Hi all,
Been reading this thread and it seems like lots of you were in the same position as me. Ran for a while 20 years ago until I crocked my ankle running in the dark. Never got started again, but now making a comeback.
I have been back for about a month and am now running 3 to 4 miles but being careful not to push too hard and injure myself. I had sciatica 3 times in 18 months but after a chiropractor straightening me out and then following on from his work off with orthotics for my fallen arches, I have been pain free for a year.
To stop me pushing too hard I have been following a training plan from John L Parker Jnr's book 'Heart monitor training for the compleat idiot'. This starts you off for a month running at no more than your 70% 'recovery ceiling' which for me is 143bpm. This is really easy and slow (infact I ended up walking quite a bit to keeps my pulse so low) but made me realise I had started off running too fast for my own good. I am on week 3 of 4 and then head on to aternate easy and hard sessions. What he calls 'The general all purpose training principle that everyone agrees with but no one follows'.
Happily my wife has also followed me out of the door and she is a couple of weeks behind me (on the plan I mean, I haven't left her that far down the road). So we are motivating each other, though at present I am enjoying the freedom of running so it's easy to get out of the door.
We are living in the Cairngorms so starting this time of year is probably not the best timing. We have had frost for the last 3 mornings and there is snow on top of the mountains, but fortunately with our job we can do our running in the afternoon when its at its warmest. Though that was only 7 degrees today.
Heading out to Aldi tommorow to pick up some new Winter running kit in their weekly promotion, (only a 50 mile drive) my one running top is getting a bit smelly!
