Uh, oh! A bit of a setback

Friday was a day off. Piano lesson etc. No time for running. But planned to run on Saturday.

Saturday dawned and we decided that as Teresa needed to do some shopping in Dorchester, I would run around the West Walks, Bowling Alley Lane and the gardens area and meet her back at the car in the Waitrose car park. She also found out my trackies. They were in the drawer that I had only looked in once. Can't imagine how I missed them.

So, revised attire: Tshirt, sweatshirt, trackies, hat and gloves. She dropped me off at the corner and I started off with a brisk walk warm up. After a minute or two, I started running. A bit painful, particularly just above my left heel. Each time that I landed on my left foot, pain shot up my leg and the further I went, the more my left leg began to feel stiff and painful.

I continued with the run a little, walk a little routine. Round the gardens twice, back down towards West Walks, around the back of wherever, and finally a bit of a limp across the road and into the car park. Now, all I had to do was find the car. It was of course on the lowest level and I collapsed into the driver's seat and steamed.

Teresa's shopping expedition took a lot longer than I had anticipated. I could probably have driven home, had a shower, read the paper and driven back to fetch. However, I started to peer out around the numerous pillars to see if I could spot her, thinking that it would be helpful to drive the car out of the space to make it easier and quicker for her to get in, because the spaces in the Waitrose car park are very tight. I spotted a woman limping towards the car, but realised immediately that it wasn't Teresa. Shortly after, another limper, but no, she was a waddler, in the way that fat women walk. After a short while I realised that most of the women wandering around the car park were either limping or waddling. Even a relatively young slender woman who got out her car opposite to mine. I thought, "She won't limp." But, incredibly, as if reading my thoughts, she walked off, limping. What is it with females in Dorchester? They all seem to limp or waddle. I only saw two women in 40 minutes who walked normally.

By the time we arrived home, an hour after completing my 20 minutes of exertion, my leg was quite painful and very stiff. After lunch, I checked out the Runner's World http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=197 site to see what I might have done. I wasn't really much the wiser but I do plan to spend some more time researching.

We were invited to a Burns' Night at Fiona and Geoff's for Saturday night where I caught up with Brother in Law John, the London Marathon runner and experienced marathon and half marathon competitor. John gave me lots of good advice and encouragement. He also made me realise that I need to organise my routine a bit better and start building up my strength in other ways. He suggested doing some press ups. I have tried this before but usually collapsed, exhausted after about . . one.

I also spoke to Greg, www.justgiving.com/gregrosssampson who has been running for some time. He gave me more tips and introduced me to this great website http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?locale=en_gb which I need to spend time investigating.

Having just read yesterday's (Saturday's) Daily Telegraph, I see that the BUPA 10k is featured in their 'Top 10ks' feature. You can read the article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/4290685/Running-Top-10k-races.html