Coming Back?

It’s been an unbelievably frustrating month with injury meaning my last proper run was on the 1^st February. This time of year is normally so good for a runner. The worst of the winter is passed and spring is not far away. These are days of running without snow, with the blackbirds singing in the tree tops and the only slippy sliding is caused by mud instead of ice.

For me though it’s been a time of feeling down watching other runners and wondering if I’ll ever get back into it again. Amanda, my physio has been urging rest, rest, rest and I have been resting with just the occasional little try out to see if the pain comes back. So far without fail, every time the pain comes back, often after a mile or so and sometimes after only half a mile

Today though it was different, I know walking doesn’t seem to aggravate my leg so I thought I’ll take Moss the dog for a walk up Kinpauch Hill, a nice little top across the road from Blackford that gives a 6m 1100” circuit. I had a brief debate with myself about footwear and the devil in me said go with the fell shoes not the boots.

Of we went and I set a brisk 4mph walking pace to get the breathing going. Hey, I thought, this feels pretty good I could even do the WHW sub 24hr going no faster than this. I felt great forcing the pace up the front of Kinpauch.

On reaching the top I had no pain whatsoever, so, thought I, I wonder what would happen if I broke into a trot? Well nothing happened except I went faster as I jogged toward the boundary fence at the back of Kinpauch. So down the track I went sort of jog/walking to minimise shock to the knee and still no problems.

The last couple of miles are an easy gradient on soft grass and mossy track centre so I jogged the whole of this back down to the road. Amazingly still no problems as I jogged into the village.

So here I’m sitting post run (did I say run) feeling bloody marvellous. I’ve plastered my knee in Deep Freeze to ward of any evils and my knee feels fine.

If Amanda reads this she’ll no doubt be frowning on her rash and impetuous client but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ll be seeing her tomorrow and I’ll get her to give it a thorough appraisal and tell her about my experience today but it really, really feels like I’m coming back.