When I first met Gareth earlier this year, he was more than a little bit broken (he won’t mind me saying that). He was already a talented runner despite having many issues affecting his gait and biomechanics, and surprising that he is only in his second year of running. He has been working hard on strengthening his weaker areas and training smartly (less moderate (grey zone) work, more easy runs, good quality high intensity effort and resting when he has flare ups, although the latter is not always easy to convince him to do.
He is doing incredibly well, although still has a lot of work to do, to strengthen, mobilise, and engage the key areas to help with his running mechanics and reduce his injury risk. His results speak for themselves; he is hard working and dedicated to hitting some new running goals. Hard work and being sensible works wonders…. so, time to be sensible now and rest that injury!
‘ Tough times at Great Bristol Run on Sunday. Pain etched on my face from start to finish. Foolish to run at all after flare up of (tibialis anterior) tendonitis following 5K race last week (in 17:05 PB!). Nagging worry it was a stress fracture, but that wasn’t enough to stop me participating in penultimate #StAlbansStriders club champs race… even though earlier achilles/foot injury had seen me miss too many races to compete for the title. Idiot. Held together by @rocktape, and with my shin on fire from the start, I dug deep, struggling round to finish 91st in PB time of 1:21:59. Despite 45 second PB I was gutted… because I know there’s a sub 80 minute half marathon in me. But I realise now that wasn’t in the shape to run it on Sunday. Reminded myself that this is only my second year of running, and I’ve significantly improved my PB for every distance in 2019. All apart from the marathon, with my only crack at that in Valencia just over 2 months away. Spent Monday morning in hospital where a doctor diagnosed my tendonitis and said I was ‘crazy’. He was right. But thanks to running I’m perhaps a little less so. #runnersofinstagram#running#mentalhealthawareness @ Bristol, United Kingdom ‘
