A New Beginning

With a title like that you could be mistaken for thinking I was moving home, starting up a new business or changing clubs. Nope it’s none of that and I’m not even sure if it is a new beginning, still early days. 10 weeks it’s been since I damaged my achilles. That’s 10 weeks where I’ve had to watch others take pleasure from a hobby that’s served me so well, 10 weeks of being patient and 10 weeks of having to let my Salford club mates down. But in all of those 10 weeks I’ve retained a high level of optimism, I’ve kept busy doing other things and kept thinking positively about my running future. Ok it crossed my mind that this might be a career finishing injury, or at best writing off 2013, but I always had hope that I’d be back to prove that I can still deliver. I’ve always said that if I had to give up running I’d be ok about it, it’s given me 24 years of joy and a relatively good level of success, but I still believe I have more to achieve, so I’m hoping this is the new beginning I’m looking for.

I’m not wanting to get ahead of myself, it’s very early days and it may all fall apart tomorrow but my optimism is at it’s highest level since I realised I was badly damaged goods. Three weeks ago I visited a physio, she told me to give it 3 weeks before I tried to run. I obeyed her, for almost 3 weeks of that, last Thursday my ankle felt good so I went for a shuffle. 5 minutes later I proved I could shuffle but the achilles reacted badly. When I woke up this morning my achilles was still a little sore and with a visit to the physio planned I figured it would be another 3 weeks of waiting. However the physio advised me she thought I should try again, and never to be one to disobey a physio, at least not twice in one week, I set off on a little jaunt this afternoon.

As you can imagine, 10 weeks of inactivity and pain caused a certain amount of tension in the first couple of minutes and I probably resembled an ambling drunken elephant as I shuffled along the street of Northwich, but after 5 minutes I felt good. So far no reaction to the run and if this continues it will be a gradual increase in distance and speed from now on. Normally now I’d be looking up races and planning my season, but I’m being a little careful, better to run than run too fast and sit out another 10 weeks. Of course my good friends at Salford are awaiting news to see if I’ll make their masters relay team, but to be honest, that team’s so talented they wouldn’t even miss me if I was at my peak. Still if there’s a chance, I’ll be back to Sutton Park like a shot.

Of course I’ve not been inactive for 10 weeks I’ve done various things and recently got my bike out of the garage for some long rides. I’ve been enjoying rediscovering the Cheshire countryside, but two punctures in 4 days made me a bit despondent. However, today is another day and as I’m cycling with a running client, around my fartlek course (I hope I can remember it), tonight, I had to get the bike up and running this afternoon.   

So fingers crossed my running chums, I’ll soon be back in action. I know this year won’t be my best but the build up starts now for my next big championship win.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, I’ve just been really busy, I’ve had an influx of new clients and this has at least helped me to maintain a positive attitude. Also I couldn’t really think of anything to write about, yes there was the London marathon but I’ve done that to death. This week I’m also starting back with Lee Riley as he goes for his next challenge. Lee recently lost his marathon world record to a Japanese athlete and this was bettered again at London by a Para. But Lee still holds five world records and we’ll be working on something else for the coming weeks.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk