I would not call myself a natural runner. Far from it in fact. In high school my best friend and I enjoyed cross country. Unfortunately for me, my best friend was ever so slightly faster than me so she would always finish ahead of me. I used to relish the days she was off school on cross country day as I knew it meant I’d finish first.
Cross country back in my day was one lap around the school. I managed it, but I certainly didn’t enjoy it. One rather enthusiastic day I thought it a good idea to volunteer myself for a sports day race that saw me attempt five laps of the school running track. It’s fair to say that while I started out well, I soon realised that being first off the block, does not mean first to finish and I carried my sorry butt over the finish line in last place.
When I left high school, running, and any other form of exercise was pushed to the back of my mind. It wasn’t until much later in life, after the birth of my children, that I started to get back into it.
What started out as a way to lose weight soon became a lifestyle choice. Yes, I managed to loose the two stone I wanted to, but more importantly I’d found something that I enjoyed doing.
Running made me feel better about myself. I felt so much better about my health, my body, fitness levels and my mindset. Before I knew it a friend of mine encouraged me to sign up to a 10k race. It was my first 10k and I lacked any real training which meant I found it a struggle, but it was a big learning curve for me. I knew that if I wanted to continue running, and be able to run longer distances then I’d need to train properly.
Thankfully the internet is full of information and training plans so when I signed up for my first half marathon, I had an absolutely amazing time. It was such a different experience to that first 10k. I loved every single minute of the Cardiff Half Marathon. So much so that I ran it again and then I managed to get a charity place for the London Place in 2019.
After running London Marathon I discovered that I had a tibial stress fracture. My vitamin D test result came back good, much to my doctor’s surprise, so he put it down to over training.
Since then I have found my return to running a real struggle. At the moment I can comfortably run 5k in around 34 minutes. This is way of my personal best of 28 minutes, but as they old saying goes, 5k is still 5k whether you run it in 15 minutes or 60 minutes. This has somewhat become a motto of mine. I daren’t attempt two 5ks in one week. I did that a few weeks ago and paid the price for it. I’ve truly learnt the value of rest days and recovery runs.
Back in my London Marathon training days, I used to do spin class, pump class and barre class in addition to running. Although the gyms are closed, I have started to do some at home workouts using the Nike Training App such as yoga and strength training in the hopes that this will help me feel up to fitness again.
I’d like to think that I’ll always be a runner, even if running does feel pretty tough at the moment. Have you recovered from injury and had a successful return to running? I’d love to hear your experiences and tips in the comments below.
