Returning to running

It’s nice to be in a position a lot of my patients find themselves. Returning to running. It’s not an easy thing. We don’t always know how the body will react. I will often try and err on the side of caution but knowing that running progress isn’t linear or all about numbers, sometimes that can be challenging. The numbers give us a guide. They help us to draw up a map of where we are and where we are going. Whether your map is in miles or kilometres, knowing how many you have ran in a week feels like a good place to start. If you were running 5 miles last week and 50 this week you might notice you’re a bit more tired and maybe even achey, who knew?

With the blog following my running in preparation for Manchester Marathon, lets look at this weeks return: After the weekly total being 0 for around a month it was important to not jump right back in at the deep end.

Did I hit every session on last weeks plan? No I didn’t actually, roughly yes but not perfectly. It was a busy week and I forgot to check the plan so I missed the 10 x 30s on 30s off during Wednesday’s run. I doubt it will add minutes onto my marathon in April…

Here are the weekly k’s:

When returning to running or building up miles increasing the frequency of running before getting the long runs and harder runs under your belt is the best place to start - if you want to run 32k in a week you will find it a lot easier in 4 runs than 1. I know that sounds obvious but it’s easy to forget and this can be a really useful way to think if you want to run more miles/k’s in a week!

Last Saturday at Park Run was a real joy to be back running with the Dawlish Coasters. I was buzzing after and treated myself to a cheese and onion slice before we piled into Wetherspoons. Sunday my calf felt a little tight but knowing I wouldn’t be running fast anytime soon and it’s likely that the body will need a little time to get accustomed to the impact of running again this felt more like an amber warning than a red flag. The rest of the week was just getting out and getting some time on feet. Despite the bad weather again it was great to be outside and looking forward to getting stuck into Marathon Training, which I’m going to say starts next week…