Lisa Snell writes:
The last time I wrote, I thought of running every day instead of my 18 miles in one go. Well, the Tuesday run didn't quite go to plan and 3/4 of the way around my right knee started hurting. Wednesday I found it hard to walk without it hurting so when I got home I iced and rested. It meant I couldn't do the virtual cycle race that I do on a Wednesday night in case I made it worse. Thursday I rested again but was getting grumpy. The weather also changed for the worse. Actually, London had it good compared to up North where they had snow.
Friday, what a beautiful day the sun came out. The knee felt fine so I thought let's try 3 miles. I was really enjoying the weather, the sun would shine bright and then go all cloudy as if to rain. the wind would pick up but I felt good and the knee was behaving. 3 miles then 5 and in total, I managed 8 miles. The knee was just starting so thought I would take the 8 and run tomorrow.
I planned to meet Jane at Osterley Parkrun so ran there. It felt like I was running in treacle very slow and hard on the way there. I was so pleased when I arrived at Osterley and the sun started to come through. I picked up halfway round and it felt good. No knee pain or arch so that's it for this week 27.9 miles in total for the week. Annoying .01 to get 28 miles or even 2.01 to get 30 miles. I do like round numbers.
Week 11, out for a nice short run on Monday and I am in pain. Left leg was hurting so much. I couldn't even get to 3 miles as it started straight away. I feel so frustrated that I keep getting these things coming up.
Planning on the long run I had to try a run and see how the leg was. Walking on Wednesday I had no pain at all so it gets very frustrating. I left it till Friday and went out only to do a short one to gauge the legs. All good ! Yesssss...
Now I am not very good at warming up so for the long run on Saturday I walked to Northala Parkrun just under 2 miles. I met Vidya who had run there and we did the parkrun together so she had an idea of my intervals. Just as I am leaving the heavens open. We knew it might but the weather was warm which was good. We did parkrun and my sprint finish then onto the canal towards Southall, Hayes, then Hanwell and Brentford. Vidya was on target for her distance I was starting to trail behind. The sun was out and it was lovely only the puddles to contend with along the canal. In places, it was quite slippery. Vidya left me at Boston Manor and my plan was to continue to Gunnersbury from Brentford. I was hurting a bit so thought it best to bail at Brentford and head home, with a collection at the Harvester at Boston Manor from my husband. It's a bit frustrating that I didn't make my distance but 2 miles walk, 13 miles run and 1-mile walk is 16 miles. I think that's pretty good after the leg problems and I still have 5 weeks to go so plenty of time to go for another long run after a rest.
I am really hoping that it happens as it did for me on my virtual London Marathon. I had a few issues along the way but on the day it went great a day a will never forget in a hurry.