Back on the Road

It’s been 12 weeks and 3 days since my amazing wee boy was born. 2 days before that was my last proper run. Sure, I got out for one run around a month ago, but it doesn’t count.

Now that Ross is becoming more settled, my belly is getting bigger and my sanity is crumbling away, i’ve decided it’s probably as good a time as any to get back on the road running.

The Last Three Months

People take time out from running all the time. It may be self imposed, it may be through injury or it may be because of a life event. Either way, i’m not the first and i won’t be the last person that comes back to running after time off.

For me, this has been my longest break from running for years.  And because I don’t have an injury, I think that’s making me all the more eager to get back out there.

I haven’t sat on the couch the whole time though.

I’ve been making an effort to get out as often as possible. I take Ross walks up the trail I frequented (it gives me running pangs if there is such a thing) or just out round the corner and back at any opportunity.  I got out for 1 run on the 12th of August with a friend. 5 miles. 10 minute miles but I felt really good during and after.  I also started the 100pushups program through the Strength Challenge Facebook Group. I should note I’ve had to repeat a few weeks because of one thing or another. Furthest I’ve got is halfway through week five. I just demoted myself to week 4 again though – it seems it’s easier to get out running than find time for pushups!

Health Impact

I knew 3 months off would affect my health but I underestimated it a bit. I definitely feel unhealthy. And I feel slow.  As an experiment, I used the Instant Heart Rate Android app to measure my heart rate (BMP) – once on my last run, then 3 times over the last 3 months.

As you can see I had a pretty healthy resting heart rate of 49 BPM on 4 July.  Only 2 weeks later that jumped to 58 BPM (18 July).  2 months later I was really feeling it when i measured at 78 BPM (26 Sept).  Today, my BPM has dipped to 72 (4 Oct).  Hopefully that drop is down to an increase in walking activity in the last couple of weeks.  I’m pretty shocked to see how much my resting BPM has increased.  It’ll be interesting to see how it responds running again.

The Master Plan

First thing is first, I can’t rush back into running.  For a start, I think my Achilles tendons have shrunk or at least they’ve lost their vavavoom.  They might not forgive me for jumping into the Vivobarefoot Neo’s after so long.

Stage One

So, for just over a week I’ll be doing some Pose Drills, such as:

Not only will the drills help provide some strength and stability training, it’ll be a good refresher course in getting my technique right as soon as I start.

Stage Two

Let’s not set our expectations too high.  Just a few miles on the first run then I’ll cap my runs at 4 miles for a few weeks after and no more than 3 runs per week. I reckon that’s all I’ll have time for to be honest. We’ll see though.

That’s It

Yup, that’s my master plan. Quite a departure from past days of methodically scheduling a training plan. No colour coded spreadsheets, no mileage projection graphs.  Just past experience to guide me.

I know as long as I take it easy though, I’ll be just fine.