Turning into a runner again, but keeping options open (Running)

Thursday 01 April 2010 10:48AM

Circumstances (Patagonia expedition, finishing a thesis, being ill, being in the alps skiing for 5 weeks) have meant that I have hardly run since September last year. With the coming season of fell running being my main focus for the summer, changing that was high on the list of priorities after the Pierramenta. Unfortunately, I got ill again (I raced the last day of the Pierramenta with a heavy cold, which always finishes me off for a week or two), so took two weeks off. I started training again with a run round my old haunt of Arthur’s seat when I was up in Edinburgh for a lecture. I’m being super careful to take things easy, since I often seem to get ill when I start training again after a lay off, so all four of the runs since then have been super slow. It’s interesting, because I must be quite fit after 5 weeks of ski racing, but even jogging feels alien and leaves my legs very sore. What is exciting though is how quickly it gets easier. Yesterday, my fourth day running since I re-started, I actually began to feel like a runner again, progress!

I had intended to have another crack at the Ramsay round on skis after the Pierramenta, but as usual a big thaw came in just as my train sped back into the UK, so I wrote it off for another season. Now it seems that winter may have made a return to the highlands, so perhaps it’s back on, time to clear the decks on the work front, keep the diary open and an ear to the ground…