I had an unexpected day at home yesterday. I used the opportunity to go for a run at lunchtime. The skies were grey and there was a chilly wind blowing. My mood wasn’t great, either, but I thought a run might help.

The first mile or so was fine, but I seemed to be riddled with indecision about what route to take. On the Strava GPS record of my run, there are a few comical squiggly lines where I started running one way, then turned back.

I ended up doing a tried-and-tested 5 km loop into Bushy Park and back. When I got into the park, my ankle/calf/soleus pain returned. This was confusing and disheartening, as over the weekend I’d run more than 17 miles with no issues at all. I stopped a few times to stretch my calf and make circles with my ankle. The pain then eased off; but returned again after running for a few minutes. Rinse, repeat.

As the pain eased off with stretching, I’m inclined to think it was caused by not stretching enough pre-run. I’m going to go with that, rather than risk sinking back into despair and taking several days off running again. Today, rather than running, I’ll stick to walking and stretching; and then tomorrow, I’ll try another run and see how that goes. One day at a time.

Miles run yesterday: 3.3 / Type of run: Easy / Average pace: 9:47 / Miles run this week: 3.3