As you may or may not know earlier this year I signed up for the Jetty 2 Jetty fun run.  Although I hadn’t run on a regular basis since my last ankle fracture and operation (June 2019) I was optimistic that with three months of training I’d be just fine to tackle the 10 km run.

I suppose I had my chance to choose a lesser distance when I signed up but my ego pushed me to take the longer distance.  😜

Having been a Phys. Ed teacher and athlete I had assumed that it would be quite easy to get back into the groove of running and replicate the times I had when younger.

Yeah – nah!

What I discovered was the profoundly humbling experience of me literally having to learn to run again.

My mind provided me with these grandiose memories of my earlier running experiences, all of which proved to be an “bridge too far” so to speak…

Instead of stepping out onto the road in from my home and jogging away effortlessly into the neighbourhood I was barely able to move beyond a fast walk.

It was clear that my muscles, tendons and joints had other ideas than that of my brain…

Oi vey!

Fortunately for me I had given myself three full months of training in order to prepare for the run.

Now to be fair, I have seen significant improvement in my time per kilometre, down from a 7:30 minute high to around 6:00 minutes per kilometre at the moment.

I was feeling like things were moving in the right direction…finally!  Now with only five weeks to go here is where I thought I’d be able to begin to see a real improvement.

And even the concept of me being able to run a sub one hour 10km loomed large in my mind, ideally my objective was just to run without stopping no matter how long it took.

Clearly my brain and my body are on different wavelengths!  😜

All that came to a crashing halt after my run last Sunday…

I was feeling a little tight in my hips, hamstrings and calves but didn’t think much of it, as this tightness had been a common thread of my training to date.

Like most runs, I started slowly for the first three hundred metres then stop and stretch before continuing on.  Then at the halfway point I’d stop and stretch once more.

It was somewhere in between these two stretching stops that I first began feeling a slight pinch and niggle in my left groin.

Of course, I tried to ignore it.  Strangely, it wasn’t really painful, nor all the time but just there and persistent!

I stretched at the halfway point as normal, paying particular attention to my groin to see if I could loosen it up.

For a while it was less painful, but by the last kilometre the persistent niggle was back and more annoying than ever.

When I got home I stretched again, using the roller on my legs to help break up and loosen the muscles.  The groin is a tough spot to get to so did some lunges and holds to see if it would release.

There is no question it felt better.  Well, that was until the middle of the night when it started to ache.  Each time I moved my groin let me know that it wasn’t happy.  Not one little bit!!!

I did my usual circuit workout on Monday which included some squats.  And although these were slow and controlled my groin was painful.

After another sleepless night I decided to see my doctor.   Upon examining me, which was inconclusive he decided to send me for an ultrasound.  He wanted to rule out anything other than an overstretched tendon in my groin.

No exercise until after my appointment on Thursday.

So its slow going on the exercise front, and my thoughts of a sub one hour 10km are getting further from a reality each day I can’t run.  Now I’ve resigned myself to being happy just to finish it…

I know it’s the right thing to do, but feel annoyed that my body isn’t able to do what my mind has convinced me of…

Yeah, that little voice in my head again. 😜

At some point in all our lives we have to accept the stark reality that our body isn’t the finely tuned instrument that its always been.  And that it takes us much longer to heal…

For me the years of neglect when it comes to stretching and flexibility have “come home to roost.

Now yoga has helped but “too little, too late” for me personally.  Even with a regular yoga practice I’m unable to see any real progress in my flexibility.  Bugger!!!

If only this was something that I had taught to me earlier in life.  Upon reflection I believe we need to teach our children to stretch with a focus on flexibility from an early age…  🤔

Over the years I’ve taken my body for granted, with the consequences now becoming evident.  A very painful lesson indeed!

If there is one piece of advice I can leave you with is – stretch…every day.

Don’t become a Terence!   Lol  🤣😳

Until next week

Ciao!