I love running, but running doesn’t love me right now!

I’m not really sure what’s going on but I’m struggling … breathing sometimes feels raspy when I up the tempo but that’s getting less frequent and I genuinely believe (hope) that is just lack of fitness but I’m struggling to get fit because I have major issues with my achilles. 10k is about my limit at the moment and an easy run around that distance will still see me limping home. My lay analysis rationalises that as bad form that is a result of ..

… yeah you guessed it … lack of fitness! I’m running on my heels too much – if I could just get fitter my form would improve, I’d be on the balls of feet more, everything would hurt less and much like when I first joined the Poly I’d just get stronger and stronger until before I knew it I’d be running an ultra marathon with an insane ascent going right to the top of Ben Nevis.

I’ve DNS’d that one once … I’m not doing that again … so my challenge is to get to the point I feel confident enough to enter it again. If I enter it then I’m well going to start AND FINISH.

So here I am … today I am on the verge of semi-reinventing myself …

… I’ve bought a road bike.

I’ve always said I run because I enjoy running and I don’t really enjoy cycling but times change… I miss the hills … I miss the countryside … I miss running to Blyth … BLYTH … its only 10km away but right now it is actually beyond me to run there and back. I haven’t run that far in over 2 years!!!

But I’m quite dogged – I know my limits which is why I didn’t start Ben Nevis and I bottled the Hardmoors 55 because I was hating the training for various reasons but other than that I have tackled and achieved the challenges I set myself.

So what does road cycling bring? Well …

… hopefully it will bring a chance to improve my fitness whilst dodging impact heel/achilles problems.

…hopefully it will allow me to get up the coast and enjoy some fab scenery again.

… hopefully it will give me the rush I used to get from pushing hard.

… hopefully it will give me the headspace to think … sometimes nonsense, sometimes work, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always free!

… and hopefully …

… it will present another challenge that I can get my teeth into and enjoy.

If I need to reinvent myself a little to achieve my goals then so be it. I hope it’s a fun journey.

But I’m still a runner! I’m still looking at you Ben Nevis!