Slowly, slowly...

Since the Great A&E Panic of last week, I have been endeavouring to stay calm, mobile, and positive.  This was helped by a visit to Adam on Tuesday, during which he couldn't find anything wrong with my legs except general mega-tightness in my left quad.  He put this down to me walking with a funny gait as I try to protect my hip and essentially said, 'RELAX AND WALK LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!'  That's it?  That's all that I have to do???

Erm, actually, yes, it seems to be.  Once I started to pay attention to how I was walking, I realised that I was leaning forward at the hips and was hitching my left leg up to avoid bending it too much.  Using my Chi-focusing skills, I've been working on keeping a strong core and good posture and on relaxing my legs and hips when I'm walking.  Wednesday was a day of minimal discomfort and Thursday was essentially a discomfort-free day.  Coincidence?  I think not.

So, after taking a deep breath (and with Adam's admonition of  'RUN ON FRIDAY.  NO EXCUSES!' ringing in my ears), I tried another 2 mile test run on Friday.  And it was...okay.  Still sore for the first half-mile or so, but less so than when I tried last week.  The remaining mile and a half ranged from low-level discomfort to a vague feeling of stiffness in my quad.  I did notice that a slumping posture and leaning from the hips increased the discomfort, so spent a lot of time tucking in my bottom and lengthening through my spine and neck.  Unlike last week's run, I felt like I could have gone a bit further but stopped as planned; the important thing was going to be how I felt the next day.

And now it is the next day.  I delayed getting out of bed this morning because I was so fearful of a repeat of last week and I just didn't want to know.  But eventually the pressure of a 5.18kg cat on my bladder forced me to make a move and I felt...okay.  I'm a bit sore and stiff, but it gets better as I move around.  I also haven't had any painkillers yet today and, if this is what I feel like without them, it's not too bad at all.

I'm still finding it hard to believe that I'll be fit enough to run 26.2 miles in 14 days, but at least I'm now moving slowly in the right direction.