Back to movement
The following year continued in much the same way: in January I was back to Nordic walking, and, for the sake of variety and however unbelievable it may sound, I was once again facing a move to another country: back to my chosen home.
At the end of January, on better days, I tried running again. What helped was discovering a rubber-surfaced running track nearby, and I felt that it put much less strain on my joints. I only wish I had found it earlier. Still, I had only started running a few weeks before the move: I could already do five kilometers steadily, and even five and a half. But that was still not enough; it did not satisfy my need for movement. I needed to be able to exercise more intensely.
Building a new routine
I read a lot online about how, in the second half of life, you need to move away from one-sided training, and the most sensible approach is to vary different sports, with strength training included at least twice a week. So I decided that, however far this was from my world, I would give it a try. Since I would never have set foot in a gym for any amount of money, I bought some home equipment: an adjustable bench and a set of dumbbells to start with.
I began with light weights and found beginner-friendly routines online. There are countless training programs, and countless studies approaching the question from every angle, explaining what to do, why, and how. So I put together my own program and did that three times a week, while planning to run on the remaining two days. I thought this was much better than nothing: at least with two runs a week I could get through this period and, at the same time, follow the scientific recommendations.
The return of pain
Then the hip pain came back, and running stopped again. Fortunately, after the move we ended up in a place where my old love, cycling, became an obvious option again, because the surroundings were practically inviting me to take it up once more. So I did, and alongside strength training, cycling became part of my routine, mainly at weekends.
I also went Nordic walking occasionally, but in the first half of the year the strength training and cycling combination felt sufficient. Forty kilometers on the bike to begin with, and one hour of strength training three times a week, plus half an hour of yoga every morning — that no longer sounds like little. But I still missed running. The daily hour, the movement itself, and the mental side too: the switch-off, the escape from everyday life. Cycling could not give me that, and besides, you could not listen to an audiobook while doing it. You could while Nordic walking, and that was one of its advantages.
The breakthrough
The hip pain kept coming and going, and I could see that this could not go on like this; I needed to find a solution. The first rheumatologist I saw could not do anything with my problem. The second, fortunately, solved it in literally one second: based on my description — in fact, before I had even finished listing the symptoms, he interrupted me, saying okay, he knew what was wrong — he immediately told me to sit up on the treatment table in a riding position, then with a sudden tug on the thoracic area between my shoulder blades he released the nerve entrapment.
For a few days the pain still did not decrease, and I even started to think he did not know what he was doing either, although he had said I should believe him, the pain would go away. And then it really did. Three days later everything felt normal again. It was early August by then, and I felt this was the moment: I started running again. For two weeks I kept to four and a half kilometers, then that became six, then seven, then eight, twice a week. And once again the kilometers started appearing in the file I kept. I was incredibly happy. Eight kilometers — I was already really pleased with that, especially because it was regular. True, the kilometers were not piling up as quickly, since strength training and cycling were also in the mix, but I was a runner again.
Settling back in
Meanwhile, by the end of summer I also had a two-month forced break from strength training, because after starting with 4 kg weights I was already training with 10 kg dumbbells, and my shoulder was not happy about that. It became quite painful, so I had to wait before starting again. Just like running back then. But I decided I would not stop that either now; I would keep it going.
In autumn the weather turned bad, cycling faded into the background, but by then strength training and running had become intense again: I was consistently doing five workouts a week in addition to daily yoga. Thanks to running, I felt that some kind of structure was slowly returning to my life after the upheaval.
What changed
But the most important thing, for me, was that I was back. I was a runner again. One year off. Said like that, it does not sound like the end of the world. But it was still a year without running. That was a lot. I missed it all the way through. I never want that again. But now I can be satisfied with less.
2024: 68 sessions / 462 km
Since 2002: 5670 runs / 59,286 km