One hour

On Sunday I ran for one hour. This would be the first time since about the middle of June. It was off the back of a tricky couple of days that saw my anxiety levels climb through the flipping roof!

So some pain returned on Thursday morning, and I almost felt that I had triggered off another set-back. Panic really did set in as my mind raced to track back anything that I had done out of the ordinary? Stairs at school was an obvious cause of blame but various other things ran through my mind. I struggled to handle the fact that I could be forced to stop running for another month. The thought of purchasing a new bike or getting back into the swimming pool not as appealing as slipping into a pair of shoes for a 30 minute dash. Not by a country mile.

A day passed and improvement was insignificant and with the thought of a run in the morning panic again set in. What do I do? Rest, or risk the run?

I ran.

It was pain free…..stoked.

Ice, stretch, ice, stretch and no run on Saturday.

Saturday evening it was feeling good. Sunday, boom one hour, run was fantastic. Pain free again and best recovery. On reflection I think I slept awkwardly on the injury which probably caused the sudden pain on Thursday morning.

With September nearly concluded it is time for me to begin planning October and perhaps beyond. Last night I dusted off my old training booklet. Back to the last page used, dated June 15^th. I got my ruler and ruled up October on the following pages. For me this is very exciting and a moment that I had been thinking about for a while. Now the first few weeks won’t be dramatically different from this month (running every second day). I still feel the need to keep it slow and steady. I haven’t looked at any races for the rest of 2012 but I’ve started to think very seriously about 2013.

An idea for this race has been sitting in my mind for a while, along with plenty of other ones:

Ultra Trail Mt Fuji (Japan): http://www.ultratrailmtfuji.com/en/

So hoping to get out and about more so will provide some images of the good times!

Run and eat well  

Routine

When running I love the routine. I enjoy knowing that today I’ll run after work or tomorrow I’ll get up early and run before work.

Since my injury this has been replaced with the routine of stretches, strengthening and yoga. However, over the past two weeks I’ve been able to start, albeit very delicately, getting back into a running routine. Now, I’ve said this all before and started to get too excited. However, this time has to be different.

Why?

Well, for starters I have rested for a full month. Prior to this I only had a week off and never gave the injury an opportunity to fully rest and begin the healing process. During the course of the month I didn’t strengthen the specific area but iced and cared for it. I feel the work I was doing previously did strain the area and cause adverse affects. Live and learn I guess.  But let’s just wait and see how it goes.

So as of the month of September I can sing, shout, scream and shriek that I have completed 7 runs so far, that’s every second day. During the week I have a cozy little 20 minute loop and the weekends I have extended it ever so slightly. All runs have been pain free and slow! I’ll take it though.

So the plan for the rest of the month is to run every other day. If things progress the way they are then I’ll, very gradually, increase the mileage and frequency of running through October. Fingers crossed that this will be the case. And after that I may even look at some races around Korea and Asia!

It has been really difficult getting through this but I hope that the worst is past, for now. Those of you who could be in similar situation or have been, I’m feeling the pain. Feeling the miles that are missed and opportunities gone. However rest, enjoy the time that you don’t have to be getting up at 5 in the morning, but not too much! When that alarm goes off for my first scheduled 4 or 5 am run I’ll be bounding out of that bloody bed!

Enjoy some of Geoje Island’s trail goodness. As the year progresses and my injury improves I’ll be putting up some ore of this jazz!

Run hard

Enjoy some of the local Geoje Island sights!

Main port/harbour area

As above looking towatds the DSME (Daewoo) ship building yard.....massive area!

Local hill looking out onto DSME

Looking inland back towards downtown Okpo

Trails above Okpo, vast network that will be explored

Mt Goksingbo (only 450m+) but solid up and downs to get things warmed up. 2 minutes from our apartment

Looking down onto Okpo, main harbour/ship building on the right of the picture

Koreans love the outdoors. Outdoor gym at the top of the hill...always time for a set.....good times

Looking away from Okpo, further inland (coast is to the left)

Looking out and over Okpo, which is to the right along with the coast

Okpo from our roof top

Roof top, nice apartments!

Rice tea, sunshine and roof top always wins