Karen writes: Grumbles and Aches

I ran over 60 km last week.  That just doesn't happen with me, well it did last week obviously, but I am normally strict about limiting my running to 3 days a week or non-consecutive days.  You see I have finally learned that to get safely to the finish line of a marathon I don't need more than a regular weekly total of 40 to 50km.  

Part of last week's tally was the 25km on Sunday. It was a lovely overcast and sometimes rainy morning and spring was clearly on the way, the yellow ring around the puddle in the picture isn't pollution, it's bright yellow pollen.  It always feels really good to tick off the 'long' runs before a marathon, just to remind myself I can do them. The mistake I made was to not run shorter in the week leading up to that long run. The price of extra mileage is complaining muscles and tendons, and with that comes a dose of paranoia...is that pain in my knee just a pain which will subside, will the sore Achilles settle or is it the 'end' of my short running career?

Last night I took it easy, just a gentle 6km, it mostly felt pretty good, the breathing was relaxed, the legs worked well, but bits were hurting again and as I pottered along by the sea I got back to worrying again. Then I thought back to when we started all this, didn't I go to bed at night with anti-flam on my Achilles tendons and strapping on to keep my feet at a right angle? Didn't I need to take pain relief before every run and apply ice afterwards to so many aches that I didn't have enough icebags to put one bag on each sore bit and had to cycle the bags from one bit to another? Didn't I worry that I wasn't even going to get to the startline of my first marathon?  And last year at this time, wasn't I planning on walking the 42km Sunshine coast event? These niggles and aches are NOTHING like they used to be!

Running with Kate tonight, a nice 20km will do us both good, or we might even end up walking if we feel like it. Kate has the Dunedin marathon in...oh dear...3 weeks, and I'm only 6 weeks out from Spain.

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