O.k. I’m
going to have a stab at multi-tasking. Let’s see if I can update my blog whilst
watching Wales and Argentina play
rugby.
The slight
strain I picked up during the Greensands Marathon hung around much longer than
I’d expected. I was out of action for
almost three weeks. In the days
following the marathon walking became painful.
Initially, I had a little swelling on the outside of my ankle and some
pain to the top of my foot. After a few
days the pain was all in the front of my shin, and this is where it stayed for
about two weeks. I couldn’t believe this
was happening to me. I don’t get
injured! It would seem that I am human
after all and just as prone to injury as anyone else.
The
Saturday following the marathon my leg was almost feeling better, but I
stupidly did an unnecessary long walk.
As I wasn’t planning a run, I walked into town with Ruth and we both
visited the Fitzwilliam
Museum to see the
exhibition of Han Chinese burial goods, which includes small terracotta
warriors and jade burial armour suits.
We then walked around the shops and back home. By the time we were walking home I was
limping and in a lot of pain again. I
felt really stupid for not resting. Oh
why didn’t I rest? Stupid fool!
I’d been
contemplating buying compression socks since running the Thames
path ultra; my injury prompted me to actually get on and buy some. I also bought myself a Silva trail running
head torch, just in case I was still able to run the Ridgeway ultra this
weekend. I wore my compression socks as
much as possible (almost all the time) and I was amazed at how much difference
they made. The pain in my shin
diminished from the first time I put them on.
I was
feeling better by the following weekend, but decided to rest as much as
possible. I did find myself jogging
about a mile and a half around the Girton fitness trail with three of the Channel
row crew in the pouring rain. The others
bottled out because of the rain. The
wimps! After our drenching we met the others
in a pub to discuss rowing plans for 2013.
We’ve settled on two events, but as we don’t have anything confirmed
just yet I’m not going to count my chickens and discuss them here.
I finally
felt able to try a little run on Wednesday evening last week. This was helped by having the most excruciatingly
painful massage of my life on Tuesday from Mike Power at Cambs Massage. I was expecting pain and pain is what I
got. Fortunately, I left feeling like it
had done me the world of good. So on Wednesday
I finally got to give my legs a little test whilst coaching the Sweaty Betty running
club. Ahh, it felt so good to be running
again. It was hard to believe it had
only been two and a half weeks, it felt like I’d been out of action for much
longer.
I managed
another run last night. This time I went
for an 8 mile run along the river to Bates Bite, leaving after sunset to test
out my new head torch. I have to say I
was impressed. For most of the run I had
the torch on its mid setting, which gave out plenty of light to see the tow
path. Once I reached Bates Bite Lock, I
crossed the river and headed back via Fen Ditton. For the short section through woodland I
turned the head light up to full. I
expected the torch to give out plenty of light to see my way, but I thought I
might need to slow my pace a little, but no, the full beam throws out a massive
amount of light. I’d say it lights the
way ahead for about 20 to 25m, but it also throws out a lot of light to the
side to give great peripheral vision as well, so you don’t feel as if you’re
running in a tunnel. I’m really
impressed. However, the most important
result of last nights run is that I completed it pain free. My legs fell like new. I am gutted that I’m not running the Ridgeway
ultra this weekend, though.
Now I can get back to the rugby. So far it's 9-6 to Wales with about 6 minutes of the first half to go.