Vidya writes:
As February raced to a close, we reached the half way point of the sixteen week training plan. The marathon suddenly felt a lot closer and the mental battle to get to London landed like a Daniel LaRusso crane kick. The reality of my truncated training sank in: I had been sanding the floor and painting the fence, but there was so little time left, so more actual running to do.
First learn stand, then learn fly
Beyond the initial assessment, I’ve been left largely to my own devices to manage my fracture recovery. I’ve had endless chats with Dr Google and probably scrambled my head even more: why didn’t I have a boot or a cast? What did these funky foot pains actually mean? How long would it be before it was safe to run again - 3/6/12 weeks/months/years?! If there was a panic button nearby, I may have glanced in its general direction.
I was in danger of psyching myself out. Eventually, I got out of my head and on the phone to my medical Mr Miyagi. I was reassured that all was progressing normally, I had a couple more weeks before I should run, but I could walk as much as I wanted. The light bulb went off and I started to swap swimming and cycling for fast walking every other day and increasing distances. I was getting mileage back in my legs, the sun on my face and happily, no undue pain.
Seven weeks to go and I am back on the gentle running road. I am working on a run/walk strategy to get me through the marathon and had the first big test of all that wax-on, wax-off, aqua jogging training: run/walking to and from Gladstone Parkrun for the mob match. 13 good miles in the bank, confidence boosted, many lessons learned.