Tuesday 25 September 2012

Long time coming back....

Long time coming....


Well, folks it's been a very long time out but things are finally looking up. As a brief re-cap, I went out on a usual Sunday morning run back November 2010, waiting most of the morning for the sun to melt the early morning ice. Unfortunately, over I went on a patch of black ice and hyper-extended my right knee. After being given the run-around by numerous physio's and doctors, I eventually got referred to a knee specialist/consultant and finally went under the knife in November 2011, a full year out of the trainers with a still to be diagnosed problem.

Torn cartilage and plica syndrome (see previous post) was the damage. 10 weeks of physio followed but I eventually got very disheartened by the apparent lack of enthusiasm given, so finished it and resolved Googling recovery programs of people who had been through similar situations.

Now, September 2012, I am pleased to announce that I am back; having only two days ago completed my first race since injury - the inaugural Malmesbury Half Marathon. It provided a great opportunity as a come-back race to run in my town. Lots of people that I know within the town, plus one or two that I had met further afield (including at the Atlantic Coast Challenge) made for a great, if very, very wet, event.

The main aim of the run was to check the strength of my knee over the distance. I had only run one 10 miler and one 13 miler in the lead-up to the race, so running fitness was a complete unknown. I had been a bit of a slave to the gym in the time spent away from running, both in terms of strength and cardio work, so I was hoping that this would at least see me through the first 10 miles. I had planned to average out 8:30 minute miles just to see how things went, however when we started off I just felt great and decided to go with it, hovering around the 8 minute mile mark. As it panned out, I finished in 01:46:41 averaging out 8:09 per mile – only around 5 minutes off my PB of 2 years ago in Chippenham!

So, it looks on the face of it like all the gym work paid off, and kept my base fitness ticking over until my return. I’ve also been very good/careful with my diet too and I am around 1 stone lighter than when I got injured (usually works the other way around!!)

Anyway, I’ve been really enjoying reading all the blogs and the adventures that people have been getting up to so it’s about time I started enjoying myself once more. First up, on the weekend of 26th October is the Three Peaks Challenge – 24hrs to include Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon.

Watch this space!