I love
Christmas and the fresh start the New Year brings. So on New Year’s Day (2010) I laced up my trainers,
zipped my jacket and headed out for a run in the beautiful, wintry Forest of Dean
Humph. The pain was somewhat intermittent but enough
to rule out running for the time being.
On a trip to London
Off to
the sports injury clinic. Diagnosis –
torn cartilage. Treatment – rest and
rehabilitation. It’s one thing deciding
not to or being too lazy to run, but being physically unable to run is quite
different. I felt frustrated and self
pitiful. Every time I though I was
improving and attempted a jog my body soon reminded me it was too soon to the
point where I was convinced it would never heal and I would have to hang up my
trainers for good.
After
months of rest (8 to be exact) I decided I would give cross-training a go and
join my local gym. Having been
off-exercise for a while I got a bit over excited and signed straight up for a
spinning class. Wow. Shock to the system doesn’t cover it! My body didn’t know what had hit it! But it was strangely enjoyable, even though I
couldn’t walk properly afterwards, and more importantly it didn’t seem to hurt
my knee, hurrah!
So I
stuck with it, starting with the 30 minute class every week and gradually
started using the cross trainer and completing short treadmill sessions. After a few months I also started going to
the 40 minute spinning class and happily went twice a week from then on. Every single class was hard work. But I started seeing improvements and that
kept me going. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed
every second of spinning and I really did need to dig deep most of the time but
I always loved it afterwards!
By the
end of the year I had grown in strength and confidence - my knee was pain free,
I loved my spinning classes and I was gradually increasing my treadmill runs.
Bring on
the New Year!
