Road To Recovery: I'm a runner who currently can't run - how low impact exercise is helping me feel fitter than ever

Welcome back to Road To Recovery, Senior Health Editor Ally Head’s fortnightly column where she documents her injury progress, training diary, and chances of completing the 2025 London Marathon. This week, she’s reflecting on the joys of low impact exercise and finding calm amongst the chaos.

If you’ve called me at any point this year between the hours of 7.30 and 8.30 am, chances are, I’d have been on the stationary bike, thighs burning and headphones firmly in as I spin my way through hours (and hours… and hours) of low impact cardio.

Following the advice of my run coach and physiotherapist, despite being just 49 days out from the London Marathon, I’m on a strict high-impact ban - including running, HIIT workouts, and jumping.

Don’t get me wrong - I love trying different workouts. As a Health Editor who gets to try different sweat sessions as part of my job, I kind of have to. I’d be in the wrong profession if I didn’t embrace trying new forms of movement.

The bike, though, is my arch nemesis. Many of my most vivid childhood memories involve huffing and puffing my way up hills after my Dad, who always seemed to enjoy whiling away the hours on two wheels as much as two feet. I, on the other hand, have never understood why you’d voluntarily choose to suffer through the indignity of such a sore arse if you could experience the joys of nature on foot. In my world, there’s nothing quite as meditative as the steady strum of feet to floor.

I don’t think it helps that I’m not a very good cyclist - something I’m sure many of you who have tried a workout, felt a bit useless at, and never returned to, can relate to. Alongside the underlying fear of not being up to scratch, I’ve always felt confounded by the fact that it causes such a specific type of muscle burn - one that I’m just not very good at pushing through, which is truly a humbling experience for a stubborn endurance runner who has such a high pain threshold, she didn’t realise her foot was broken for two weeks in December.

It’s not all negative, though. When I found out I’d seriously injured myself last year, I knew I had no choice but to embrace low impact sessions and reframe my approach to exercise for the next few months. Out went speedwork, BodyGlide, short shorts and carbon plates, and in, Pilates socks, hours on the bike watching Gossip Girl, and zen-inducing yoga classes at my friend Jaimes’ new studio, Basic Space, in Camberwell.

No-one’s more surprised at how much I’ve embraced low impact life than me. Running is a part of my personality, something I look forward to each and every day, and a habit that’s not only shaped my career trajectory, but who I am, too.

But, determined to make lemonade from lemons, I grabbed 2025 by the horns and threw myself fully into my new normal. Rather than getting frustrated at what I couldn’t do, I saw it as a golden opportunity - a chance to do all the many other workouts I simply don’t have time for when marathon training or chipping away at personal bests. Sure, the bike and I may still have a long way to go before we can call ourselves friends, but I’ve learnt a lot throughout this period.

Namely, that life really is what you make of it. I feel happy, relaxed, and hopeful for the future, not to mention proud that I’ve discovered new forms of movement that are nurturing my body when it needs exactly that to heal. But most of all, I feel grateful - grateful at what my body is able to do, rather than frustrated at what it can’t.

This could have been a bleak few months and a downwards spiral into fitness lost - instead, it’s been a chance to remind myself of the joy of any kind of movement. As one of my favourite poets Donna Ashworth said, “When bad things are happening in the world, it’s common to feel helpless. But remember, everything exists in energy. Your kindness, your care, your hope, has weight. Send it out.”

So, next time you catch yourself talking your way out of trying something new, thinking you won’t be good enough or assuming you won’t enjoy an activity, give it a second thought. There’s so much power - not to mention joy - to be found in having hope.

To read part one of Ally's Road To Recovery column, where she explains her injury, her hopes of running the 2025 London Marathon, and how she's dealing with the setback when her big goal of the year is at risk, click here.