First run.

Well first successful attempt at running in 19 months.

May 2014 I walked/jogged the Race for life 5k, running the last 200m. The minute I crossed the finish line I was aware I had ruined my calves. I could barely walk, the pain was unbearable.

After a few months and countless visits to the GP I got a referral to physio. This was about as useless as it could possibly be. I basically just got told that I would need high arch support shoes and that was that. I was recommended kinesiology tape, but that just seemed to act as a reminder not to push myself when it came to my calves and restricted the movement in them.

Sporadically over the last 19 months I have attempted, and been very aware that I’ve been failing, to run. Yet this dry spell ended last night.

I finished a 26 hour shift, caught a busy train full of people going out on Christmas do’s back into the city, went straight to the gym. I started myself out with an upper body workout (arms and shoulders albeit not very structured) then decided to walk on the treadmill instead of cycling for some cardio. I don’t know what inspired me but I did a minute of walking and then bumped my speed up to just above 7mph. I was fully expecting to have to drop this back to around 4/5 within a matter of seconds, but to my surprise I had absolutely no discomfort in my calves.

I managed to maintain this for about 2 minutes, before my fitness levels made me start questioning if I should keep running. At this moment Becky G — Break a Sweat came on my Google Play account. I had never heard this song before and my God what a time for me to discover it. I ended up doing just over 5 minutes of running before I had to drop back down to a walking pace.

Needless to say I was happy, I even managed a 5 minute warm up run before hitting leg day this morning at 5am. Now I’ve never been good at running, but here’s to hoping I’ll be able to build on what I’m able to do now without another injury.