Back on the treadmill

The physio was very pleased with me on Wednesday and gave me the thumbs up to start a 1:1 run/walk on the treadmill with the proviso that for the first run I didn't speed the treadmill up for the running part. I did a mile at 4mph and felt so pleased. The ankle was good but it felt weird and it was almost as though my foot didn't want to go through it's full range of motion just yet... however, it feels like that when I go and see the physio, so I figured "What's the difference?" I had asked Tim (physio) if he thought I'd be ready for a marathon in 10 weeks and his answer was that my ankle would be, I just needed to get my legs ready for it. He asked which marathon I was doing, and when I said it was Connemara 39.3 miles he frowned at my previous question. When I said I thought that being ready for a marathon was more or less the same as being ready for 39.3 miles, he smiled and said my head is in a much better place than he thinks it's ever been and he agreed it wasn't that much different from a training point of view.

I emailed William and Shaun and asked could I run every day. Of course, I got the answer "NO", but William said to increase every other day by 10 minutes and walk only on the non running days with superset leg extention and curls along with bodyweight squats. So, yesterday I did all of that and today my quads are aching quite a bit. I have to admit it feels good! This morning I did 25 minutes run/walk. I upped the treadmill to 4.2mph and when I ran it felt too slow so I upped it to 4.5mph and then on the third running minute turned it up to 5mph (12mm pace) and this felt more natural. My foot was less reluctant to go through it's range of motion today and I felt great when I'd finished.

Food has being going well and the gluten/wheat free diet has made a very big difference. I'm waking up 5 minutes before the alarm every day (including today with no alarm because it's Saturday... arrrrggghhhh!!!), I feel much more energetic and I don't get that lull after a meal where you can't be bothered to do anything. Becoming vegan made me feel a bit better but I think this has pushed that even further. Paul came over for a meal last night and was blown away by Graemes' cooking. He has started cooking more himself now and seems much more confident. We told him about how most of the time we follow recipes online and I think he is going to try some himself. Apparently he's already started cooking for other people and has had some great comments. I agreed that having a meat eater absolutely love your cooking is a bit of a buzz!

And we were given £600 worth of e-vouchers from British Airways after complaining about being held up for so long during our flight home from Grand Cayman. I joked to Graeme we could go to Venice business class, and although he was instantly keen, I think we may save the vouchers and put them towards a holiday with the kids this year.

Things aren't all good though.... Graeme has really been suffering with his long standing groin injury. I mentioned to him on Thursday that I thought it may be long distance running, because it always improves with his Muay Thai and then deteriorates when he runs. He came home from work that evening saying he thought I was right. He emailed Connemara and asked to switch from the marathon to the half, emailed Matt about Llanelli and said he's pulling out, and said from now on he's going to stick to half marathons (at the most) with just a couple of 3 to 5 milers during the week running with the dog. He's made the right decision, but decisions like that are always tough to make initially.