You win some, you lose some. Today’s run was a disappointment.
I did at least do 16 miles though at least 3 of them were walked. I’m still not quite sure what went wrong.
The day didn’t start well. The weather was awful again. Cold and cheerless. It rained all morning. I hung around, listless, hoping it would stop. It persisted. I stepped outside briefly once or twice. It wasn’t even cosy, ploppy English rain but horrible screwdriver rain straight from the Arctic. For a fleeting moment I was tempted to think: why bother? But the thought never made it through the safety net.
I left eventually at about 1 o’clock and got into my stride surprisingly quickly. Within a half mile I was happy again, and this continued for 7 or 8 miles. The rain began to ease off and I was on time schedule (11 minutes per mile). Then I hit a couple of hills which I wasn’t expecting. I’d done this route before but in the other direction, and I don’t remember them being so steep and so long. It was like a punch in the guts. I began to slow and tire, and combined with the reawakening of my toe blisters it all began to go wrong.
Since last Sunday I’ve been suffering like mad from blisters on the second toes of both feet. They didn’t bother me too much during the shorter runs in midweek, and I thought they were healing, but they returned with a vengeance today. Why? 3 reasons I think: the longer distance, the rain and my shoes.
The distance is non-negotiable and the rain is beyond my control. But the shoes I can do something about. Today I wore the Asics Nimbus IIIs that I had blister trouble with before. I’m annoyed with them. They are crap. There’s a painful seam on the side of my left foot, and I think the toebox is slightly constricted. There’s enough spare room beyond my toes but there’s insufficient width and it bunches my toes. I think I need to look again for my perfect shoes while I still have time before the big day.
After the halfway point today I felt better for a while – knowing I was heading home. But it didn’t last long. The sky darkened and the rain began again. This stretch of countryside – between Cromhall and Wickwar – is desolate and empty at the best of times, but the damp and gloom gave it an extra desultory twist, and I struggled to keep my spirits up. As I got to Wickwar I had a gel, expecting this to keep me motoring but while the spirit was still willing the toe flesh was weak, and from then on I was hobble-walking as much as I was running.
With well over 2 miles still to go I realised I was on a loser here and apart from a couple of short spells of painful jogging, I pretty much walked the rest of the way as the rain continued to fall. Constantly jumping over puddles in the rutted track, or having to tip-toe through the larger ones, did not help my toes one bit.
I was depressed when I got home, and it took me a couple of hours to rationalise the thing and to cheer up. Whichever way I look at today it won’t be anything other than a bad experience. But I decided there was no point in dwelling on the disappointment. Much better to see what went wrong and fix it.
I don’t much care that today’s run was bad – it happens. What does worry me is that this might happen on April 14th. I have absolutely no interest in running for 10 miles then walking the rest, and taking 7 hours. If I can’t run most of it I won’t feel as if I’ve succeeded.
And the verdict on Friday’s sports massage? It might seem at first sight that it hadn’t done me much good but the problems I had today were unrelated. I came home with aching quads and thighs, but my lower legs and calf muscles felt fine. The problems with my upper legs were probably caused indirectly by the blisters as they forced me to run differently.
As for now, I might take an extra rest day and see if I can get rid of these damn wounds to my feet. Until they’re gone, and (I suspect) until I get some new shoes, long runs are going to be very difficult.
