Esholt 5k #1 - back from injury

It was 50 weeks since my last race (Esholt 5k #3 2008). Since then I've had 7 months off injured and 4 and a half months trying to get some sort of fitness back. First step was trying to get my muscles and connective tissues back up to strength. Have tried to be patient as last time I tried to do too much too quickly and ended up pulling all sorts of muscles (you'll be surprised how many different muscles you can pull in the backs of your legs). Have tried to build my mileage up slowly but have found each run a real effort even though they are all supposed to be slow! Squeezed 3 lonely track sessions in so didn't expect too much from the Esholt. The only indicator I had was 5 x 1 km reps with 200m walk. Total time for running bits was about 19 mins. What could I manage without the rests?

On the day of the race bumped into lots of familiar faces and was pleasantly surprised by the genuine goodwill shown by those that knew I'd been off injured. Told myself to start off conservatively but did the 1st km in 3-45. Well it is downhill. Felt easyish for the 1st km but that's what you get in 5ks. The pain kicks in after 1.1 km. Felt pretty cream crackered but think I paced it reasonably OK as I probably overtook more runners than vice versa. Worked harder than I wanted to but the problem with races is that I can't resist the competetion.

For the record I finished in 19-50 but that is really irrelevant. The main point is that I don't seem to have suffered any reaction. I feel healthy and should be able to continue my recovery. I have a benchmark and will be able to judge my progress over the next couple of races.

For results see earlier post from Gareth here