My first post - a bit about my running "career" and why I've been out for a few weeks

I am somewhat of a "reluctant runner".  In fact, it's only relatively recently that I've allowed myself to be called a "runner".  Somehow, for a lot of the time I do not "feel" like a runner - even though when I'm running I kind of look like a runner.

Up until about 5 years ago, I had hardly ran at all.  Then, at about the age of 30 something kind of crept up on me and I decided to give it ago.  I'm not saying I had the sudden urge like Forest Gump; my reason was much more simple than that - I needed to lose a bit of weight.  Before my wedding in 2005 I was of reasonable fitness and weight, but then between 2005 and 2006 I realised that I was putting on weight and decided to try and do something about it....running was the thing I decided to do.

I've hardly got a glowing career, but I completed my first Torbay Half Marathon in 2007, and completed it again in 2008 and 2009.  I then trained for and managed to complete the London Marathon in 2010 and completed the Dartmoor Vale half marathon in 2010 as well.  None of these have been great events in terms of time, but it helped keep the weight off and meant I could have a few beers and a mixed grill at the weekends without it really troubling me.  For the London Marathon, I had a separate blog, with the final entry available here.

Then, in 2011 I was entered into the Torbay Half Marathon again and 2 weeks prior I injured my back.  I'll never know now, but I was on for a PB (my current PB for the half is 1hr 55min) and I'm hoping to get back to that if possible and I still think I've got a 1hr 45min in me.  We'll see.

Since January 2011, I've also been doing some cycling and was up to about 25-30miles fairly comfortably.  There is a thought that although cycling is generally good for you, it may not be great if you have a bad back, so I'll have to continuously review how I'm feeling on the bike if/when I get back on the saddle

For the last few weeks, I've been doing lots of back stretching and also concentrating on my hamstrings which I've been told are very tight.  Tight hamstrings aren't good for a runner because they pull your hips forward, which in turn pulls your back out.

Reluctantly, I'm going to have to re-join the gym and slowly build up the fitness over the next few weeks.  I'll be blogging about how that goes....