Wednesday 30 May 2012

Running...and other stories

I have always had a love/hate relationship with running. I hate that it can be a struggle to get motivated to go out but I love it once I'm out in the fields and my thoughts are clearer; I hate the aches and pains after but I love the mental clarity I have after and I love relaxing in the bath afterwards (candles and a book make it even more blissful).

I am not a competitive runner by any means; I entered in the compulsory cross-country race every year while at school, and I have ran a couple of times in the Race For Life but nothing serious. However in the last couple of years I have fallen out of running completely: a bad flu, a bad relationship followed by a bad break-up meant that I'd stopped running completely. Years of working in retail and standing for most of the day also left me with hyper-extension of muscles in both legs, which I used as an excuse for not getting back into it. Now, though, I have decided enough excuses I need to get back into running because I did get a lot out of it - pain and joy.



So I started on Monday, good a place as any I thought, by taking it slow and going for a long walk. I went one of my old training routes - a little over four miles through the fields near to my house, up and down hills and everything - the boy came too and we were home in about an hour. I felt good after but by the end of the day I had achy legs. It will be a while before I am back to this:


But I am determined to keep going.

After my (all be it slow) start to running again yesterday I went with friends for our first snowboarding lessons at Xscape - a birthday present from my parents. We have all skied before but snowboarding is completely different, as I was about to find out... After the long walk on Monday and me not being at my fittest I managed to fall (a lot) and my leg started shaking uncontrollably and the pain was the worst I've felt, I thought I was going to be sick. My final fall, 25 minutes into the 90 minute lesson sealed my fate as a skier and not a snowboarder. I managed to tumble, do the splits, and whack the side of my knee on the empty boot grip of the board - here it is 14 hours later:


Needless to say I think I'll be sticking to running to build my fitness, get my butt to the gym to strengthen my weak legs and skiing as my winter sport!


Jxx




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