9 weeks, 3 training runs and a foolhardy approach to pain

I planned to start this week with a 7.5 mile run on Tuesday morning and was peacefully meandering along just after 5am and didn’t notice a branch/log that was on the pavement which I then tripped over. Falling in woods is one thing, soft ground and branches don’t tend to hurt, this was something else entirely. My hand was bruised and bleeding as well as my right leg stinging and refusing to bend the way I needed it to! I was about 2 miles away from my flat when this happened and instead of turning round with my tail between my legs and hobbling home, I ground my teeth and gingerly finished the other 5.5 miles.

I didn’t feel remotely like running again until Friday lunchtime. I decided to try a steady lap of the 5.4 mile route. There was a pleasant element to this in that while my fall had damaged my knee and palm, it had also killed off my running shoes so my new ones had arrived. My pace wasn’t anything special but I got round with a reasonably consistent gait. I had put a wound dressing on my knee as the plasters in my first aid kit were too small and although the rubbing of my Capri leggings against it wasn’t ideal, I managed to shut out the pain by maintaining a focus throughout the run. One of my favourite running quotes helped for parts of it

Based on Friday I think the more accurate interpretation for how my effort went would be mediocre results are achieved by pain and eventually you finish which makes the pain subside!

One positive I did take from this though was that I remembered how good I was at running badly. This may seem like a dodgy inference to make but it is positive to be able to persevere and force my way through.

I headed out this morning without any protection on my knee and didn’t aim for a particular distance or duration to run for. I had decided the main thing was to still manage to fit in a long training run this week. I did my familiar lap of 7.5 miles which was a lot easier than either of my other outings this week. I then had a pint of squash and 2 cereal bars before heading out for another loop of the 7.5 mile route. Part way through this I decided I would do one more lap afterwards. This was a bit tougher and my legs cramped up a bit. After another couple of cereal bars and another pint of squash I headed back out to finish it off. I quite like knowing on lap 3 that if you’ve managed the route twice then the 3rd time won’t have anything untoward to throw at you.

I am pleased overall to have got in 3 runs considering how much difficulty I had moving around for large parts of this week. Hopefully this will scab over and heal in the next few days.