As I type this post I am sat in bed – alone. Helen is on her weekly night shift and as usual, I cannot settle without her here. On the TV I have All Or Nothing: Carolina Panthers – the fly-on-the-wall Amazon documentary that follows a different NFL team through a season. “Keep Pounding” is their motto and it struck a chord with me.
Life often delivers us setbacks. Whether it be work, family, health or running – if you go through life without ever suffering a setback then consider yourself very, very fortunate.
Keep Pounding is a great motto to go with.
No matter the setback, you keep going. You keep moving forward. You do not stop. You KEEP POUNDING.
This past week or two at work have been some of the most difficult I have ever faced. The effects of what has happened have challenged me and I was surprised by my own lack of mental resolve to put it aside. Thankfully I have a super-supportive wife and family, and of course, running.
But my running hasn’t been so great either. Here’s that word again – setbacks.
Introducing a treadmill was meant to allow me to train around Helen’s shifts so that I am home. But I managed to injure myself on only my second run on the machine.
Terrible running technique meant I strained both my calves. I’ve struggled to loosen them all week. Stretching and rolling them has failed to reap any reward in the way of relief.
I decided to take Thursday off. My mileage for the week was already severely down so there was no point in worrying about that.
After dropping Helen at work I returned home and noticed I’d only done 3,500 steps so I hit the treadmill to walk myself to the magic 10k.
Two-and-a-half miles and 47 minutes later I hit my target. My calf felt a little sore but looser. Looser is good.
I’ve realised that no matter what adversity you face you have to just keep pounding.
Thanks for reading.
D
