[Originally posted at Bristol Running Resource, 04/12/11]

How’s your running? I hope it’s going well.

I have to say that mine has been all over the place for the last few weeks. It took me much longer than usual to recover from the Bristol Half Marathon. So during September I clocked up very few miles. During October and November it’s all been a bit up and down, and I don’t mean on the hills.

I seem to have been alternating good runs and bad runs. A great 5k where all systems are go has been followed by a duff 60 minute slow run where I’ve ended up having to stop halfway round to stretch because something wasn’t right. I’ve done several treadmill sessions where progress is made, in terms of improving the tempo I can sustain. But then I’d go outside and something would stop working properly. One thing after another has been playing up – right iliotibial band, left shin, left ankle, right hip, left foot, right knee. It’s never chronic. And it only appears while on the run, disappearing as soon as I stop. There isn’t any obvious pattern. It’s all a bit frustrating.

Today we went out for a 60 minute out-and-back run. The first run of the year in longs not shorts. A sure sign that winter has arrived.

Everything was fine on the way out. But as soon as we turned for home the outside of my left calf started playing up. So I had to slow to even more of a jog than usual to ease the discomfort a bit. 31 minutes out, 33 and a half minutes back. not exactly the negative split I was aiming for.

Hey ho. Never mind.

Today seems like a good day to make an early New Year’s resolution to do a bit more stretching. That might help fend off all these annoying niggles.

And anyway, even if there are gripes, none of it is serious. There’s nothing serious enough to stop me getting up and out the door. And, after all, that’s the main thing.