A warning

When a bod has spent 44 years being largely idle, don't push it too hard!

The visits to the gym are now about weekly, as I'm running twice and walking twice a week; but it's important to use the gym for the strength / flexibility / motivation bit. For Sunday's PT session, Kim had prepared a great little circuit in the Studio, including weights, steps and the like - looked like the school playground!

We started with some brief runs at speed along the length of the Studio, then went to stepping. I hesitated over a step, which put me off my stroke for a moment; and a couple of steps later, something went "ping" at the top of my left calf...

Ouch. Or words to that effect. That hurt. Not the Achilles (too far up) nor the hamstring (too far down), thank goodness; but clearly some muscle had made its presence felt. So after some massage and stretching, we concentrated on upper body for the rest of the session.

Of course, I had this heavy feeling of doom: what if it stops me running next Sunday? (Especially as I have £640 in sponsorship and pledges!) But somehow, I think not. We had a concert in one of our churches in the evening, given by the scholars of Gresham's School (very good, too) and weirdly, when I dressed up to attend the concert, my leg was more comfortable when I wore heels. A hot bath at the end of the day and a decent sleep helped; and now, Monday evening, it's a lot less painful. So resting it today and tomorrow (and I have loads of client work to do at the PC, so that's no bad thing), and perhaps trying a walk on Wednesday all being well, I think it'll be fine.

I think it had to happen at some point - and if a couple of days' rest is really all this needs, it's acted as a useful warning not to get too over-excited. Mind you, I was getting very fidgety at the thought of no exercise for longer than two days. That's a mind-set that I really don't want to change - I'm enjoying the "new me" far too much for that.