Trouble at t' gym

It was a slow afternoon at work today, and I left a bit early so that I could get to the gym before the Big Gym Guys got there and monopolised all of the cardio equipment.  (If there's any monopolising to be done, it will be by me.) As is my routine, I stopped on the way to the changing room to get a bottle of water from the vending machine.

Now, I've done this lots of times and I've never had any difficulties.  And why should I have?  It's a vending machine, not some high-tech piece of machinery that takes a Ph.D. to operate.  But today, when I put my hand through the little metal door to retrieve my bottle of water, I got stuck.  Not only could I not get the bottle out, I couldn't get my hand out.  I tugged.  I wiggled.  I eased.  I panicked....nope, still stuck.  I began to think about shouting for help - oh, the shame - but then, in my desperation, inspiration hit.  I just needed to let go of the bottle.

Yes, I was hanging onto the bottle for dear life.  My clenched fist got me stuck and kept me stuck.  Once I let go of the bottle, I was able to release myself with only minor difficulty.  I then had to brave  the little metal door again so that I could rescue the water.  I had a brief moment of panic when I went in up to my elbow trying to find the bottle, but I did manage to extricate myself with no further reversion to buffoonery or need to call out the fire department.

Going to the gym.  It's always an adventure.

Back on my feet

Slowly, oh so slowly, my hip flexor injury is getting better.  After a solid two weeks of gradually increasing my walking distance, I was comfortably managing 60 minute brisk walks.  I also put some effort in at the gym and worked up to a comfortable 60 minutes of cardio.  I was then ready to try to run.

With Adam's guidance, I started with 1 minute of jogging and 30 seconds of walking over 1 mile.  After a week of this, I graduated to 2 minutes of jogging and 30 seconds of walking over 1.5 miles and kept it at this level for another week at Adam's insistence.  BE CAUTIOUS and BE SENSIBLE and BE PATIENT were the foci of our conversations and texts.  I enjoyed my little forays into running but also enjoyed the longer walks that they were embedded into.  It was amazing just to be walking without pain again; anything else was a bonus.

Today, I moved up to 5 minutes jogging/1 minute walking over 2 miles.  It all felt good.

I am CAUTIOUSLY optimistic that I've turned the corner now and that, as long as I don't increase either distance or speed too quickly, I'll be back to proper running in plenty of time to train for next year's Edinburgh marathon.  Yes, that's right, I'm doing it all again!

From being unable to walk without pain to running a marathon - a journey of 26.2 miles starts with a single shuffle.