Late last year Chris and I decided to plan an adventure for September 2026. Since my legs are holding up – or at least not flaring up when I run – we’ve put together a training plan to build our endurance up to moving 30km a day carrying full backpack/tent etc.

Our planned route should take about two and a half weeks, but I’m keeping the specifics under wraps for now.

I don’t want to overpromise only to be sidelined by tripping over a log – or knowing my luck over our very skittish cat.

We are just getting started again with our current long run sitting at 13km. A long way for some of course but still short in Ultra training terms. Over the next months we will be building that mileage up alongside other short runs, dragging our willing bodies to the gym, cycling and hiking. I’m craving those bigger miles, a chance for a long-run mini adventure, exploring hilly trails on foot, finding new cafes and rewarding ourselves with a tasty hit of latte and cake.

I’m hesitant to say my gluteal tendinopathy is resolved but there has been significant improvement. I walk and run pain-free but I still experience some soreness if I’ve done too much sitting and with certain gym exercises.

My latest physio session was a total eye-opener. She identified some key areas for me to strengthen – specifically my psoas (yes, I had to Google it too!}. We also did a deep-dive running analysis; we’d touched on it before, but this was the full, ‘official version’.

She asked me to run slightly faster than my normal comfy pace. After videoing me from every conceivable angle, we sat down together to watch the footage. She paused the video and drew a line on the screen from my hip to the floor to show me two issues: I was overstriding; landing with my leading foot way out in front of me as well as striking hard with the heel of my foot. These habits don’t just increase injury risk but also slow you down as you are essentially braking with every step.

She got me to run again and put a metronome on paced at 180bpm. She told me to run to the beat. This is apparently the optimal cadence. My natural one is more like 160. I wasn’t allowed to speed up the treadmill to reach this cadence. Instead I needed to turn my legs over faster to achieve this. She took more videos and once again we regrouped to watch them back. I was surprised that with only 5 minutes of advice my landing foot was now directly under my hip (as it should be). I was now landing flat on my foot rather than on my heel.

She asked me to resume running and this time asked me to imagine I was bounding through long grass. The goal was to fix my ‘flight’ – or lack there of. Normally I’m a shuffler; my feet barely leave the ground, making it a miracle I generate any forward momentum.

Imagining the grass I felt like I was skipping with exaggerated high knees. Whilst this is how it’s felt, the reality was more modest: I was finally adding a little lift to my stride.

Videos were taken and we sat down to look them over. It was amazing. As well as the added flight, I now had a clean toe-landing and improved rear foot kick.

Literally only 10 minutes training and my form was improved immensely.

She noticed I still looked a bit stiff, but reassured me its natural since the new form takes time to stick. and that this was natural. For the next 5 weeks, I’m to do some of my running to a metronome and visualise that long grass. I’ll then head back for part 2 – tackling my narrow gait. But one thing at a time.

In other news I spent a lovely day yesterday with a friend. We went to the Portico Library in Manchester to do a relaxing yoga session with a new teacher. Today I had my usual Thursday yoga lesson, so I’m feeling very relaxed and stretched now.

Last week hubs and I went to see ‘to kill a mockingbird’ at the Lowry. It was utterly superb and made me want to read the book. I thought this t-shirt was appropriate for a play about rebellion as an imperative against hatred and inequalities. It also reflects how I’m feeling about the world right now when I see the news (🙏).

Tonight hubs and I are off to see my brother play in his band. Looking forward to some good music and a few beers.

Have a great weekend everyone.