The agony and the ecstasy

This is my reward. Yesterday I decided I definitely needed a sports massage. Nothing was in pain, but my hips, knees and IT band felt tight and achy. So I went to see Annabelle at Ambition Fitness. She went to work on my calves and quads and I am officially tight. It hurt more than acupuncture or the dentist, and I laughed throughout, mainly because I was paying for someone to torture me. 

Afterwards, I went swimming, which may have been a very good idea. At least I felt loosened up, and was able to walk properly to the station. The burrito is my reward and honestly was amazing. Hunger is the best spice and there's something about swimming that makes me very hungry. 

I am booked for more torture massage next week and I'm curious what difference it will make. In keeping with the 'look to long term goals, rather than short term', I'm willing to have a massage regularly if it helps keep me moving. We shall see...

What to do after Couch to 5k, Part the third

So, as someone easily injured (hips, achilles tendon multiple times, IT band problems and - pathetically - terrible blisters on my arches) what is the plan post C25k?

My beautiful On Running trainers. 

I spend some time googling to see what others recommend. And actually there's very little out there. There are suggestions to run a race and hurrahs that you have got up to the 5k level. But not much about what you might do next, how to keep injuries at bay, and how to make running a permanent part of your life. 

Now, I'm by no means qualified to make suggestions on this, so please don't take any of what follows as advice. This is simply my own plan, after several previous false starts. 

• Keep walking upwards of 11 000 steps per day

I have a Fitbit Flex and I love it, I find it very motivating. I befriended a group of people on the forums, only one of whom I actually know, and I am now competing with them. Most days I can walk 11 000 steps provided I walk from the station into work without taking the Tube. 

• Keep running about 3 times per week, 4 if I really feel like it. 

I love running, and often when I've finished a run, I find myself wanting to run more soon. But I know that when I run 5-6 times per week that this reduces time for other forms of exercise, and it can put too much strain on my joints. 

• Do some cross-training. 

I've chosen swimming once per week because it's relatively easy for me to get to, low impact and good for flexibility. I'm great at breaststroke, much worse at front crawl, so the plan may include getting a couple of lessons. 

I go to an amazing yoga class on Tuesdays. The teacher is very experienced, funny and caters well for all abilities (I am not particularly bendy). I've found that since I've been going - about a year - I've got stronger and more flexible. So that will stay. 

• Do some work with body weights

This is going to be the hardest, for two reasons. First, I've quit my gym so I'm much more limited in what I can use. And second, to be honest, I don't really enjoy doing weights. It's boring to me. This is odd, because when I rowed regularly I preferred the weights room. I'm quite stocky and I grow muscle fast, so I tended to be able to lift good weights compared with other people. But when it's just me - boring! Hmm, maybe I need to find a way to motivate myself on weights...

And that's about it. I'd like to run a half marathon someday, and I think I'll run a few 5 and 10ks over the summer. More on those as they come up. 

What to do after Couch to 5k, Part 1

I've just completed a Couch to 5k programme. Full disclosure: this is my third, or possibly fourth, time 'teaching myself' to run, as I have a habit of getting injured and also of focussing too much on work to the detriment of healthy eating and exercising. 

Occasion 1: While in my second year at university, I decided I wanted to run. I bought shoes and running kit (I honestly had nothing to run in otherwise, but I do admit to being hugely motivated by new kit in any new enterprise. To my shame). I got up early one morning and snuck out. I was so nervous of people seeing me, particularly my housemates, but also all other human beings. I think I made about 5 minutes, all the while thinking: this is just incredibly hard! I didn't run again for years, although I used my kit going to aerobics classes at the gym, which in pre-ipod days was probably much more fun anyway. 

Occasion 2: While rowing fairly seriously at Second University, I decided to add in running. Never really thought about starting slow (For someone quite bright, I can be a really slow learner). This worked fairly well, and I think I kept it up throughout the remainder of my time at uni, at least until I had to write up my thesis. At that point I decided - given limited time and motivation - that I would bribe myself to work as many hours per day as it took to finish on time, as I had a job to go to. This took stopping exercising and eating a lot of food. Breaking up with Serious Boyfriend Number 3 probably also didn't help. 

Occasion 3: Having started the job and been made redundant, I took on a range of awful short term jobs, which also didn't help with stopping me eating too many cakes and chocolate. At one point, I know I weighed the most I have ever weighed. Definitely overweight, though thankfully not obese. During a job in Stroud, I decided I had to get back on the exercise wagon, and both started rowing again (back in London) and running. I can still remember just how awful that first run was, alongside a canal near my office in Stroud. However, the nice thing about exercising and rowing in particular at this point in my life was that the weight just fell off. 

Occasion 4: Rowing treated me well, although I was never more than nearly fast. When I finally quit because honestly it took every weekend over, I carried on running. I think it was about this point that I bought the wonderful Runners Handbook by Bob Glover and took myself through his intermediate training programme. This book, bits of which I probably know off by heart ('Run like a pig') cheered me through the awful parts of trying to run faster, and made me feel like a real runner for the first time. Although bits of it are probably a bit out of date, I would still recommend it to anyone. 

Occasion 5: Never really stopped running, but never got into a proper rhythm. Then did the thing lots of people do (after meeting the Fiancé, although obviously he wasn't that then) and decided to run a marathon. I used Bob Glover's plans fully to do this, and ran the Rotterdam Marathon in 2008. Not fast, but finished. At some point in training, my hips, particularly the RH one, began to seize up after running more than about 10 miles. This carried on through the marathon itself. I never resolved what the problem was, although I now think it was probably to do with having very weak glutes. It just always felt like they needed to go 'click' but I couldn't ever figure what to do to make that happen. 

Running the Rotterdam Marathon, as I head back over the Maas. 
Not doing too badly at this point, which I think was about halfway. 
Hips just beginning to hurt...

Occasion 6 and 7: Both times did a proper Couch to 5k for the first time, which was an eye-opener ('I'm not meant to go all-out as long as I can?') but then fertility treatment got in the way. Anyone who has ever gone through stimulation prior to egg collection will know why. There is no running to be done when your ovaries have swollen approximately to the size of large oranges, and you can feel them bouncing around. 

Going to stop there, as this is a horrendously long post already, and best broken into two parts.