Just Keep Swimming

I’m nervous, the music is blaring, I’m sweating and trying to copy a series of dance moves; but I can’t do the moves and instead it looks like I have lost all co-ordination. I wished I could say I was incredibly drunk and I was trying to dance in some random nightclub, but I am actually in a ‘Total Body Conditioning’ class. It feels like whilst I perform my dance warm up moves- completely out of sync by the way- that the instructor and the rest of the  people in the class are staring at me in disbelief, but I am happy. I am able to exercise again with only a very slight feeling of pain in my calf, and for me that is a huge step in the right direction.

Whilst trying to keep up with the various exercises that were being performed during the class, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself (compassionately of course). It seemed like ages ago that I was training for a marathon and performing those arduous track/ tempo sessions. Now I am in front of a mirror with a bunch of other people doing random dance moves. In fact, up until that point, running was starting to seem like a distant memory. Luckily after spending around £220 on physiotherapy/ acupuncture fees my leg has become better; and there is the possibility of being able to run again. There is a huge debate about whether acupuncture is actually effective, but I have to say it really did the trick for me. Especially in combination with the recovery exercises that I was given. That said I did not like handing over £220 to help my leg heal (I’m sure there must be some sort of insurance business for runners that I could start up after this experience, but I haven’t quite figured out how to do it yet).  I am just glad that I was able to exercise again during March- even if it is just to do silly dance moves- and I have certainly learnt a lot about myself.

The thing I definitely need to work on is patience. I think wrote about being patient in my first blog post of the year, but injuring myself and then having to recover  from my  injury has certainly given me a perspective on what it means to be patient. My definition of patience (for running anyway) would be the ability to avoid quick fixes or shortcuts, and to instead reap the benefits of a long term strategy. In the case of my injury, quite literally being able to walk and then jog before I could run was that strategy. I wish I could say that my recovery exercises were like a series of montages that you see in sport films, but in fact they were an endless round of different types of exercise to help me keep some sort of fitness for when I was to return to running.  Mix in days where I can feel the pain in my calf flare up again, thus having to take rest days, or where I cannot feel any progress at all; and you have some sort of idea of how most of February and March has been for me. This isn’t meant to be self-pitying. I have simply come  to realise  that recovery from an injury does not happen in leaps and  bounds; rather it  is about loads of small almost imperceptible changes that one day add up to the ability to be able to run/ exercise again.

The other aspect of patience that I learnt about when I got injured; was the paradox of not being able to do something makes you want to do it more. In this case I couldn’t run, so for the first few weeks of February all I thought about was how much I wanted to run.  Someone in my club recommended a good book to read and I have found that has really helped take my mind off things. At the moment I am reading a couple of books at the same time, but I couldn’t resist looking at something to do with running. It was in fact a book my sister gave to me as a present called the: Complete Running and Marathon Book. I was pleasantly surprised by how useful this book was, and am currently using its strength programme at the moment. Some may criticise it for providing obvious advice, that most seasoned runners would know about; but it does have some helpful sections on warm-up drills, how certain injuries occur and how different types of cross-training affect my running (e.g. swimming).

Before getting injured I didn’t really have that much knowledge of swimming. I could do a front-crawl, but I certainly hadn’t appreciated all the tiny changes to the body that are needed when performing that motion. This was brought home quite bluntly to me when I was passed by someone who was far larger than me, and who I am certain I could have easily over taken in most running events. So I decided to go for swimming lessons, which was interesting as I realised I had a lot to learn about swimming. This may be quite a simplistic assessment, but running seems to be an intuitive form of exercise whereas swimming seems to be about honing your technique to move through the water as efficiently as possible. Through swimming I have been able to take my mind off not being able to run and a lot of the drills remind me of running on the track. I have even been tempted by taking part in the Great South Swim in July this year.  

I haven’t quite decided if I want to dedicate myself to preparing for a one to two mile swim event between now and July; or whether I should start to ease myself back into running. Right now I am just grateful to be able to exercise again, as it is something I really do enjoy. I’m sure the running will follow, but for now I am just going to enjoy getting fitter through a variety of exercises; or as Dory says “Just Keep Swimming”.