June, so full of promise

[Charliecat5]

You know that ‘listening to your body thing’… yes that.

I set out last night with a specific route in mind.  I wanted to run through the ‘valley of death’ as it has been months since I last did so.

Trouble was, by the time I reached the top of the Kingston Ridge my left shin was in agony.  At this point what I should have done is turned around and hobbled back home to rest it up.  What I actually did was continue with the planned route.  The next section was downhill which eased the pressure, but running along the valley bottom was extremely painful.  My usual philosophy of ‘running it off’ just wasn’t playing the game.

At the bottom of Castle Hill Nature reserve I sat down, stripped off my shoe and spent ten minutes feeling sorry for myself. But this wasn’t going to get me home… so the shoe went back on and I headed up the hill, over the top and back home.  The pressure did ease a little and by dropping my pace the last 3.5 miles were sort of ok.  All in all, 7.5 miles of painful running.

Back home I did a little research and discovered that my Brooks trail shoes have a life of about 300 miles (which is pretty poor).  I have done over 500 miles in them now, so wonder if this is the cause of my woes.  Anyway, I’ve ordered a new pair.  I keep you informed.