I am still recovering from plantar fasciitis, a strain on my right heel brought about because my determination to run has been greater than my willingness to listen to my body.

I have come to understand there is something that is more of a challenge than getting fit – it’s how to be happy when you can’t.  

Trying to recover from plantar fasciitis

When I realised my plantar fasciitis was brought about by morning spurts around the park, I didn’t run for two months (I swam instead) in the hope that rest would get me better. This has worked to some extent but not completely.

So now I’m trying a different tack.  I’m doing exercises to help my heel every day and trying to ease myself back into running kilometre by gentle kilometre.

And doesn’t it feel good? Doesn’t it feel great to be out in my running shoes again? To be getting fitter rather than slobbier? To be toning-up rather than filling-out? To be moving in the direction of a solid, firm torso rather than a wobbly blob blancmanged at the end of the sofa?

Getting fit is easy – it’s resting that’s hard

And that is my point:  getting fit is the easy bit. All it requires is a bit of will-power. If we decide that is what we want to do, most of us can do it.

But my aspirations are deeper. I want to learn to be as happy when I am recovering from a running injury as I am when I am getting fitter.

I want to embrace the whole of life and life involves being tired, being ill, being old and being injured.

How to be happy when you are becoming a wobbly blob

Even if I were to run a marathon, what would I do when I had done it?  No one can’t get fitter indefinitely. The time has to come when I am becoming less strong and becoming what I (in my fear) perceive as a wobbly blob.

My challenge is this – to be happy when I’m moving in that direction too. Unless I can crack that,  I’m only living half a life – and the easy half at that.