Hmm. Yet another up and down week of running....I really thought I'd moved on past bad runs.
After stacking runs on Tues/Wed last week I was struggling, but after a solid rest I had a lovely little easy run on Friday morning-such a glorious run that I floated through Friday, delighted with how good I felt and how 20 minutes seems so easy now that I'm building up to 40/50 minute runs.
On Saturday we had Melbourne/Hanmer Christmas, and I played with the kiddly winks on the floor, crawling and mucking around...should know better. My dicky knee hates that. I also didn't walk the dog, so come Sunday morning I really had no option but to take him on my long run, which I hate to do because he's just suck a handful on the long run.
It turned out ok though, because my long run lasted all of fifteen minutes. My left (dicky) knee felt all blobby and creaky, my right ankle felt bruised (I'm having some kind of shoe related problem there, possibly i'm lacing too tightly) and I just had nothing.
Logic kicked in. I've been training pretty hard, covering a lot more ground, it's the silly season, and I'm kinda exhausted. Something has to give, go home and take a rest day.
On Sunday I took what was really a pretty short walk. Maybe three kilometres, and by kilometre two my knee was going skreeek, skreek, skreek with each step. The only word in my mind was, SHIT.
So I took two whole rest days. Walked the first morning (pretty damn slow too, my energy levels are nuked), and opted for a lie in the second day. This morning I headed out for a half hour easy.
Overall it didn't go too badly, I stopped to walk a little a few times but I have to not worry about that, and while I had discomfort, I had no actual pain. I managed a very slow four kilometres during the half hour.
My panic now is, what if I could only run those distances because I thought I could? If one bad run has shaken me this badly, what would the result of a DNF (or a DNS?) be? Surely training will always have highs and lows. I was peaking on a high, maybe these lows are the price of those highs? Running is a heart breaking sport, because every time I get where I want to be something goes wrong, so I'm always building back to where I was, but to be fair, the point of reference is constantly getting better, and I'm continuing to run smarter and better. I also probably need to remember that as I'm now running 7:30 ks on my best days, I'm not exactly training for the Olympics.
Hmm. Sunday I have an epic run planned, (it's supposed to be an hour long) and I've been sweating it for weeks. I'm going to be in Bairnsdale, my home town, and there's a beautiful trail there that I've walked many times. I've been dreaming of running this trail since...hmm, probably since about October. Those kinds of running fantasies where you're springing along, ponytail bouncing, gazelle-like through dappled light and shade. And now instead of thinking how gorgeous it might be, how exciting to rediscover forgotten turf, I'm thinking about how i'm going to make an hour. *shakes head* Maybe this run needs a special mantra, a customised vibe. I want it to be about joy-it'll be Boxing day, too, and the weather is supposed to be sublime. Guess I'll just have to find a mid-point between tenacity and joy.
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