Making Reasonable Progress

Does this remind you of your school report? Whilst you may have excelled in maths and flunked in history; in geography the teacher simply wrote “making reasonable progress”.

Two months ago, I entered a Parkrun in Poland. We did not have a car as Wroclaw has a wonderful tram system. I had cleverly plotted a route to the start of the run using the local transport app. And as a runner of a certain age, I could claim a free journey.

I was at the tram stop sharp at 8am. There was a message on the electronic board, unsurprisingly in Polish, which I did not understand. So I waited.

And waited in vain for my tram to arrive. It didn’t.

Time was ticking, I needed a Plan B. Maybe I could run to the Parkrun. But I would need a PB to get there (exhausted) in time.

Cleverly again, I plotted a new route from a stop 3 minutes away. Instinct and adrenal took over. I had time to walk, but I decided to sprint. I was all kitted up in my running shoes, why wouldn’t I? Well, because it was 0°C and I had not warmed up.

I didn’t feel it right away.

I landed at the start of the Parkrun in time. I was wearing my Shepshed Running Club shirt, and was disappointed that nobody said “hello, welcome to Poland”. But I did squeeze onto the front row of the photo for their Facebook page.

As soon as we set off, my hamstring complained. It felt tight. Not that this would suggest I should slow down, of course. So I didn’t, and recorded a respectable time. But I was definitely injured.

A week later, I ran the 2-lap Parkrun near Bradford with my daughter-in-law. I hobbled to the start, and after the first lap my leg was hurting in all sorts of weird places. I should have stopped there, but of course I carried on.

The following weekend, yes you got it, I did another Parkrun, virtually running on one leg.

In the ensuring weeks, I became more sensible. I rested, I tested, I had the massages, and I saw the physio at the university elite sports unit. Of course I’m not an elite. I run a 26-minute park run and endure an annual half marathon. I never had an A+ on my athletics school reports.

Yesterday, 2 months after the foolish tram dash, I carefully eased round 4km at a very modest pace, without stopping.

Reasonable progress, David.

I’m wasn’t thrilled. I didn’t have a celebratory drink, and there will be no big splash on social media. I could have gone faster, I could have got further. And I could have re-injured my hamstring – again.

There are plenty of nice people encouraging us to push ourselves to the limit, stretch out of our comfort zone, set ourselves audacious goals. There are situations where I would advise strongly against such madness!

It’s great to aim high and take risks. The secret is knowing when and where to stretch, having prepared and warmed up properly of course.

And there are times when steady progress, grinding through, persevering, taking care, and doing nothing particularly exciting or adventurous is absolutely the right thing to do.