Not so enjoyable

Distance: 5.5 miles
Time: 47:16
Pace: 8:35


Yesterday's 5.5 miles seemed to last forever. I'd done a fairly rigorous session of sit-ups and press-ups the night before, and I could feel dull tiredness in my stomach and arms the whole way round the run. There was also a fairly brutal headwind on the inward half of the run. Combined, these factors made the run somewhat less than enjoyable.

Assuming I don't get too drunk on Hogmanay I'm planning 7-ish miles tomorrow. 1 January seems an appropriate time too to recap on a year's worth of blogging and running.

More miles

Distance: 5.5 miles
Time: 45:33
Pace: 8:21 per mile

5.5 miles today. Still no sign of trouble with the knee. I'm planning another 5.5 on Saturday, and then next week I'll go up to between 6 and 7 miles for three runs. Assuming I get to there with no problems, I'll probably add a 4th day on the following week.

I got one of the new ipod shuffles as an Xmas present. It's tiny, has good sound quality, and it's really easy to find the buttons whilst on the move - highly recommended to anyone thinking about getting an mp3 player whether a runner or not.

5 miles

Distance: 5 miles
Time: [42-ish minutes]

I'm on holiday just now and away from Edinburgh so my run was on an unfamiliar route. It had a fair number of small inclines and declines so I decided to do an out and back 2.5 miles and call it a day at that just in case the hills aggravated my knee. The run was OK and nothing much of interest to report. A couple of more 5-6 milers this week as part of the slow build up. I'll reflect on things at the start of the new year, but hopefully by the end of january I'll be in a position to embark on a period of base building, to be followed by a 10k programme.

Another 4 miles!

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 32 minutes

Another 4 miles this morning along the same route as my last two runs. Nothing much to report. No sign of the knee acting up during or after the run.

So, my first week back results in a grand total of 12 miles.

4 more miles

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 32:45

My run today (Thursday) followed the same route as Monday and took roughly the same amount of time. It was freezing (literally) so it was a significant mental challenge to force myself outside after such a long layoff from regular running. But I did it, and didn't feel too bad during the run - perhaps a little tired on the last half mile or so, but I think the cause of that was a circuit session I did yesterday (my first one of those in quite a while).

My revised target for this week is simply 3 runs of 4 miles each. Next week I'll probably do 3 runs of 6 miles and so on. That's a fairly conservative increase, but even so it won't be too long even on that trajectory before I'm back to being a 'proper' runner. Its not that I couldn't do more mileage at the moment - I could, and reasonably easily I think - but I am very wary of pushing my knee too quickly. I'd never had an IT band-type injury before it happened after the Loch Ness marathon, and I was shocked at how quickly it arrived and how seriously it affected my running. I don't want to go back there any time soon.

4 miles

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 33 minutes

4 miles today, which is my longest run in two months. It was freezing outside so it was a bit treacherous underfoot, and a little painful on the lungs. But the run went OK, and there seems to be no reaction from the knee. 6 miles on Wednesday hopefully.

A long way back

I ran 2 miles yesterday at about 8 minute mile place. No reaction from the knee during or after the run, so that is good. But 8 minute miling was unbelievably hard on the cardiovascular system in comparison with how it felt before my injury. I had just got to the point where I was absolutely cruising at that pace, and I think my brain is still in that gear whereas my body is nowhere near it. So I think something closer to 9:00 or above is going to be required as I try to get back into a running routine.

My target for the next week is to do three runs of about 6 miles each, and take stock after that. It seems like an eternity ago that I was comfortably running 6 times a week, with a weekly mileage over 50! But the last thing I want to do is bump up the mileage too quickly, causing a recurrence of the injury and then being out for another couple of months. So slowly does it.

Starting up again

Over the past few weeks I've done a few short runs of a couple of miles or so. There's been no reaction from my knee so I think its probably safe to start building up the mileage. Also, there's a step in my house which, if I pushed off of it at a certain angle, caused some pain in my knee for about 4 weeks or so after it started playing up, but now that's not happening, even if I try to induce it - so I'm taking that as confirmation that I've mending well.

There weather here's been awful and I've been busy at work, so those factors have helped ensure against rushing back too quickly.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll build up the mileage and the frequency and take it from there. By January I'll hopefully be ready to start on a period of base building.