14.
Sprinting up that hill as fast as I could, I knew it wasn’t possible for there to be anything ‘wrong’ with my legs. Yes, my tendon was a bit sore, but it was clearly working extremely well. This was further confirmed by my ability to hop and bound; to perform calf raises with 100-kg on my shoulders and to do track sessions for the first time in 6-years. I was beginning to develop (or redevelop) a confidence in my body’s capabilities. When other small niggles would develop, I didn’t panic. I modified training for a day or two but ultimately, I knew my body was more than capable of what I was doing. I started to see consistency in training as a given. I knew this was the case when I started to think more about what races I would do and when, rather than whether my body would hold up or not. I had established a ‘new normal’.
The amount of time a runner misses out on training is more closely associated with what they think about pain and how that makes them behave than the structural ‘damage’ offered by diagnosis…
Come back Monday June 7th for an extract from Chapter 15: Slow and steady wins the race. Pre-order the kindle version of the book now on amazon, out June 28th 2021.
Peter Francis 