Friday 29 March 2013

I'm Stupid, But It Worked Anyway

Today I ran 15 very slow miles.

When I got up this morning, my knee hurt immediately. I have been reading up, seems it's probably down to weak quads, and also running on a road with banked sides, exacerbating the imbalance I already have.
It was also less than a week ago I did my fastest half marathon ever, and a few days since nearly getting back to my 10k PB. I have found some exercises and will be doing them diligently.
However, I'm working all weekend, so no time for a long run, so it had to be today. My legs kept saying 'Oh hell, no!' even though I rested yesterday.

What made it work was to keep my knee happy, I had to run slow. I started out at 10:30, and although it did creep up and get slower, until I ran out of drink, I was quite comfortable. Tired, but OK, and running on tired legs is something I'm going to have to get used to.

I had a gel at 7.5 miles (the bit where I turned round) a High-5 one, which didn't make me ill, but did taste a bit crap. It was snowing when I left, the whole run was on trail/gravel, and some patches of snow, but as I went towards Peterhead (and the sea) the sun came out and I was too hot.
I ran out of drink at 11 miles, and as I headed back into the bad weather, I wished it was possible for my feet to suck up water through osmosis, as I ran through puddles. The last two miles were hideous. I went from 10:57 average miles to 11:05, but on the bright side, I did 15 miles a few weeks ago at 11:18, so 13 secs off each mile on a sore knee isn't so bad.

But I am disappointed with the site I used to plot the run (Bike Hike Run) as it showed 7.5 miles far closer than it was. According to their map, I only had to go to a bridge in the village of Inverugie, but that was only 7.1 miles, so I had to run on nearly half a mile, almost to the main road. I could see Peterhead Asda ahead of me. I wasn't mentally prepared to go that far. I wanted to cry.

However, I really wanted to walk in the last couple of miles, and battled hard not to. When it came to the last mile I could see my house in the distance, and my bathroom window, and I knew I would be shortly in my bath up to my chin in water, with a big drink, and that helped.

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