So it begins...

Last Tuesday marked a significant step on my way to next years London Marathon - the physio said I could start running again!

It's been more than three months since my last run (a now incomprehensible 20-miler if I remember rightly...) and I'm now allowed to get going again after weeks of physio, wonderfully named 'knee classes', and seemingly endless stretching.

A month ago, in an effort to stop the complete loss of any fitness I'd built up in training, I got a bike and now cycle a 22 mile round trip to work during the week, with some more relaxing - and usually condsiderably muddier - excursions on the weekend.

This has the added bonus of actually helping strengthen my knees to both aid recovery, and prevent me doing it to myself again.

The other so-crucial-it-must-not-be-understated-under-any-circumstances-or-I'm-in-the-doo-doo-again point to remember is that I must build up my mileage very, very, slowly.

This is my golden rule.

When I first went to see a physio (at a walk in medical centre in Kent) he said that he was convinced the schedules that people run for things like the London Marathon are the reason so many get injured in the last stage of training.

He did tell me why he thought so, but I'd kind of zoned out by then as it followed the bit where he said "you won't be running the marathon you've spent months and months, and hundreds of miles training for."*

So, I now have the best part of nine months to get up to 26.2 miles.

First step will be a test run on a night as yet to be decided this week, where I will attempt to run the pathetic distance of...

drum roll please...

A mile.

Seriously.

That's what I've been told to start with to see how it goes. If I manage that unscathed, I can then try a whole two miles.

Insanity! Surely the molecules of my body will vapourise at such a staggering effort!

If I master that collossal distance, I can try three. But shouldn't go up after that until I've got that comfortably under my belt a few times.

At the moment, in my head, that'll be easy as falling off a dog - I cycle more than 100 miles a week so should have some of my level of fitness.

But, deep down, I suspect that might not be the case.

Anyway, tune in later this week to find out how I get on!

* I may be paraphrasing.

2 comments:

  1. Welcome back!
    I'm running 1 mile tonight, and fearing it for slightly different reasons. It has the word 'Killer' before it, to describe the change in altitude of 70 meters. What this is in gradient terms I don't know, but it's steep.
    How bout it?

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  2. Unless the full description is along the lines of "this is probably the least like a killer mile you'll ever run" I think I'll leave it to you!

    I'm giving it a few weeks to see how I'm feeling before making a decision on the Brum half - on paper it's doable, but I've yet to trust my legs!

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