July 2011

[Charliecat5]

A week last Friday I went for a short run, 3 miles round a usual circuit in pretty quick time and it was good. However, I have had a niggling muscle in my back for a few weeks so on the Saturday booked myself in for a deep tissue massage which as always was an out of body experience, but one that did the job.

Following this, and given I had a heavy week at work ahead, plus its bloody hot, I decided to have a break from running for a week and build up for a big one this weekend. This would be helped, I thought, by the fact that I have been abandoned by the rest of the family so have the weekend alone.

Best laid plans eh!

Now work has been busy over the last month; long hours and lots and lots of travel which is starting to take its toll… then on Friday evening I was invited out for tea and a few beers with my oldest and best friend. I got to bed at 1am, drunk and disorderly… but this was fine as I had no need to get up. The alarm wasn’t on and I could sleep until I woke naturally – which in my case is when I had to get up to pee.

Trouble is, when I did wake up it was with a rather large hangover and a thumping headache. The result… well I spent a very decadent day lying in bed reading. Just what the doctor ordered to be honest.

So cometh the big run… last night I was in bed by 10:30 (I know); I had consumed no alcohol (I KNOW) and had set the alarm for 7am (I KNOW!!!!). And at 7am this morning I leapt out of bed with a cunning plan… porridge for breakfast and out of the door by 8am full of carby goodness.

So at 8am, I had my shoes on, shorts on, was loaded with water and ready to go… except… my Garmin had no charge. Does this matter? It shouldn’t do. But I had in mind that I might achieve a PB this morning and so I wanted it… and it’s part of my running ritual. No worries, I can do an hours work while it charges (told you work was busy).

However, an hours work turned into a couple of hours work (as the Garmin took a while to charge), so it was gone 10am before I was back out the door fully charged – this is now a couple of hours post porridge (or 2.5PP as I like to call it) AND, the sun was out.

But I was off and as usual when on a longer run I was really watching my pace to keep it steady for the first couple of miles along the railway, past the stables and up Sweder’s Hill to Blackcap – which I achieved in a reasonable time without stopping. And as usual I then had a little break at the top to admire the fantastic views and to take on some water. At this point, I knew something wasn’t quite right… I was more knackered than normal and also the back of my right heel was starting to rub. But you have to ‘suck it up’ … keep going… keep running the trails… so I adjusted my sock and headed off again.

A couple of miles later, heading down towards Heart Attack Hill I had to stop to re-lace my shoes and again as I struggled to get back up I knew something wasn’t right. But I kept going… up HAH, down towards the A27 and across the other side. This time when I removed my shoe, the small niggle on my right heel had turned into quite a big blister. The problem is that there is no easy way back home from here, so with little choice I went on.

By the time I reached the bottom of the grass track that is the Relentless Bastard, I knew it was over. My blister was giving me real gip now, but also my legs were done in. So after 7 miles I quit and decided to walk home along the A27. First I had to do something about my blister, so I used the plastic wrapper from an energy bar to make a blister plaster and set off. Not being one to enjoy walking along the A27 I was delighted to find a footpath – one which I had never seen before – which looked as though it might run alongside the A27 back to Lewes. Obviously it didn’t. Eventually having taken a small, ahem, detour I arrived home feeling pretty deflated.

It was hot out there but I am not sure why running was so difficult this morning. Clearly the blister didn’t help, but this wasn’t the main reason for a difficult run. I don’t really know what to do... whether to ease back or push harder… probably the latter…