Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

The bad bits (as well as the good)

It seems that today the bad running habits I've developed all decided to catch up with me at once. Since taking a couple of weeks off in November with a minor but annoying injury I've been running regularly but poorly - taking several days off then running a long way. For me, "a long way" is anything over about 10km. As a result, when I run the next day or the day after that it's usually excruciatingly painful as all the little aches and pains and bits of damage caused by the long run gang up on me. In particular, this often leads to excruciating pain in my right foot after a couple of kilometres which is sometimes bad enough that I have to stop and sit down feeling miserable for a couple of minutes until the pain abates.

As a result it'll usually be a few days before I run again, so as it's been a while I decide to make that run a long one.. and the cycle begins again as my poorly-conditioned legs try and cope.

A quick scan of my running log (this is unedited, so beware of rude words) reveals this pattern - a few days off, a long run, then lots of comments next to the run after that saying how much it hurt, then time off. Today it was even worse than usual, and as a result I found myself having to walk home from Kingston for the first time ever and feeling pretty miserable about it. This is pretty bad as far as I'm concerned. I enjoy running, it's one of the things I've been able to start doing and do fairly well at more or less from the get-go, and I don't want to be forced to give it up just because of a few bad runs.

While the race I was entered for tomorrow is definitely now out of the question, I've come to the conclusion that apart from lots of ibuprofen and ice what's really needed is a week off to take care of the remaining aches and pains followed by a return to more regular running than I've been doing recently. These will have to be fairly short runs rather than the current "couple of long ones a week" regime, which means I'm going to have to be a bit more disciplined and not run ten miles instead of four just because I feel okay. With any luck, a few weeks of this will get me back into the condition I was in a couple of months back (which was by no means great, but was certainly adequate) and give me something to build on. While I can still be described as a beginner to the sport, it's provided me with enough fun over the last few months that I'm happy to put the effort in to get it right.

In more cheerful and completely unrelated news, I have just noticed that the BBC have quietly slipped The Box Of Delights out on DVD. Hurrah! About time too, say I.

Posted by mpk at January 15, 2005 4:15 PM | TrackBack