Mark Kelly's Running Life!: Back on the road

This week saw me get back on the road after taking the summer and autumn off with health and injury woes. I have been getting physio from Andy Byrne at the Oldham branch of David Roberts Physio centres. The first session on Tuesday was a nervous experience as I was unsure my personal diagnosis would be corroborated!
If the knee issue was serious I.e. needing surgery then I had considered hanging up my shoes. Last Saturday Royton Road Runners had its annual presentation night and even though I was sat in the same place as last year, i could not have felt more differently.

2010 had been a great year and 2011 carried on in much the same fashion, my Marathon PB at London had secured a good for age place in the VLM 2012, but since then I have run just a few miles!

Andy was giving the knee a great looking at and to my relief he informed that my issue is ITB related. It was no surprise when he remarked it is largely due to having weak glutes! During my coaching training I would always be embarrassed giving demonstrations in areas like squats as I just wobble and fall over. Bear in mind that at the time I was marathon fit and should have been doing single leg squats for breakfast!

This week was the last "track" session for RRR, Brian and I met the runners as usual but the track is shut due to building works! So it was a hill session instead. The weather was so bad I was glad to get the call that the session was over, we won't meet again until the 9th Jan.

I had another ITB physio session on Friday and it is amazing that they don't leave bruises, but it is working I went for a run today, just a couple of kilometres but it felt good to be out. I dug out the Adidas Kanadia's and headed out onto the snow. My ITB was fine and part of me was happy I had pain elsewhere in my legs! My fitness is at zero but now it is time to start working on getting back to running, London is jut over 4 months away...

On Saturday we had our Santa Dash at Oldham parkrun, 52 runners braved the snow to run around a just passable course. Resplendent in Santa suits and raising lots of money for Christies we had a great time and the cake provided by Tony and Angie.. totally scrumptious. Below a picture of Sandra, Bev and I on the start line, I had no end of problems stopping the oversized trousers from dropping, a jacket that would not stay shut and a belt that snapped first go. Not to mention a beard more annoying than my real one!