Month: January 2016

In December, I ran a total of over 120 miles, which is more than I have for quite some time and it included the gruelling Chevin Chase on Boxing Day.  In the first week of January I ran over 40 miles.  Then, on Sunday I ran the gruelling Temple Newsam Ten!  Yesterday as I was running home from running club, I knew I was pushing it.   I was conscious of mild aches and pains and today, my poor legs simply felt tired.  Now, I have felt this way before and I am afraid that to just carry on at this level of intensity will simply result in injury!  So, with my “sensible hat” on, I decided to take the rest of the week off running, until parkrun on Saturday.  Hence this evening you find me at the swimming pool again, a brilliantly kind-to-the-body excercise that makes me beleive that we may have been made to be in the water!

I have even made an appointment with the physiotherapist, to get a general body “MOT” and massage.  It’s the first time I have arranged a physio appointment before injury!  I have found that visiting a good physio is money well spent and in my opinion, they don’t get much better than Coach House Sports Physiotherapy in Leeds (and no, they haven’t paid me to say that).  I have been there a few time with injury and have been very impressed.

I did something I’ve never done before today; run between home and the running club and back, as well as doing the training in-between. A total of about 11.5 miles.

The base of Rodillian Runners is at Stanly Rodillians RUFC at Manley Park Stanley.  It’s great to be associated with the rugby club because we get the use of the facilities at the club house as well as support a fellow local sports club.  All the club’s runners are also members of the rugby club.  We have even been known to have a joint training session with the rugby team and we may do again some day!

We did a 4 mile training route where faster runners double-back evey so often, the idea being we all finish pretty much together.  This evening however there wasn’t a huge amount of difference in the pace people were running so not that much running back.

As for the run back home, it was hard! Particularly just two days after the Temple Newsam Ten on Sunday.

When I went swimming this morning in the nice and warm spa pool, I reflected on the race yesterday and the equally (at least) challenging Chevin Chase which I ran on Boxing day,  which if you recall had rain and floods on almost Biblical porportions.  I would not have believed a few years ago that I could have the sense of adventure to do and even enjoy this sort of thing.   Splashing though muddy puddles and running (or at least trying to run) up impossibly steep and muddy slopes is just something that the average member of the public (including the earlier me), would recoil from!  They don’t understand that adrenaline rush at the beginning and the amazing sense of satisfaction that you get after any gruelling physical challenge.  I am sure the photo taken of my running club friends and I after the race yesterday had broader smiles on than the photo taken at the beginning.  You wouldn’t believe that you could have so much fun while doing yourself so much good both physically and mentally!

Runners (and of course other serious physical sports participants),  you have a lot to be proud of.  You have shaken off the shackles of the modern day sedentary lifestyle and have become lovers of life, living it to the full. To the majority, know that there are very few excuses that stand up, time is often cited as the reason people don’t look after themselves.  I am probably one of the busiest people you know, trust me, if you want to you can.