Okay, so Saturday’s run might not have been as good as it seemed. The small pain felt in my right calf at about 2.5 miles didn’t go away, grew a bit on a cold Saturday night and resulted in the sacked off Sunday run. Much kneading, anointment with unctuous remedies and rest seemed to have done the trick, so today I promised myself i’d get back on the wagon.
To be greeted by a thermometer that didn’t rise above freezing. Nice. Still, marathon will wait for no man, least of all me, and i’d rather run through the winter than a hot summer, to be fair, so I shouldn’t grumble. Even if I can hear ligaments and muscles snap with every pace. I think it’s called character building. If only my character wasn’t quite happy to be mildly moist through a winter with an occasional cold snap. I mean, I wouldn’t mind, but I can’t even get a reading of how much snow fell since the rain gauge is part full of frozen liquid, resulting in a guess at best until it thaws for how much lies therein.
Please warm up.
I guess the best I can hope is that i’ll be quite quick when it does warm up and I can lose some clothing. Tonight I decided in the spirit of keeping things warm for my 3 miles, i’d wear a long sleeve tee, fleece, tights, mountain trousers on top and new, thus super fluffy and warm, socks. And by crikey, if by a mile in, I had warm hands as well as feet I could feel (a rarity after a cold day on site). What a pleasant sensation.
So, with a mile and a haf of seafront done, I got quite happy in maintaining close to the pace I wanted (averaged 8.16, was aiming for 8.30. Hopefully i’ll do better tomorrow for accuracy, considering i’ll be aiming for 8.12 then.), then turned around and headed the way i’d come. And noticed that my right leg felt ok-ish (probably as good as it’ll feel until April, I guess), while my left lower leg (the whole ankle bit to the lower shin, really) felt dreadful. Really hammered and tired. Pooh.
Still, a good stretch and a drive home with the heater on and it felt ok, so maybe things will improve when the weather warms and I start to feel happier about life all round. It’s no better for anyone else, after all.
Right, tomorrow i’ll update on whether the car thermometer drops below the -9 I saw on the 29th. With it being -8 as I pulled in earlier, I reckon it might. And happiness returned to the cupboard with the purchase of 12 more mince pies. Having had two today, I reckon i’ll need them.
Nice.
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