Self destruction
Apr1820114 p.m.
It’s quite amazing, on my right arm midway up the forearm, by a small freckle there is a patch of skin and muscle about 2 inches square… that doesn’t ache !!!! The rest of the body is a blob of pain!!!
The training weekend away in Wales was really tough, but superb and the achilles held up under the strain thanks to Ibuprofen Gel, Ibuprofen tablets and some prescription strength pain killers donated by my middle daughter.
Saturday was 5 hours of running across and through sand-dunes (well, some it was running !!). I did attempt to jog up the biggest sand-dune I’ve ever seen, but half way up, with leg muscles pumping battery acid through them I had to slow to a gasping trudge. We then raced down at full pelt, with arms windmilling like crazy, which was great fun, if not a little bit scary.
Sunday was another superb day but couldn’t help thinking that it was going to be far too hot for all those marathon runners down in London. We did conventional courses up in the mountains near to Abergavenny. Mine was 8.8 km if you take the straight line between points, if you took the route I took it was a damn sight longer with some wicked climbs. I’d been going great up until checkpoint 19 then just lost it. Physically I was shattered, mentally I was exhausted and even once I’d worked out where I was, after making a huge navigation mistake, I just could not summon up the energy, or will, (mainly will) to go back and spike the control. Attempted to finish the final 4 controls, got one of them, struggled with the next and finally called it a day and trudged back to the finish pretty despondent.
It’s amazing the difference a litre of water and a couple of butties make, because once I’d had them I looked back on what I did and how I did it and was pretty pleased with my efforts.
Time to take a breather now and get this ankle sorted out. No plans to do any running this next week or so and see how things feel by the end of the Easter weekend, which will be busy anyway as it’s my mum and dads Diamond Wedding Anniversary (60yrs) and we’ve a whole load of family things planned.
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Comments (7)
Alaistair 'Your training weekend sounded a whole lot of fun, are the aches a sign of lack of fitness Mike? Many congratulations to your parents...60 years is a fantastic achievement...' added 18th Apr 2011
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Johnf 'Tough, painful but a lot of fun I reckon. And yes congratulations to your parents, have a great family party.' added 19th Apr 2011
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Muffs 'Sounds brillinat. 60 years. That's a frightening thought. A massive well done to them.' added 19th Apr 2011
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aphid 'Wow - 60 years! Have a great family celebration. And sounds like amazing weekend of running- you should be very pleased - running on sand is stupidly tough!' added 19th Apr 2011
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Way_Too_Slow 'Glad there is one tiny bit of you that doesn't ache! Congratulations to your parents, a fantastic achievement.' added 19th Apr 2011
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malcolms 'So sand dunes and running don't mix then - perhaps you should have tried Alaistair's bare foot approach. Have a great family time with your parents - 60 years is a great achievement' added 19th Apr 2011
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Skye_Trekker 'Hope the wedding anniversary went well and that your ankle is on the mend now.' added 28th Apr 2011
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