Still injured, only with less grumpiness

I got a haircut this weekend, and decided it really was time for change. The change I've been muttering about for a fair few months. Getting 'back on track'. So there have been full measurements taken this morning, and preparations made to avoid temptations for a few days while I get myself back in the swing of healthy eating and avoiding overeating.

Foot-wise, it still hurts - but I think (I hope????) it's less intrusive in my day, and I'm learning to live with it a bit.
Hopefully it'll go soon, and I can start running again, but in the meantime I'm doing what I can. I went to see another running/sport injury specialist, and this one gave me some brilliant advice and analysis, which gave me a lift. Some exercises to do when I walk, which puts whole new meaning into 'learn to walk before you can run'...!!  It was a great session, and I learned a lot.

This weekend I visited James and Louise, and we went for a walk with the family around some local paths and muddy trails. The pace was slow, due to being with the 'weans' (that's Scottish for bairns, which is Northern for littl'uns, or whatever... haha!) and due to it being a relaxed Sunday kinda walk in the light drizzle. It was really nice, and I realised that my foot was handling the slow walking, on softer surfaces, better than usual - no residual pain from it. So this is a way forward for me, too - get out walking on trails when I can, slow my pace down to reduce the stress on my feet and calves, and use the softer, uneven surface to help build up my foot/ankle strength, balance, and flexibility.

It was also great to talk to James, and compare training (seriously, we did, as daft as that sounds when you compare our goals, schedules and abilities, haha!) - at the end of last week it was announced that he had been selected as part of the Scottish team for the 100k Anglo Celtic Plate championships in Perth in March. The team, which also includes Paul Giblin, Marco Consani, Fionna Ross among others, is a really strong one, and I'm really excited to see how we do!!! (I saw 'we', like I'm Scottish... I don't know anyone in the English team, though. So count me in with the north-of-the-border folk for this one, haha!) James' place in the team is well-deserved, he works extremely hard for his race results, and I tend to find that talking to someone with his work ethic is incredibly motivating for me too. :-) He's genuinely supportive to people regardless of ability level, and I really appreciate his friendship. His first Scottish vest is unlikely to be the last - and it's also a brilliant demonstration of 'if you want something, just go out and work for it'.

So, I guess this is me working for it. Today I'm starting calorie counting again. I know there are pros and cons to this kind of eating, but I just need to be a wee bit stricter with myself for a little while. Plus it'll allow me to start recording data again, and building up some good charts and graphs, haha!! All these things motivate me... as did seeing the latest Rocky film (Creed) at the cinema last week: can't beat a good training montage, with Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" to kickstart the adrenaline!! I definitely need to film my own training montage over this year, hahaha!

So, still not running, and therefore some decisions need to be made. I will of course need to defer my entry to the London Marathon - I've come to terms with that, and actually I'm excited about the fact that my first marathon will now fall in the same year I turn 40. So next up is what goals and targets I replace it with - I work better with goals, but it's hard to make some meaningful ones while I'm injured and no idea of how long recovery will take. So it's basically one day - one step - at a time. I'm starting with aiming to increase my daily step count, without doing too much so as to risk my recovery. sadly, I chose to do this when a couple of storms hit, and 'outdoors' becomes one of those places I like to look at from the warmer, drier side of a pane of glass.... ;-) But no excuses, I can't keep sitting around waiting for my recovery, I've got to (safely) 'do stuff' while I wait. x x