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!

I think targeting anything quicker than sub 55 at the City of Salford 10k is going to lead to potential disappointment, so I’ll set myself the goal of getting around in 55 and anything else will be a bonus!

Meanwhile I hear there is a Manchester Marathon, I rather think I am going to be far too busy to consider it this time, but who knows, maybe one day…. A local half marathon would be handy!

However, managed to complete the 3 miles after previously deciding I would stop at 4k, was melting a bit by the end… But good to finish the week having done 11 miles, with a longer run, a tempo run, and now an easy shorter, slower run.

However it did stay alive until the end, although it freaked out near the end. I was going to do 2 miles, and was coming up to 3k, when the display jumped back quite a bit. This tied in with the moment I saw a bit of a commotion ahead. There was a tactical Aid Unit police van outside a house with about a dozen officers in riot gear holding shields, hammers, axes and various other tools. I made a beeline for them, and then realised there was no room on the pavement for both me, and them, and their bags of equipment, and I was running straight towards this 7 foot tall bloke in a crash helmet holding a huge deadly looking mallet thing… At the last moment he stepped out of the way, I acknowledged this with a “Cheers, mate”, and just kept on running in the hope they didn’t mistake me for whatever poor sod they were about to descend upon…

Garmin said I did last km in 7:30 which was obviously wrong so it definitely freaked out… so I just approximated the distance in the end. Felt good to be running again.

Set off rather quick and knew I had to slow down, struggled a bit for the second mile and lungs were gasping all the way – but managed to stuck it out and do the 2 miles in sub 20. Few weeks and I will be up to 5k and can start thinking about longer runs and a bit of speed… lol..

Was puffing hard after half a k and getting very wet, but that helped me keep cool. I did feel very rusty especially in the lungs, but they’ve been battered by the viruses lately so was to be expected. I managed to hold on and complete a short run that was satisfying just because I’d got out there, not let the rain put me off, and achieved my modest target.

Hopefully that will be the end of my colds for the time being, and I can think about the Salford 10k perhaps – though with only a couple of months to go, I might be better off looking at the ones closer to home later in the summer, especially as finances are an issue

Still, onwards and upwards, 5k is next target!