Spring 2017 and a new direction......

What's new for 2017?......

Well we are now in April 2017 and so far I have dropped out off, transferred places for and deferred more races than I have ran. This is mainly down to my continued knee problems which I have already written about at the end of last year and earlier this year.

I'm pretty certain my knee has meniscous tissue damage as I recognise the familiar 'something stuck in my knee joint ' feeling that a loose piece of tissue causes, and the inflammation from within the knee and behind the knee cap that follows long efforts or impact.

I had pretty much already decided to back of on the running this year to try and let it heal naturally without surgery but hadn't decided which runs I would still attempt and which I would still do. I was safe with 5k and 10k training runs for my first run of the year the Southport Mad Dog 10k which I blogged about back in Feb and I had a good run and a new PB of 43:26 which I was well chuffed with.

Next event I was committed to was the Btr Liverpool/Vitality Liverpool Half Marathon on the 2nd April 2017. I was committed to this run as I had volunteered to accompany a good running friend who was doing this event as his first half marathon since 2011/2012 due to health issues and being told he would never run another one. It was an honour to volunteer.

I avoided actual run training training and knee impact as much as possible and only did 1 or 2 5k runs on a treadmill most weeks. I followed it up with a practice half marathon through my local sand dunes a couple of weeks before to test my endurance out. It went well, it was a bit difficult but I got through it, albeit with slightly sore knees after ward, but no consequences.

I am glad to say the event and the day went well and my friend successfully finished and in a sub 2 hr time too was which was good as he is in the 60-65 age category and as I said wasn't running this distance normally.

I also got to have a few drinks afterwards with members of my charity running group Run or Cake, which was a rare bonus as I have not been at many events. I even went home had a little rest and then went out on my new bike and did 25 miles for a recovery as it was such a glorious sunny day, but more about the cycling in the next blog entry to follow.....