Thought I felt an occasional twinge in the problem calf, but if could be imagination, was fine on stretching and walking afterwards, could be hypersensitive and hypervigilant for any pains in that area, but feels good. Does feel great to be out running in the spring weather and working up a bit of a sweat, long may it continue!

Think the plan is now a couple of days off then run 7 or 8 km on Sunday.

Felt myself getting quicker as the run went on, and when I got to about 3k was going pretty well, noticed the Garmin dipping under 6 mins per km at times and felt that was a bit too quick at this stage, so slowed, but then my body quickened itself up again. Almost felt a twinge of some kind in right calf, could have been an insect bite it was that small, but it really made me slow right down again, until I got to the last KM where I sped up and was determined to get inside 32 minutes but somehow the quicker I got the less distance ticked over!

Finished in 32:18 with a 6:15 last km and no tenderness when stretching the calves afterwards. Am beginning to think I may be on the road to recover, and am quite enjoying this leisurely, pressure free running!

With it being a lovely sunny day though, I really wanted to try a run, so I warmed up with some stretching and massaging of the calves, and set off quite tentatively, prepared for an immediate return to base… 100m and was fine, then made 1km, noticed I did it in well under 7 minutes this time so a bit of pace had imperceptibly come back, and I had to make sure not to get cocky and start going too fast. Slowed down a bit and monitored the calves, which were pain free, and the heat that was building up helped to keep me at a reasonable pace. Was hitting the kms in around 6:30 on average which wasn’t bad after the 7 minutes plus efforts of the last run.

Even managed a little uphill stretch, and had to force myself not to try sprinting the last 2 or 3 hundred yards, though I felt good, if sweaty. Hit the 5k mark in 32:42 so a big improvement on the last run without trying too hard, and no pain in the calves while running.

So far so good, just need to make sure I don’t get over confident and start doing intervals and sprints just yet, but if I can work up to a jogged 10k it will at least give me some confidence I can get round the Great Manchester Run, and as for a time, well as long as I can run, I will settle for around the hour mark I think!

Felt the occasional pain in the calf but it seemed more like the resting pain – possibly something to do with my varicose veins in that leg which may need looking at. No explosion though and the calf was pain free on stretching.

Resisted the tempation to speed up too much, bit did run the last km at sub 70 minute 10k pace, lol – now there’s a speedster in the making!

Set off and seemed to take ages to get a signal on the Garmin, there were some youths around generally being a bit annoying so headed in a different direction, went very slowly and managed to run the first km all run in about 7 mins 30 – very slow! Did some walking and stretching of the calf to check it was ok, then set off again, and did another very slow km. At this point was starting to feel a bit lousy and felt I’d probably not eaten enough earlier in the day, though I had weetabix a couple of hours before the run. Took some walk breaks and just wanted to get up to 3k, but it was a struggle in the end, the time between 2.95k and 3k seemed to be an eternity and my body was screaming out for sugar or fuel of some kind.

Got in and gorged myself on breakfast biscuit things and then biscuits and then golden syrup on bread and finally started to feel back to normal. Probably not the best post run snacks but I was feeling really dizzy and needed quick sugar!

The good news is, there was no pain in the calf, and managed 3k mostly run, so that’s a good sign!

No pain in the calf, but didn’t want to push things too far too soon as we know where that leads, so was happy to do a run walked 2.5km and stop the run another day.

Think I will build back up very slowly and still include some weights and swimming, one thing I need to get back is the confidence as the sudden explosion of pain was still very much in my mind, and was half expecting it at every step, so will have to take it gently and build up slowly and let my confidence in my calf build up as well as my fitness, hopefully will not have lost much, my heart and lungs were very ready today and could have run a lot more!

Running at night was an interesting experience, especially through the local estates. Of particular interest was waiting for the oases of street lamps so I could see the Garmin readout without trying to fiddle to put the light on.

First run I have managed since starting again without having to stop for walk breaks, and managed 5k as a bonus, am definitely on the comeback trail and the first 2 short comeback runs have paid off, and the swimming has been helping too!

Am planning a 10k run in Tatton Park week before Christmas with a very good friend, looks like I could be on schedule to make it!

The day after the City of Salford 10k, I woke up hardly able to walk. There was no sign the previous day, apart from a twinge half way through the race – nothing afterwards, no sign. And then I was suddenly hobbling around wincing as pain shot up from my left lower leg/shin.

This lasted a good while, in the meantime I took up swimming, which was a nice change and a way of keeping up some fitness. After a few weeks the pain subsided, but I was very wary of running again, and wanted to make sure the running injury was fully healed, being unable to afford physiotherapy for running injuries at the moment! Before I knew it, 2 months had passed and the clocks were going back, so seeing as it was a nice day, quite bright, and not too cold, and I got up too late to go to the pool anyway, I thought I would try a run!

Didn’t feel like almost November, so put shorts on and my long sleeve thin top, and went out to let the Garmin wake up from its 2 month doze, which took a while. Set off and within 200 metres a little dog tried to savage my legs and trip me up with its lead, which was quite funny, and then I settled into a slow pace and just felt curious about how I would feel.

At 2k I felt confident of being able to run 5k, and perhaps even in under 30 minutes. By 2.5k I had to stop and walk, and then kind of stop started for the next 1.5k until I ran the last 500 metres until staggering to a stop, gasping for air and with my legs feeling like jelly!

Gosh it took a while to recover from this comeback! 4k in 27:19, with walks. At least I felt the swimming had maintained some fitness, but even thought I’ve been swimming up to 70 lengths and doing multiple front crawl lengths, nothing seems as pulse-raising and generally knackering as running! Hopefully I will get back into the swing of it, but will continue to mix in the swimming for now.

Meanwhile I had a blood test a few weeks ago, and the results were that my cholesterol is fine, my liver is fine, my kidneys are fine, my blood pressure is fine, and I have a less than 2% chance of dying from heart disease in the next 10 years… At the same time, I have put weight on since I stopped drinking and started running 4 years ago, but think this may be down to consuming entire packets of custard creams after runs – I thought the running would allow me to get way with this, alas not, so I will be paying a little more attention to my diet in future, and the running and swimming will be part of a whole holistic health package.

Meanwhile, my counselling course is going fantastically well and I can’t wait to qualify and maybe even earn some cash, which is in short supply!

Happy Running!