18x30-30/31:42 (3 miles)

Taking almost 32 minutes to cover three miles should be an indicator of the manner of this run... it was fucking horrible, not to put too fine a point on it.

The knee, inevitably, is hurting, but in fact it is much less sore than it was even a week ago - I would much rather it was not painful, but I am also pretty convinced that it is healing. Certainly, walking around has not been uncomfortable. But then, running five miles is not a leaisurely stroll around the office.

More surprising is how sore my quads are. The tops of my thighs have not hurt this much after a run for weeks, indeed not since I started the PFit programme. My running buddy C suggested that this might be as much to do with how hot the run on Saturday was, and how the muscles can react oddly to that kind of stress. Still, sore quads are not something I was expecting.

And so I went out anyway, fully expecting to do my intervals (the first time on the road rather than on the bike).

There are two important reminders from today:

1. listen to your body - if you don't feel good enough to run, then you probably aren't. Part of the learning process and the training is in figuring out when you really are too sore to run, and when it's just the accumulated crappiness of not having run. Today was a day when I shouldn't have run.

2. warm up properly - a couple of desultory calf raises and a few stretches are not a warm up. This is much more important than I have been allowing for, and I really do need at least five or ten minutes of light exercise to loosen up the big muscles of my legs, then do some stretching.

There were also some hydration issues today: I hadn't drunk enough water this morning, and the coffee and scone I had a couple of hours before running weren't a desperately good idea either.

So now I feel absolutely hollowed out. My knee is sore, my legs are tired, and I'm ridiculously cold. Overall, a bit of an SWD.

What I am pleased about, however, is that I did keep going. I mean, on the one hand it was damned stupid to try and bully through joint and muscle pain like that since it probably did some more damage, but on the other hand it's a good bit of mental strength training to not stop. Even though I knew it was a horrible, horrible run I still finished the three miles of my revised objective when I knew I wasn't going to be doing my interval training.

I'm glad it's over.

Posted by Dunx at June 9, 2003 11:15 AM