First time back to running

Last year I ran the Swindon Half Marathon. I had intended to run the MK winter half as well but my ankle was injured so running 13.1 miles wasn’t an option in December. Then I was working a physical job and I was only running for parkrun on Saturdays.

By the time lockdown started in March I was down to walk / running parkrun as I had already lost so much fitness. For the first couple months of lockdown we did nothing physical. I did run, barely walked at all and only did one cycle ride. We knew we had to get back to exercise and that is while I got back into walking. At that point running just was out of reach again. We had one go at running a bit several weeks ago but with Alan having a bad hip and me just not feeling enough motivation it was just a one off.

This time we went back to Millennium Country Park to finish the circuit and get back to running. You will remember that last week we got rained out of our five mile walk and cut it short at a bit less then half way. My jeans were so wet from the downpour we had that day that my legs felt like I was walking through cement. This week was lovely and dry if a bit chilly but that is a good situation for running.

My first time back to running was probably only about 1/3 or so of the 4.8k of the circuit. We walked for a while to warm up and then ran for probably no more than about 200-300 metres before walking again. Just repeated that over and over again. By the end of the circle the running was probably only about 100 metres at a time but I tried to keep the walking to a similar amount as each running shift.

I am actually really pleased with this as it has been about 11 months since I was last seriously running and 6 months since I had regularly run at all. If I judged myself on my previous ability I would feel terrible but life is a fluid thing. I have to judge myself against my current situation which in honesty is rather poor. I feel like I can do better as well and plan to get my running into a bit more of a habit again.

I can’t leave you without pictures of this lovely park. If you can find the time visit the park and do a full circuit it is worth it. Wonderful trees, beautiful views , and a gorgeous little lake.