So, afterhurting myself in the second half of September this week I decided to see if I could get on my bike and ride without too much pain. A week ago I headed on my commuter bike (heavy old mountain bike with skinny tyres) into Richmond Park and clocked up 13.5 miles. There was no additional pain and actually the most painful part of the whole process was getting onto my bike in the first place (lifting my leg over the stupidly high saddle!).
From here I decided that I’d try and ride into work on Tuesday. 13.5 miles each way. If it didn’t go well in the morning then I could at least leave the bike locked up at work and get it another day. Well, other than it pouring with rain the whole way, the ride was fine. I even rode home that evening (in the rain!). I then did the same again (in better weather) on Thursday and on Friday had a go on my indoor ‘turbo’ trainer as it seemed far too icy outside first thing to ride.
Sharon and I then went to Bristol to stay with friends for the weekend. Saturday morning we headed to Little Stoke parkrun which was only a few miles away and I had decided that I’d probably try and run round part of the course with Sharon. It was a multi-lap parkrun on a good solid flat surface so ideal conditions to test things out.
We ran the first lap, then the second…. then the third and then to the finish. With a time a little under 31 minutes it was my slowest parkrun to date but I couldn’t care less about the time. I finished it. If I can go out for a mid-week run and then do a parkrun this weekend I’ll be happy. Really happy.
Pain wise I can feel something still inside/under/beneath my ribs but I’m of the belief that any break/fracture/crack has probably healed itself and its just other ‘stuff’ that’s causing the pain. It’s not getting worse (even with exercise) and slowly getting better. The only real pain I feel today (24 hours after the 5k parkrun) is that my legs hurt like I’ve raced a half marathon the day before!!
Looking at my training log I have done almost five and a half hours of exercise this week. Brilliant. If I can slowly build up now then I’ve got a great chance of having a reasonable 2013. Fingers crossed.