03SEP12
Actually looking forward to today. I’m determined to make amends for missing yesterday and to keep to the programme a bit better. It’s another 3 miles at the ‘comfortable’ pace and as I set off I feel another niggle. I’m starting to wonder if there is a divine being that insists on some kind of annoyance being on duty at all times and today is the turn of my left knee. It just feels weak and I’m not sure if its the lack of strength in my left leg compared to the right causing this or an actual problem with the knee joint. I persevere and after about 5 or 6 minutes the knee seems to settle. The next ten minutes up to the half way point fly by and I spend the second half actually enjoying the run. Only slightly mind- lets not get carried away! I take the time to think about what my body is telling me. My legs are just a pair of mismatched idiots so I wonder if there is something else I can do to get them balanced out a bit more. I’m certainly considering a support for my left knee to give it a hand. I can tell my heart rate is quite high but my breathing is very much under control. I look like a sweaty horrible mess though!! All in all a successful run and I even manage to chuck a few weights around afterwards. Accompanied by The Rolling Stones.
05SEP12
I am looking forward to today’s run, full of confidence from Monday. My only concern is my knee which feels a bit weak still but I pull on a knee support and it feels better straight away. I check the programme stuck on the fridge door and notice I’ve got the 3 miler down as being at goal pace. Don’t remember putting that on so soon! I guess I am a quarter of the way through so I need to start making progress sooner rather than later so lets give it a go.
The gym is packed. To be honest I suppose it has been for a while; must be the feel-good factor from the Olympics paying off. I imagine that most of these will be gone in a month or so, just like how the New Year Resolutionists start thinning out in February. I shouldn’t be so cynical, at least they’re giving it a go.
The knee is okay in the 5 minute warm up (I should point out I have been doing this before every run as well as a cool down after) and I set off for 27 minutes at 10.7kph. The knee feels odd for a couple of minutes but settles down and I get into a rythm. Up to now, instead of just watching the timer tick over, I’ve been breaking the time into chunks so 2.5 minutes is 1/12th and 3 minutes is 1/10th and so on which helps me think and pass the time. I realise that this won’t work at this speed so I pass a few more minutes very easily recalculating the breakdown of the time. By about half way I’m a soggy mess already but comfortable. My breathing is a little heavier than on Monday but this is to be expected.
For the last third I feel pretty relaxed. I don’t know if its endorphins or what; It’s not that I’m feeling great, I’m just not feeling rubbish.
I finish strongly and during the cool down seem to have my breath back to normal within about two minutes. I find the time to chuck a few weights around. Accompanied by Kula Shaker.
07SEP12
Today should have been a comfortable 3 miles but as I’m climbing Snowdon on Sunday I brought forward the week’s long run. Its 6 mile which, as I missed last week’s 5 miler, feels like a big jump. It’s at the slow pace though so I’m not too daunted even though this means running for over an hour, something I’ve probably, no certainly, not done since I was in the Army. It didn’t go well at all with a sharp pain in my left knee from the offset. I persevered but at half way had to give up.
09SEP12
Climbing Snowdon today. I’m hoping that the walk, without the increased impact of running, will help to strengthen my left leg a little. We came up yesterday and camped in Betws-y-Coed and got what we thought was an early start. After packing up camp, we got to the start point at Pen-y-Pass at about 9 but the car park was totally full. We had to park a couple of miles down the road and catch a bus back up. We eventually set off up the Pyg Track at 0945hrs. My knee was not a problem. If anything, I had to pay more attention to my ankle, even though it was tightly strapped into a high ankled boot, as there were some tricky bits of terrain to negotiate. 5 hours of walking later we came round the corner at the end of the Miners Track to see the bus pulling away. Looking at the timetable there wasn’t another one for 2 hours so an unintended additional 2 miles was tagged onto my day.
brettshepherd 