Turning a Corner

The trips to the physio seem to be paying off, the exercises are certainly making a difference. At the second visit to the physio, the magic word 'run' was used when giving permission to proceed. Yes, the full rest is officially over and now a gentle running phase can now begin - can't go mad or for too long a distance, but a gentle run/jog is now on the schedule.

So what better opportunity than the Fradley 10k. Another event that I had booked pre-injury; I was praised for my approach to the last 10k (jog/walk), so a gentle jog was the way to go in Fradley. Shame really as this is where I set my 10k PB back in 2010 (57:23) and today was supposed to be the day when that record was broken. But that will have to wait until another day. Plan was to start at the back, jog slowly at the beginning and take it from there, I'm in no hurry (though sub 75 minutes would be nice - sometimes you just can't help yourself!). But times soon went out the window, I just wanted to run comfortably and that's what I did - I found a nice pace, just taking me along, no pressure.

I didn't look at my watch, no point really, too focussed on wanting to run comfortably. But I soon warmed up and found I was having to hold myself back - no need to push it, just enjoy it. The last thing I want to do now is have a set back. At 4 miles I did have a sense that the hip injury was there, so switched to a walk every half mile or so. By 6 miles that sensation had eased, so for the last 0.2 miles I ran, just to get the satisfaction of overtaking as many as possible on the way to the finish. I stopped my watch on the line and hey - sub 63 mins for a non-running 10k! 

After the run I did a few stretches and then stretched more before driving home. No real effects from the run for the rest of the day (just tired legs) and then no worse the next morning. Fantastic, it couldn't have gone much better! Who fancies a cheeky short run in the week?