thoughts for today

This morning, for the first time since last August, I went somewhere and ran home.  Only 30 minutes mind but it's a start ... slowly getting back to normal.

Not that many people think I'm normal in any way.  But that's OK with me.

Fay was going shopping this morning in Guiseley (about 6 km from here) so she suggested buying me a coffee before I left her to run home.  Brilliant idea.

And talking about ideas ... I've decided to run the Leeds 5k parkrun on 9 March and Fay has already agreed to resume her role as 'bag person'.  I'm due to run for 60 minutes on that day anyway so I can easily incorporate a 5k run at a slightly faster pace than normal !!!

And in early May Fay and I have decided to have short walking holiday in the Yorkshire Dales to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.  We were talking over a couple of cups of coffee (one each, of course ...) this morning and we decided that there's no real need for us to spend a fortune just because we've been married 25 years.  Twenty five is no different really to 24 or 26 and there's no doubt we'll be together for a long time to come.  Barring accidents and illnesses of course.

what's going on here

The ten minutes I spent running yesterday proved to be quite strange.  After all the recent snow, rain and cold weather it turned out to be very sunny and quite warm.  But what was even more remarkable was that I lost some weight.

I know, I know ... losing weight whilst running isn't unusual, but losing 0.54 kg (1.2 lb) in ten minutes is very strange.

That's a sweat rate of almost 3 litres per hour.  In February.

So what's going on ?  I've no idea but at least I'm losing some of the small amount of extra weight I've accumulated in the past five months.

Also, between now and mid June, to help with motivation during rehab, I'm allowed to enter a few short races (no longer than an hour) on two conditions. 1) I don't overdo things ... 2) I don't run at all on the following day.

Expect the first race to be in March.  No personal bests though ... not even an attempt.

progression ... at last

Went back to the physio today and the good news is that the ankle is still improving and my running (!), cycling, etc has not made things worse.

Which means that I have permission to progress as follows:

when I can manage 60 minutes of alternating running and walking every other day ...
I can run continuously, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, every other day, then ...
I alternate running and walking, 2 days out of 3, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, then ...
running continuously, 2 days out of 3, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, then ...
alternating running and walking, 3 days out of 4, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, then ...
running continuously, 3 days out of 4, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, then ...

alternating running and walking, 4 days out of 5, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, then ...
running continuously, 4 days out of 5, increasing from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, then ...

I can begin 'normal' training.

In the meantime I have to continue the rehab exercises for a few more months, at least.  But I can start again with the leg strength exercises ... squats, lunges, etc.  Obviously with light weights at first and not many reps.

Things are looking up now.  But there's still a long way to go.

Many thanks to James Sneath for all his help with understanding the injury and especially for teaching me how to manage it and which things will help and which will make it worse.