Aches and pains

This wouldn't be a proper running blog if I didn't spend some time complaining about my aches and pains. But I think I have some justification - I nearly didn't go out for my run this morning because of a really quite painful stiffness in my right shoulder. I'm almost certain that this was brought on by sleeping in a funny position, which in turn was brought on by some other twinge in my upper left back, which (I'm pretty sure) came about by lifting heavy weights. Two weights in particular. One of them is aged four and a half, and the other one turned seventeen months yesterday, and they both like being lifted up a good deal. Perhaps I should try some yoga (which my mother used to swear by for her back problems) or Pilates or even some more organized weight training. Bench-pressing the children is quite fun. For them, anyway.

As I set out I noticed a slight ache on the inside of my right heel, which felt rather as if I'd banged it into something. I worried about this for a little bit - what does plantar fasciitis feel like? Have I really got a classic running injury only three and a half weeks since I restarted? - before remembering that I actually had banged it into something in my rush to prepare dinner for nine people after the England match yesterday. So let's hope that's all it is.

The other slight concern is that my calf muscles really, really don't like the first mile of my runs. I stretch, and I warm up with a brisk walk first, but they're still not at all happy for the first ten minutes or so. After that they settle down and stop complaining, but I do wonder if I'm asking too much of them too soon, or I should do a bit more warming up, or something. Hmm.

So, all in all it was a bit of a struggle on quite a short run this morning. It wasn't helped by the fact that, in my hurry to set out, I had selected a top which wasn't actually a running top at all, but (I realised soon after leaving the house) had fitted me quite snugly about eight years ago, and was now rather accentuating the bulges. I shall dress more carefully next time.