After my abysmal failure to complete the amusingly titled Run With No Witty Name a couple of weeks back, there's been the small matter of October's Marathon A Month Madness hanging over me. I'm currently up to a Marathon (or Ultra) every month since Oct 2019. But having not got any decent miles in since the Andover Trail Marathon (See here for my exciting race report), due to the issues with my Right Foot that I've been banging on about ever since, it was starting to look like that little run might be coming to a crashing end, right about now.
Things have been starting to feel a bit better on the foot front though and whilst I'm nowhere back to full fitness, I have managed a couple of short evening runs this week and I did manage a fairly successful 13 miles last Sunday with no serious after effects. As such, as the week went on I started to think that maybe all's not doomed after all. If I was going to squeeze in Octobers Marathon effort it was going to have to be this weekend though, as I'm signed up for a bit of Audax fun next weekend, and it was going to have to be a self curated effort. Looking around the local area for races this weekend showed a bit of a blank. Or more precisely, there was a few races going on, but nothing that appealed enough for me to consider forking out the entry fee just on the off chance that I'd be fit enough to run! Typically, Friday my foot felt the worst it's been for a couple of weeks, probably not helped by cycling home from work with my bike stuck in a massive gear after snapping a gear cable on the way home, which took some real leg effort getting up the hills I can tell you. Never one to shy away from a challenge though, I packed up the van with my running kit Friday evening, telling "The Emma" I'd either be home early the next morning, or late afternoon, depending on how my foot felt in the morning, and set off for a night out ready for an early start in the morning. Saturday dawned dry and cool, possibly perfect running weather and having had a good nights sleep my foot felt pretty good, or as good as it's likely to get when your 49 years old and spend half your time trying to wear yourself out! In for a penny, in for a pound then (or whatever the saying is) lets see what we've got!
The Oxdrove Way's one that I've done a few times now, but it's a nice little route, being nearly all off road, with plenty of varied terrain, to keep you occupied, without being stupidly hilly or technical. And this time of year's probably the best time to run it, before it get's too muddy and wet underfoot. It's certainly ideal for todays outing too, with a couple of shortcuts available to get back to the van if need be, just in case things don't go quite to plan. Let's not plan to fail though!
On the road before 08:00 there was still plenty of wildlife around to occupy me for the first few miles, with 3 or 4 small groups of Deer watching me pass from the safety of the fields to the side of the track, a couple of Kites circling overhead and the Blackbirds shouting their warnings that I was on my way, to their mates hidden in the hedgerows. My foot was feeling pretty good too, as were my legs, which having now got a little bit of running back in them didn't feel any where near as stiff and unwilling as they did a couple of week's back when I'd been fully off the running. It's surprising the difference just getting those few miles in has made, but I'd guess that some of it's mental too and there's no doubt that now I know that things are on the mend I'm feeling a lot more confidant than I was a couple of weeks ago. In fact, by the time I even thought about looking at my watch to see how I was getting on, I was at the 10 mile mark. That's got to be a good sign, 10 miles and not even thought about it, result!
Onwards and upwards then, and with the miles fairly flying by things were certainly looking better than they did on my last outing. Keeping it simple and breaking it down in to small chunks is the key to any endurance event. A chocolate bar at 13 miles, a sandwich at 18 miles, I know that there's a big old hill at 21 miles, I'll give myself a treat and walk some of that. Little chunks and attainable targets help make it achievable and seemed to be working today.
An overgrown stretch of path at 20 odd miles slowed me down a bit and caused a few shoe lace issues. wading through the stingers and low growing brambles not only leaves your legs covered in nettle rash, but the brambles seem to be really good at grabbing your shoe laces too, necessitating regular annoying stops to keep retying them. I suppose the answers double knots, but then you can't get the buggers undone at the end either! Real first world problems eh, there's millions of people in the world who would be glad of a pair of shoes and I'm moaning that my laces won't stay done up!
With 24 miles done and heading back towards the van I started taking notice of the miles still to cover. This route measures as 27 miles on the mapping software but the mileage on my GPS didn't seem to reflect that. In fact I was starting to wonder if I was going to cover enough miles!
It didn't take long for the mileage conundrum to confirm itself, as the van hove back into view with only 25 miles shown on the GPS and you know what that means? Well, it means one of 2 things, either I stop short and assume that the GPs is wrong and the route calculations right, or I'm going to have to run straight past the van to make up the miles. If the GPS doesn't show it, then it didn't happen as far as I'm concerned, so straight past the van it was. And I'll tell you something, that's about the most demoralising thing I know. So close, yet still so far! An extra mile's not going to kill me, no matter how hard it feels, and todays no exception. At least now I can sleep safe in the knowledge that I've covered the required mileage and completed another Marathon A Month challenge.
It's not fast, it's nothing special and it's certainly not pretty. But, it is a step back towards full fitness and it is another 26 mile run in the book! My foot's not feeling too bad either, obviously tomorrow will be a better indication of how things are, once it's had a chance to stiffen up, but as it stands at the minute, hopefully things are looking up!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|