Tonight was my first run in ten days. Regular readers will know I start to lose confidence in my own ability if I go any more than three or four days without running, so to leave it so long suggests that all is not well in my world.
It isn’t.
Granted, I was on holiday last week so running wasn’t exactly top of the agenda, but that’s not the reason.
After my run around the park on Monday I took trips to Fuengirola and Gibraltar on Tuesday and Wednesday which left no time for a run. That was ok, I had planned to go out on the Thursday for a gentle loosen up.
But, on Thursday, I began to experience some weird sensations down the left side of my body.
If you can imagine what it feels like to get your mouth numbed by the dentist that’ll give you an idea of what I experienced. It started on the left side of my lip and spread quickly all down that side of my body, through my arms, fingers, legs and toes.
It also left me quite disorientated, could happen without warning and was both numbing and tingling at the same time. Not really ideal for running, especially in a foreign country.
This has continued a few times a day over the last week so clearly I wasn’t going to risk anything until I got it under control. I have had medical advice and been put on medication to try to deal with it.
Today was the first day since it all started that I haven’t felt anything so I decided to go out for a gentle 5k this evening.
It was so gentle that I Jeffed it from start to finish using very basic 60sec/30sec splits. I didn’t want to risk anything and wanted to take it as easily as I possibly could.
I used my old faithful route along the dual carriageway to the industrial estate and back again. It’s straight, flat, wide footpath, no roads to cross, close to home etc. so if I didn’t feel well I wouldn’t really be at any risk.
It went well, mostly. Apart from the frustration of the start/stop repeats every few seconds I didn’t suffer any ill effects until the last half-a-mile. Then the dreaded numbness in my lips kicked in, followed by the tingling in my left arm etc.
Thankfully I was on the way home by this stage anyway, and it was downhill so I just slowed down and kept running. I know I maybe should have stopped, but I was worried that by stopping the effects would magnify so I thought it was best just to make it home.
And, right enough, when I got home the symptoms started to get quite bad so it was perhaps sensible that I just kept going until I was in a place of safety.
I’m not sure what my next step is now. I’m a bit wary of running on my own now so perhaps I’ll give it a go at club on Monday night (parkrun on Saturday might be too soon) when at least I’ll have people around me.
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 