End of week 1

Picture by Gratisography on Pexels

I completed week 1 of my walk-run training and it wasn't too horrific. Week 1 looked like this:

Day 1 – Run 1 min, Walk 2 min, x8
Day 2 – Run 1 min, Walk 2 min, x6
Day 3 – Run 1 min, Walk 2 min, x10

 I must say, while I didn't run problem free, I definitely felt different on run 3 than on run 1. On run 1 it was very hard to ignore the discomfort in my lungs, which were objecting strongly to the whole exercise. At their worst they created a lovely burning sensation behind my rib cage, and left me gasping for air during all of my walk breaks. I didn't run with much focus other than making it to the end, which I did most ungracefully by collapsing onto the sofa. Yes, I know you're supposed to do a cool down and then a stretch, but it was run 1 and I was exhausted. Now I wondered whether my lungs were performing so diabolically because the pace I took was too fast. I don't think so. I certainly wasn't in a hurry and honestly, any slower and I'd have been walking. So I think my lungs were just getting a fright at having to work.  


Day 2 was very similar. My lungs performed in much the same way and I was a gasping mess by the time I made it home. The only thing that was different was as I reached the gate of my home I noticed that my right calf felt tight. This was something I foolishly ignored and regreted the following day. On a gentle stroll with my my mother's dog my right achilles tendon started to hurt. This niggled at me most of the rest of the day until I got home and foam rolled my calf to see if the tight muscle might release and fix the problem. The next day, a rest day, it thankfully improved, so I determined it would be safe to run again.

On day 3 I had one goal in mind and that was to make an improvement (no atter how tiny) to my stamina. I had read somewhere that counting so many steps during the inhale, and then so many during the exhale might help. So, I endeavoured to breath in for 4 steps and out for 4 steps. This was incredibly challenging. I felt the strong need to gasp as before, and forcing myself to take deeper breaths, even when walking, took a lot of will power. However, I can confirm that on this run there was no burning sensation behind my ribs, and I took every walking break because my watch told me to, not because I felt like I couldn't go on. So I'm calling that progress. I had the same tightness in my right calf at the end so I foam rolled it after the run this time, to try and prevent any nagging achilles tendon pain. I also seemed to develop a trigger point on my left knee. This was incredibly tender to touch. My left knee was dislocated 12 years ago (and received nothing by way of physiotherapy), so there's a lot of scar tissue in there which impedes its mobility a little. It's quite possible that this trigger point harks back to this early injury. I've had poor body mechanics ever since, with my right hip doing lots of compensating (which is probably why one leg feels tighter than the other after running). I clearly need to iron out some of the problems on my right side.