A Good Plodder On-er

So I left you all on a bit of a cliff-hanger in October with my MRI done and waiting for the Portsmouth Costal Ultra Marathon 8 weeks away.

As you might have guessed by my absence I did not get straight back to running and I missed the ultra. I have had not run since October………until today!!

So back to October. I was referred to a sports GP specialist who ordered an ultrasound but still no definitive diagnosis and referred back to physio. November/December are always difficult for me. I don’t know why but my mood always dips that time of year. Added to that not running, the loss of a really good mental health nurse and increased demand with decreased staffing at work meant I struggled. Me and my husband always go to London in December to watch Muppet Christmas Carol singalong and the Comedy Store. It must be very frustrating for him as I tend not to do anything much and between these events we spend most of the time in our hotel room watching Netflix on his ipad. I usually enjoy running on these trips but of course I couldn’t and even walking was painful. It was easy to believe that I would not be able to run again.

There were some lovely distractions. We fostered a litter of abandoned kittens from a few days old. My daughter did the bulk of the work bottle feeding and caring for them. Three of them have gone off to their new lives. We are left with the “faulty” one. She is half the size of her brothers, she managed to prolapse her rectum and drinks more than she should. She is incredibly cute and we are hoping to get her well enough for re-homing.

My son was home for Christmas which always cheers me up and although I worked Christmas eve and Christmas day we just all had Christmas Day on Boxing day. My family are great like that. One year I was sectioned over Christmas and my children (still teenagers) would not celebrate Christmas or open any presents until I came home a month later.

Meanwhile while the saga of my foot was dragging on I tried to embrace cycling. My first proper cycle was supposed to be about 10 miles. I set off with a plan but of course decided to take an alternative route. My first lesson was that cycling through water is not easy, especially when the “puddle” is over a foot deep. I had to get off and push at this point and as the water came up to my knees I got a bit wet. I decided to carry on in a loop rather than go back although I slightly miscalculated the route back. Fifteen miles in, still soaked through from the knees down, the sky went black and the torrential rain started. Unusually for me I had brought my lights so at least I was visible but I was not dressed for the rain and was unsure of exactly where I was. I was pushing my bike up a hill when another cyclist called out to ask if I was ok so I must have looked in a bit of a state. After 22 miles I arrived home freezing cold and less enthusiastic about cycling.

These few months I have been hit and miss with exercise at the gym, cycling and a bit at home but early January I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was disappointed that the physio I had seen previously had left the practice, I made a new booking and was referred onto the head honcho of the team. I have seen him before so it was easier than seeing a new person but still difficult to change. As always they were very helpful, considerate and effective. I find it hard to articulate myself in these settings which is hard to believe if you only saw me with my family because then I don’t shut up but I was given time to explain everything and everything was explained to me properly. It’s lovely when people are just direct and say “put your shoes back on now” etc rather than expecting you to pick up on secret subtle clues on when to do everything. I was started back on shockwave therapy and slightly adjusted stretches and exercises. Again it was explained how it works (basically slightly re-injuring the area and stimulating the inflammatory part of the healing process) what to expect, and when and, after the second treatment he suggested a trial run. Foolishly he asked me to suggest a time or length of the trial run and my innocent suggestion of an hour was quickly dismissed. He must have quickly realised that maybe I was not capable of being realistic so I was advised to to 3 repeats of eight minute gentle running with one minute walk breaks in between.

Today was the big day. It already a big day in our house as it was Mr Barron’s 9th birthday. We took him to the beach for a walk. Walking Mr Barron is not like walking any other dog I have had. He rarely breaks into more than a trot and spends an incredible amount of time sniffing. He has always been like this so it isn’t an age thing and he is perfectly capable of running but he chooses not to. This means that in an hour of walking we only covered one and a half miles. This is fine in the summer but in the winter, especially by the beach it can be a little chilly. He is ok in his big black floofy coat so that is all that really matters. We warmed up in a lovely little cafe on the seafront that has an amazing array of food including loads of vegan options and non vegan sausages for dogs. It is small so there is limited seating and the couple next to us had to leave before us, this meant we had to move to let them out. They started muttering, obviously not happy about this state of affairs. It started with quiet under their breath “we are never coming here again”, then referring to my daughter “it’s ridiculous we have to disturb that poor lady”. This got louder and louder as they repeated it over and again in the few minutes it took them to get their coats on and leave and with a final “we are never coming here again”, probably to the relief of the staff, they left with a flourish of distain. Now the atmosphere was much nicer and Mr Barron made it his mission to obstruct everyone else and to also create a lake comprised of drool and water he spilt.

We got home and it was time. The last time I ran I had significant pain at 30 seconds so I had a mixture of being excited to go and scared I would be disappointed but, after my usual of trying to go out of the door 3 times (I forgot my hat, then I forgot my key and then I forgot the buffs I wrap around my hands instead of gloves, I was off. It was amazing. I was told I could run up to 3/10 pain and most of the time it was less. It felt easy and relaxed and didn’t hurt at all in the walk breaks. I see the physio again on Thursday and as this went well I am allowed to do the same run again on Wednesday. I am so happy to be back running. I have a lot of events booked and I realise I may need to scale back and be realistic (not really one of my strengths) but I CAN RUN 🙂 🙂 🙂