m not setting any targets for fear I will be quickly smited down by the big Running God in the sky for being too ambitious.
I have started to feel less sick about the marathon…though obviously anything could happen in the next four weeks (FOUR WEEKS!) and let’s be honest I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my world comes crumbling down once again with another injury or reoccurrence of a niggle. Ahh the joys of running.
What are you up to this weekend? I’m working (from home) tomorrow. Joy. But I do have friends over in the evening for a Mexican evening (helloooo guacamole).
How do you exercise when you’re taking things easy? I do less intense workouts. I try to workout for just as long, but at an ‘easier’ level.
What gym equipment is your favourite? I love the rower. It’s the rhythm I think.