Run #5 - Impetuous, impetuous, impetuous

After all that planning, I couldn't stand it any more and needed to try running again. After some stretching, I could feel nothing wrong with my calf muscle on Sunday evening, so I brought forward the plan to start Monday morning. But a different plan of course.

The walk/run programme was always going to be the way back in but having spent a couple of hours jockeying around runnersworld.co.uk and the coolrunners.com web sites, I decided that their plans were probably pretty good, as they are for beginner runners. Like me. And they were agreeing about how to start, which is based on a 1 minute run and 2 minute walk, repeated 10 times over a 30 minute period. This means 10 minutes of running, rather than the 3 I had actually planned over my first half an hour.

So, back to the drawing board I went and planned out an 8 week training plan based on the runnersworld plan, but using a mix of swimming and cycling as cross training. I'll post it up as I still think its a good plan for someone who hasn't already done some damage.

Anyway, on the 2nd 1 minute run, back comes the twinge and I can feel it pulling again, so I stop and just walk. Walking eases the ache, so I start up again after 2 minutes and it's not so bad. I make a total of 7 walk run cycles, totalling 21 minutes for the whole thing.

Once back inside, I pack my leg with ice and Ibuleve for 15 minutes and see what happens. Well, I've been hobbling again, although no-where near as bad as 10 days ago, so I don't think the damage is too extensive. I think I've proved that I started back too early and should have left it for another couple of days at least. In all, I've probably pushed back the recovery by a week.

It's so hard knowing when an injury is actually fixed, something I think will probably come with experience. But, hopefully you'll understand the need I felt to start pounding the pavement again; I so want this to succeed.

So, it's back to the pool for a few weeks, then I'll try again.

Mr Stumble.