My body had been falling apart for months, it was time to see a Physio. I had been putting it off for way too long. I didn’t really want to spend the money on it. Many times a certain physio had been recommended to me by the name of James Kirkpatrick. “The Recovery room”, where he is based was very local to me too. I went there a bit sceptical of any improvement. I had been a runner for 15 years, I thought I knew everything there was to know about my body.
He was quick to reveal my body’s weaknesses and I was shocked, but also impressed. I was happy to have some new goals to achieve with the strength training he suggested and it gave me hope to heal and get back to fitness. I had been limping around disjointedly on my runs for some time now. Every part of me was in pain while running. That was about to change though..
I did my physio rehab everyday and decided to marshal at Itchen Valley parkrun again on the 9th of May with Clare. It was another lovely morning catching up with the volunteering crew and the locals. Afterwards we took Clare’s mum to Hillier’s arboretum. My first time there. It was definitely worth the visit. The coffee is terrible, so I’d go with the pot of tea. The Vegan sausage baguette is pretty good though.
The following day was CC’s birthday. We went for a lovely walk from Rownhams to the Chilworth arms and back. I had booked a table for Sunday lunch and was sursprised how good the Vegan roast dinner was and a lovely dessert to follow. The staff were exceptional too and were very friendly and helpful. It was another great day and some quality time with Clare again.
Two weeks after my initial visit, I was back at the physio to see James again. He was surprised to see how much progress that I had made in such a short time. I was feeling a lot happier and running pain free now. I couldn’t really pinpoint the actual injuries or niggles but it was mostly glute/hamstring stuff caused by poor cadence and overstriding. This time he got me on the treadmill (or Dreadmill) to see how I ran. I was pretty scared to be honest as I had only previously been on a treadmill once, back in 2018 when I lived in Plymouth. I ran a 5k then and had motion sickness for nearly two days! I was not looking forward to this.
Off I went running. It felt fast and I was only running 9 minute mile pace apparently. My cadence seemed to be fine on the treadmill. It felt so unnatural to me and I was scared of falling off the thing. I stopped after 3 minutes, I had had enough. No motion sickness this time around though, which meant I wouldn’t be suffering with nausea all day. Not a nice thing to get, which is why I had to give up gymnastics and trampolining.
Exciting news!!! Friday the 15th of May. Clare picked up the keys to our new house. We are now home owners, we have our own house together. I couldn’t quite believe how excited I was about this. Life has been so hectic since with all the moving of stuff and we’re still not there. More unpacking and moving to do but it’s pretty special. Clare has been awesome sorting out the delivery of white goods, sorting utilities and internet etc.. I am so lucky to have her. Xx
Despite the new house move. I did a new parkrun with fellow Vegan runner, Matt Salisbury. He kindly picked me up and we went to Reading for the Green Park parkrun. It was only the 6th event. I didn’t find the marshals very friendly they were quite militant and shouty. There were also no toilets. The course was quite nice but busy. There was a very tight turn that a marshal didn’t mention. I did pretty well for my current fitness. 19.10, P10 and 1st V50. It was hard work though. Getting towards sub 19 again hopefully.
We then went for food at Reading’s only Vegan cafe. Vegivores. I had never heard of it but the food was so good. Some of the best I’d ever tasted. Up there with the Greenhouse in Fleet!
Then we went climbing at the Climbing hangar in Reading. We only lasted an hour as we were both quite tired by this point but it was such a good day and we had a great catch up.
A week later, Clare’s stuff was getting moved from her rental house to our new house. The next few days would be manic! I took the Friday off work as we unpacked stuff and moved furniture with a bit of D.I.Y and shopping thrown in. Bee Bee the cat wasn’t happy at all and was hiding for most of the time. It was very sad for us to see her like this. She wasn’t eating either. It was a bit worrying.
But here I am typing at 5.30am because Bee Bee is back to her normal self and running around the house with “the Zoomies”. I must admit that I had never heard of the Zoomies before until Clare mentioned it. Formally called (FRAP’s) Frenetic Random Activity Periods. It really is quite odd behaviour but perfectly healthy.
On Saturday the 23rd of May, I had a good catch up with Kev, Toni and Josh. All good running friends from my former running club. We went to Poole parkrun. It got warm pretty quick, which I think affected my performance. I was hoping to run a sub 19 but not hard. Just creep under 19 minutes by running 2.5 miles at around 6.05 pace per mile.
Boy, was I in for a shock! I felt ok until halfway and then the pace dropped off and it became a slog. This was painful now. Kev who I was supposedly pacing as he was also coming back from injuries, had left me and surged on. I finished with 19.00 on my watch. It seemed like a long wait for my official time of 19.00 while we sat in the garden of the cafe enjoying the sunshine. Josh ran a 16.41! Only a second off of his pb. Amazing. Another wonderful parkrun experience.
At all these parkruns, I’ve started pushing a bit harder. Good training for the Romsey Beer race at the start of June. I know I am nowhere near PB shape but some fitness is returning at least and going in the right direction. I have been so tired lately though with the moving, unpacking and doing lots of overtime at work. I have a mortgage to pay now!
Recovery seems to be slow lately buy I’ll get there. The heat should help me lose some weight at least.
My last parkrun of May, saw me catching the train to Winchester. Again, focused on more training for the Beer race next weekend.
The aim was to run 6.20 pace per mile. 19.45 was the aim and would also be a course PB for me. It currently stood at 19.51. I still remember how hard it was for me to break sub 20 on this course, despite it being flat.
Anyway, I did it. 19.21 was my time, p17 and 1st V50 again. There were 470 runners here now. Parkruns sure are getting big nowadays. There were 105 runners here when I did Winchester back in 2013. Amazing really. Andy Costello was there with his lovely lab “Ripley”. Afterwards we went to the coffee shop “The waiting room”. It’s a lovely little coffee shop that also sells punk/alternative vinyl and cassettes. I was tempted to buy 2 or 3 records but thought better of it as we are still moving stuff.
The 27th of May marked our 3rd anniversary together. CC and I, got together 3 years ago at Itchen Valley parkrun. It has been a wonderful journey with her and I look forward to living with her and experiencing many more adventures once the chaos of moving is over and getting settled! Love you CC <3 Here’s to many more years and adventures together.
Thanks for reading. One more physio session next week but I can definitely feel improvements in my strength already and running pain free. It is so worth the money! Have a lovely summer :)
