Several hours behind schedule, but now reasonably up to date with inter-planetary exploration, I ‘go running’. My rugby-playing daughter has given me tips on how to warm up without injuring myself and I have found a fantastically bright red T-shirt to wear so that I will be easily found if I keel over during the run. The new shoes are wonderful: my feet feel like they are in their own beds. I banish the thought of beds and set off.
Immediate observations are that I don’t seem to be going as quickly as I used to when I set off for a run. And even then, the pace my body has automatically selected becomes unsustainable quite soon. Remembering what I have heard about Couch to 5K (but not read because I am either too lazy or too sure that I have ‘residual fitness’ and it is therefore unnecessary) I slow down and walk for a bit. My feet are puzzled. Why are they all kitted out in these second-cheapest-yet-absolutely-wonderful shoes if we are walking? My right knee which always hurt after I played football (I had forgotten that) is hurting. ‘Run it off!’ was the completely unwise physiotherapy advice we used to give each other back in the 1980s. So when I’ve got my breath back, that’s what I try to do. And I settle into a nice pattern of gentle jogging alternating with leisurely walking. I don’t go far, maybe 800 metres all round. I make sure that I run up to my front door just to give myself the illusion that I have run all the way.
RUN 1 – DEBRIEF
Well, I’ve debunked the myth of ‘residual fitness’. What I do seem to have is ‘residual muscle memory’ in as much as my legs seemed to go quite well once I realised that I wasn’t going to be going at any great pace. And that has set a marker for me. Go slow, go gradual. I won’t be running 5km any time soon. Next run will be at the weekend. Time now for a hot bath and a read of National Geographic. It’s got an article about Japanese monkeys who give themselves hot baths in pools by geysers.
SteveTLooksBack 