Wednesday 14 April 2010

Back Up & Running!

I feel good! Denenenenene. I knew that I would. Denenenenene. I feeeeeel good! Denenenenene. I knew that I would. Denenenenene. So good! Dun dun. So good! Dun dun, cos I can run. Dun dun dun dun...

Today I completed the British Heart Foundation London Jog Trilogy; Part 1 Hyde Park. I had this in my diary as a planned last 10km race before the London Marathon. But that was before my injury of course. The jogs are actually well thought out in order to appeal to all walks of people. You can do anything from 1km on some races to 10km. Hyde Park today offered a choice of 5km or 10km and they didn't care what you did. Which actually worked well for me, had I not been injured I would have really enjoyed it. Actually who am I kidding? Had I not been injured it would have annoyed the hell out of me! It was a jog; most people were walking or meandering along which is fine and exactly what I needed today, but had I been really training hard I would have pushed to the front at the start in order to avoid the walkers and been really annoyed if I'd ended up behind any of them! The whole race would have been me weaving in and out trying to run around people lol. I noticed the people that were doing just that!

I decided part way down the course to only do 5km. My ankle felt ok, but I didn't think ok was good enough and my fitness levels have really plummeted. I knew I could go 10k if I wanted to, but I also knew it would still be a gentle 10km jog, rather than a great race. So at the 5km point where runners were being directed to go around again for a second lap I turned right and run to the finish to collect my medal, water, stretch and check my bags were still in the unmanned, dump it all here bag area!


It's scary to think how my fitness levels have completely dropped since being injured. I guess I should have been swimming a lot more to fill in, but I couldn't swim the first two weeks as me ankle was strapped up and in the last week I knew I was only days away from running so didn't bother! I guess 10km would be about my max run at the moment, with 5km being a fair distance to build from. So for me from here it's gonna be back to basics. I think London is out of the window from this point, I still have another six half marathons to run in 2010 and I'll add another full marathon in at the end of the year, when hopefully my ankle will be more up for it!

I now have an appointment booked in with a specialist to look at my ankle; at the very least I think I'll need to be fitted with orthontics as my right ankle joint seems to fall inwards as I run  in the area where my ligaments are damaged and I'm not having that problem on my left ankle. The specialist wanted to remove my steel plate and give me an MRI scan last time, but decided not to so I could run the marathon, or maybe just so he didn't have another patient in his list. The funny this is one session of physio with Zoe and she said "it (the joint) feels very creaky", exactly the problem I'd been to the specialist with. My ankle had been 'clicking' in and out of place for years, but running, no wearing high heels after running heightened the problem. I once walked around gingerly all day, as my joint had slipped out of place and I just couldn't get it to go back as much as I tried - normally I flex my ankle and it goes 'pop'; job done. My appointment is in 4 weeks which gives me some time to start training again and getting back into a pattern, especially as it will be two days after my next half marathon! Before that though I have the second part of the BHF London Jog Trilogy - Tower Of London where I'm hoping to get 10km down. Right now though I'm just taking one day at a time and one run at a time. I need to get my fitness levels back up, with less focus on the running and maybe spending more time spinning, swimming or out on my bike. One day at a time, one run at a time here I go; back up and running!

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