Week 4

10SEP12

Legs are feeling a little sore today so decided to skip today’s run.  Hopefully this will allow my knee to settle down a bit more as well.

12SEP12

Having failed in last week’s long run and missing Monday’s run I’ve practically had a week off so it was essential today to get back on track.  It was just a comfortable 3 miler so I finished work looking forward to getting to the gym.  During the 5 minute warm up there was still a little stiffness in the legs but no indications of any problem with my knees and so, whether this is what actually happened or not, I felt that the weekend’s walking has strengthened the knee up a bit.  The first half felt comfortable and during the second half I could feel a little pain here and there but nothing too major to worry about.  What I did notice was that my breathing was not as comfortable as it had been which I can only put down to having missed some runs.  This has made me more determined to stick to the programme as best I can to avoid dropping back rather than making progress.  The only concern is that I am obviously compensating for my ankle through my knee and may have to reduce or miss out a run here or there to let it settle.  Overall, a pleasing session and glad to be back in.  Accompanied by The Seahorses.

14SEP12

Today did not go well at all.  Felt a pain in my knee straight away and only managed a mile.  It is all the more frustrating as I felt fine on Wednesday.  Perhaps I simply need to train less often to let my knee recover from a run.  We’ll see on Sunday. 

16SEP12

I went to the Emirates yesterday.  Great stadium, rubbish home fans, rubbish result (for the result, delete ‘rubbish’, insert ‘shocking and embarrassing’).  As I drove down to London, when I got back I went straight into town for a beer and left the car there overnight.  I walked back into town this morning to collect it and it was clear that my knee was still not right.  I still went to the gym but decided to do some interval work on the bike instead of running.  Two concerns:  I haven’t completed a week’s training since week one and I still haven’t got further than four miles and I’ve only gone as far as that once.  I am still determined to do this so I need to consider rejigging my training programme to manage my expectations and have more realistic goals.