Tuesday 29 January 2008

Shutting the stable door

... after the Rector's Wife has bolted.

Wise words from Vanilla, but it's too late for me - I'm already hooked.

And desperate for my next fix.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Another treadmill mile!

Spent 10 minutes each on bike and cross-trainer, then 18 minutes on the treadmill - first and last two minutes walking, middle bit running. Total including walking of 2.22 km (1.38 miles). Slow, big effort, but only real discomfort was in legs, not ankle, because they're so out of practice.

Keep everything crossed for me. This has been such a hole in my life.

Monday 21 January 2008

Committed

- to three miles... oh, I couldn't just enter for one!

and, as ever, the username is norfolkbroad. Hence my sponsorship page is www.mysportrelief.com/norfolkbroad. Sorry.

So either follow the link above, or see the Sport Relief widget on the right, send a few arrow-prayers for the ankle, and sponsor me if you feel like it... although you might want to defer that decision for a few weeks to see progress...

Sunday 20 January 2008

Determined

It's been a couple of weeks - mostly because of our usual post-Christmas crashout with friends (as usual, a highly enjoyable combination of over-eating and over-spending). I did manage one gym session during the week, which was better than nothing, at the rather swish JJB gym in Bolton. (Query: why don't gyms have a scheme for visitors, rather than charging on the basis of you trying out the gym before joining? I can't be the only mad fool who doesn't stop wanting a workout when on holiday.)

During the week leading up to the holiday, Kim & I had managed a reasonable three-gym-session-week, including CV, weights and swimming in various combinations. The ankle continues to mystify; the occasional ache at night, usually walking reasonably comfortably but gets tired quickly, heels of any description are a no-no (which is cramping my style something horrible), and the odd violent twinge if I put on pressure at an odd angle. The one-mile treadmill run on 5th January is still the only running I've dared attempt since November.

This evening, I combined a grocery-top-up trip to Sainsbury's with a gym visit. Comfortable with ten minutes each on bike, cross-trainer and Nautilus, followed by 50 minutes' full weights routine.

In the supermarket, I spotted a leaflet about Sport Relief. A mile? Only a mile? Oh, come on. I can do that. And it turns out that you can actually choose to run one mile, three miles or six miles. So if I feel brave in eight weeks time, I might just see if the three is do-able...

... but I promise I'll be sensible, and do lots of treadmill work in little bits, and see the physio - and the podiatrist, if the NHS ever gets around to giving me an appointment...

Monday 7 January 2008

Red wine is good for you, right?

Birkenstock therapy

A comment on a recent entry from thirkellgirl recently reminded me of a similar suggestion from our friend Margie, who is a sports masseur. Merrell isn't a make to be found often in the UK, but the general idea of clogs or some other orthopedic sandal seemed sensible. So when I visited Norwich today after seeing an IT client in the morning, I had a look around; and in Schuh found some Birkenstock sandals that promise to offer, at least, more support than the slippers that I've habitually worn during the day when working from home. Not decorative, but practical. Let's see if they help.

Saturday 5 January 2008

A mile - to prove I still can

There was this challenge on the FetchEveryone site, you see, to run a mile by 6th January and to write a report about it. As that's my birthday, and it's almost exactly two months since my last run, I thought, well, let's see...

so a visit to the gym with Kim on a bright Saturday morning (we'd both chickened out on the Friday night), a long (25 minute) warmup on the bike and a 10 minute power-walk on the treadmill; and then, oh-so-cautiously, I took the speed up and ran 1.6 km (1 mile) in 13 minutes. Pathetic by previous standards, but an achievement under the circumstances. Ankle felt a bit tired, but not painful; so I reckon that if I can manage some decent walking and keep up with the rest of the gym stuff for another week or few, we might be getting there.

Continued the session with about an hour on weights, so felt that I'd had a real workout for the first time in weeks. And an input of legal feelgood meant that it was me that went back home - rather than the impossibly miserable cow that my husband has had to put up with for the last couple of days.

Wednesday 2 January 2008

Can't even get up a sweat

Gym session, depressing. Bike, cross-trainer, OK; tried treadmill, couldn't even power-walk fast enough to get the HR up above about 110, much less run, without ankle protesting.

Sulk.