Oh, dear

The cold developed, and blossomed, and this has been a very busy week of ministry, as you can imagine.  I have only run twice, a total of 8 miles.

My first run, on Wednesday, lasted just over an hour, and although fairly sedate in pace, left me feeling a lot better for having done it.  I was past the worst of the headcold, and it hadn't yet got to the annoying cough stage.  My second run was at parkrun on Saturday - in truth I felt I could hardly spare the time, but that made it seem all the more important to go.  And I was enjoying it, until the last half mile or so, when I noticed a niggling pain in my right calf.  It became uncomfortable enough that I had to walk the rest of the way - it didn't hurt when I walked, but did when I tried to run.

So, there we are - I appear to have strained a muscle in my calf, although how I have done so when running very slowly and gently, I can't imagine.  It's not painful.... until I try to do something more vigorous than walking.  Up and down stairs is slightly uncomfortable, but manageable.  The general advice of my running friends is that I'm looking at a couple of weeks' rest from running to allow it to heal, although any activity I can do without pain is OK.  But the best training for running is running, so this is all a bit annoying!

Christmas is just 3 days away, my cold has progressed to the annoying chesty cough stage, and I can't run at the moment.  Life is full of ups and downs, but all we can do is respond to them as they come. After Christmas, we have a little time to relax, so I'm going to take a break from blogging as well.  After all, there won't be any running to report.

So, I hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas, and a happy and healthy New Year.  I'll be back in January - hopefully with better news.