Having to shift my focus

So recovering from an injury isn’t easy. It obviously isn’t easy physically but also mentally. Because of this, I’ve found myself having to shift my focus from running, at least for the time being.

The last few weeks have been a challenge. The weather has, in general, been good. My Instagram feed and running club Facebook page have been filled with amazing runs & race performances. As happy as I have been for all these people, the more its made me want to get back to 100% fitness so that I can do the same.

I have a real desire to continue my running journey

This obviously takes time and cant be rushed, which is exactly what I tried to do a couple of weeks back causing my IT band to flare up again. I downplayed this when I discussed it at the time on Instagram and again in my previous blog post but the reality is that, that flare up really affected me.

It made realise I’m not ready to start getting back to my pre injury form. It’s essentially a case of one step forward, two steps back. I know people out there have, and have had worse injuries than mine but for me personally this is the worst kind of injury I could have developed and quite frankly, I’m starting to find it more & more depressing.

So now that its confirmed that I have a long road back to getting my running fitness and form back, I’ve decided to shift my focus to my strength work. Running is always going to be my number one passion when it comes to fitness but I have rediscovered my love for lifting weights.

Now as that’s something I can actually do without fear of injury reoccurrence its what I have to focus on to save my mental health delving into depths I have no interest of visiting. That may sound a little extreme but running really has been my saviour when I’ve been in bad places in the past.

Kettlebell, jump box & medicine ball all lined up ready for some fun

This week has seen me continue with the strength work at CrossFit Wyvern, training once again with my good friend Matt. Our workout consisted of an AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of 15 kettlebell swings, 12 box jumps and 10 wall balls. It was a lot tougher than it sounds and I managed 4 full rounds plus 5 kettlebell swings in 10 minutes which left me a sweaty mess! We then followed that up with some deadlifts.

Ah deadlifts, I’d forgotten how much I loved lifting heavy weights, with deadlifts & squats being my particular favourites back in the day. We did ascending weights, starting with 5 reps and decreasing the reps as the weight went up until we hit a 1 rep max. For me this this was 110kg and you can see the video of this here. I did actually lift 120kg but Matt said my form was poor so we decided not to count it.

Getting out for a pain free run in the sun

I have 2 sessions planned in with Matt for next week which should be fun. I have also successfully completed 2 pain free runs this week. The first was a steady 2 miles on Wednesday and the second was 3 miles today in the glorious sunshine. I refuse to get carried away again with my running but the fact I’m doing it pain free again and that its currently not my primary focus, hopefully things will start to fall back into place and I can get back to putting the miles in sooner rather than later.

That’s it from me this week, I hope you’ve all been enjoying the glorious weather.

Until next time!

GTBB