Five Weeks Without Running

My last run was the 27th of June. 9km, easy, nothing memorable about it. I didn't know at the time that it was going to be the last one for a while.

Five weeks later I still haven't run.

How it got here

The Achilles started grumbling after the Lakes in May, got worse after the Hartlepool Half, and then I spent a week in Italy running on it every morning because Tuscany was too good not to. Every one of those runs hurt.

I got home, ran once more at the end of June, and stopped.

That last part was a decision rather than something that happened to me. I'd been running injured for weeks and getting away with it in the sense that I could still finish the runs. It wasn't getting better and it was never going to while I kept doing that.

What I've done instead

26 gym sessions since that last run. 34 since the middle of June, which is when I started.

That was not originally a replacement for running. I began lifting while I was still running, badly, on a sore Achilles, and the plan was to build some strength and muscle back while I wasn't able to train properly. When the running stopped completely the gym just became the whole thing instead of half of it.

Alongside it I cleaned up my diet. I started at 90kg and I'm 86kg today. Four kilos in seven weeks, and the strength has gone up rather than down, which is not what happens when I lose weight through running more.

And the hills

Five hikes in five weeks. Four days in the Lakes in July out of Coniston, and a day at Haweswater yesterday. Twenty Wainwrights in that time.

The Achilles is fine walking. I can feel it on a steep climb but it has never stopped me or turned me around, which is the strange part of all this. I can go up a mountain but I can't run 5km on the flat.

The physio wants me loading it more, not resting it completely. So the walking is not me ignoring advice, it is the closest thing I have to rehab at the moment.

What I miss

Running.

I'm enjoying the gym more than I expected to. Getting stronger is a nicer kind of progress than chasing a time, because it shows up every week rather than every few months. But it isn't the same and I'm not going to pretend it is.

I miss going out for an hour with nothing to think about. I miss the shape a week has when there's a long run in it.

October

I've signed up to the Manchester Half on the 4th of October.

That's nine weeks away and I haven't run in five. On paper that is not a sensible entry. But it gives the next few weeks a point, and if I can get some running back in without the Achilles flaring up again then I'll be on that start line.

Whether I get there in shape to race it is a different question, and one I can't answer yet.