As of yesterday it is exactly 3 months until I attempt to run the Auckland half-marathon. Thought it might be best to actually starting updating here on my progress towards that goal. So how have things been going? Four things come to mind since starting this back in April: Good start, injury disaster, frustrating recovery and still optimistic.
First 2 months of training went really well. Started with 2-3 runs and a gym session each week. Slowly built up time and distance very week by around 10-20%. It was tough for a while because I was a BIG boy. Weighed myself at 146kg; roughly 35kg heavier than I was when I last did long distance cardio fitness back in my rugby playing days. So the body didn't like me at all. But slowly but surely got into a routine and instead of dreading the increase distance each week I actually looking forward to the challenge. Eventually got up to 7.5km at 45mins. Considering the Auckland half-marathon race has a last cut off point at 9km with a time of 1h 25min I was well ahead of that.
And then disaster struck. On May 26 as I was about 200 metres from my finishing point when I felt a massive shock go right up my left calf. As many people know of me I've been a pretty injury prone guy. You name a muscle or bone, I've probably either pulled, torn or broken it. But this was something new. Never had a calf injury before. So just for precaution I gave the calf a week of rest. Hoping it was just a slight strain. After a week I tied my shoes on and went to hit the pavement. Calf was feeling alright. Then only 2 mins into the run bang pain came again. This had me worried as I knew something was wrong. Very wrong. So I went to a physio to get it check out. Bad news; I had a tear in my left calf. 3-4 weeks of recovery and probably another 3-4 weeks before getting back into running.
Not going to lie this sucked! Definitely dented my confidence and made me question whether I could still do this. At best I'd be back to square one by August and instead of having 6 months to train this out-of-shape, broken down body for something I'd never done before, I'd have 3. I knew at some point the mental side of this journey was going to hit and I'd have to overcome it. I was just hoping it would happen much later than 2 months into it!
So the frustrating recovery began which lasted all of June. Physio appoints, stretches and exercises to build the strength. However as frustrated as I was I had to continue on. So I might not be able to run, but it wasn't stopping me from keeping up the cardio. So onto long sessions on the exercycle at the gym and also onto something I hadn't done in a very long time; swimming. I'm an average swimmer at best but that type of exercise puts no impact strain on my injury so it was the best thing to do.
After a month of that we hit July and it was time to test the calf. Started hitting the treadmill with some slow jogging/fasting walking interval training. It was nerving racking to begin with. If my calf still wasn't ready and it tore again it would have been hard to come back from. Thankfully it has held out so far. Currently up to 15-20mins on the treadmill and the injury is feeling okay. And also I'm down 9kg to 136kg! Pretty stoked with that and hoping to hit 120 by race day. I'm still optimistic about the run in October. I'm going to have to change my training program a bit to what I was going to do but hey just another bump in the road I'm determined to get over.
So I'll leave the update there. The injury has definitely tested my patience physically and mentally but I've had to become a person that believes in the statement "patience is a virtue". Couldn't panic about the injury, had to take time to let it recover and slowly build it back up so when I hit the ground running in August I still have a chance to get where I need to be in October.
I'll try to keep updating on my status here every one- two weeks. Thank you to everyone that have already contributed so far. Knowing I have your support and that your contributions are going to Voices of Hope has kept me going and motivated through this last frustrating months.
