Shanghai Running Magazine Volume 3 | Page 22

My Year Of No Running

By Tori Widdowson
Perhaps a weird title for an article
in a running magazine, but let’s see
where this goes.

to tell me not to start again. Maybe
some day in the future, but not now,
and I decided not for a full 12 months
at least.
In the meantime, I had sought physio
advice to maintain flexibility and
strength in my ankles and calves particularly. I also booked 4 sessions with
a trainer in the gym to get inspiration
and motivation for non-impact resistance work, a must for any woman
over 30 by the way, if you want to
maintain muscle mass (which, simplistically, helps with your metabolism and more obviously strength).

As a weak runner, and someone that
never genuinely enjoyed running
until I did some trail runs, I’ve always found that as soon as I stepped
up any sort of run training I would
see rapid results, and this positive
feedback cycle would help me pop
out again. I was still a fairweather
runner though, and those that have
attended any of the hilly trail runs in
Moganshan would understand that a
pure runner might not have designed
those route profiles : )

6 months into my low-impact year,
I started a fairly regular amount of
swimming, biking and yoga. I found
it hard to experience that proper
out-of-breath feeling, although I was
training more for endurance anyway.
This made me look at other options,
to see where I might build cardio
fitness in addition to my core health
routine. I found something called
MAX Workouts. Not something I’m
selling by the way, just the name of
one of the many 90-days-or-yourmoney-back-type high impact interval
training (HIIT) methods. Seems that
because of my preference for activities that take me outdoors, I have
been missing out on some results-oriented programmes that feed off the
‘latest’ science that suggests cardio
work does not need to be long to
be useful. I use ‘latest’ in inverted
commas because I don’t want to
jump on a bandwagon, just illustrate
how experimenting is important, and
knowledge of how our body systems
respond is always evolving.

A foot injury, probably a small stress
fracture, that occurred when I was
feeling relatively fit took the running
option away in November last year,
and it wasn’t until June, 8 months later, that I felt it would be safe to start
again. Except I didn’t feel good about
it. There were traces of the swelling,
my foot felt different in my shoes,
and some resulting ankle instability
from the enforced rest combined

Picking at random, I found a convenient exercise using the 2 flights of
stairs up to my flat. After this 15-20
minute session, I was sweating and
fighting for breath, and I’d only gone
up half the JinMao Tower. I didn’t feel
as tired as I would after 45 minutes
of slow running, however apparently
you don’t need to kill yourself every
time (note to Strava addicts). I’m
motivated to try this out, and for less

I’ve always enjoyed cross-training,
but as you get older, you think you
know what your body likes and/or
needs, and it’s easy to get in a training rut with ever-diminishing returns.
I don’t have a flat stomach, and I
don’t reach for the stars when it
comes to body beauty, but feeling
strong and having energy generally
require you to put in some work.

22

© Shanghai Running 2014

than the cost of 1 hour with a personal trainer I have instructions for several 3-week blocks of full-on, short,
workouts that will hopefully replicate
the results I used to get from intermittent trail runs.
I believe that an enforced break or
change in your routine helps develop new routines that challenge your
body in a different way. Shorter
work-outs are easier to fit into your
life, and if carried out indoors might
avoid some of those crazy air quality
days we want to avoid. The resulting stronger muscles and lungs WILL
improve your running.
If you don’t want to do it alone, look
at outfits like Body Mind Soul, based
in Pudong, who include some core/
circuit training.
If you do come out to Moganshan for
training, there are lots of stone staircases that you can make use of, allowing for bamboo farmers who will
usually be dragging 100kg of ba