"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt



Saturday 13 April 2013

Thinking you've lost the running bug then finding THAT spark again...

I said in my last post about how much exercise I'd completed last weekend, and in truth, I probably overdid it...

10km run Friday (as well as a gym session)
6km run Saturday (another gym session before hand)
Rock climbing Sunday
27 mile bike ride Monday
4km run Tuesday

Considering I'm meant to be feeling my way back into things it's not surprising my legs have felt heavy...

On Thursday I set out for a 10km run but had to cut it short to just under 8km - I really struggled and it felt like my knee pain was back. This really worried me; I've worked so hard in physio to get back to running, and I don't want to undo all that by stupidly overdoing it...

So on Friday I spent a good hour doing all the leg strengthening exercises that have helped in my recovery. It felt great to get my leg muscles working and my knee was fine.

When I went out on my run this morning my legs felt fresh, but I struggled due to my lack of fitness. I was just over a mile in and thought to myself "I'm really not enjoying this - nor can I honestly say I've enjoyed many of my runs since return from injury... Have I lost my love of runing?"

At this point of my run I got to the Liverpool-Leeds canal where I have the option of turning right and completing a short route, or turning left and taking a longer route.... I had to make myself turn left. As soon as I had I remember thinking of Sarah Marsden's (see her blog here)  favourite quote when it comes to running "amazing things rarely happen inside your comfort zone"....


Suddenly I decided to go for it; if I want to get back to my previous levels of fitness i've got to push myself, so I proceeded to do exactly that. It was a warm morning,  and I really sweated it out on the run, but didn't relent... I got to about 1 mile from home and saw two runners coming towards me. I thought to myself "I really hope they're from my running club because I need a lift." Guess what? They were!

We chatted for about a minute as they were in the middle of a London marathon training run, and one of us wanted to stop our runs for too long. It was great though and reminded me just how much I miss the running club gang and how much I love running with them. Done with chatting I had renewed vigour (as well as a nice little rest!) and to home I scurried to complete a 10km run with an average pace of sub 7 minute miles - the first time this year! I felt great, still do, and know that this morning's run was the one when I turned a corner.

Onwards and upwards from here!

2 comments:

  1. It makes me so happy that I could be a bit motivating during your hour of need- it's such a good quote, isn't it? Glad you've found your mojo again!

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    1. Well it made a change from the same old winning Olympic gold in the 5000m !! :)

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