Wow, thanks so much for all the comments of sympathy and encouragement. That's a good way of finding out the lurkers, just post that you have an injury, ha ha! I'm afraid what I have to tell you is going to wear thin your patience and forbearance.
Moving around this evening from work to Shibuya and up Dogenzaka to attend a kind of interview, involving a fair bit of walking, it struck me that there was not much pain or even discomfort coming from the sore bit. My mind got to working. Every day in September. Every day in September. Maybe you can still do it? I trotted a little bit in my work clothes. Hmm...doesn't hurt. No, don't be foolish! I tried to shove such thoughts to the back of my mind. So on the way back from the interview I popped into Tokyu Department Store 8th floor above Shibuya Station. There is an Osaka goods promotion (until Oct 2), and prominent among the stands was one from a craft brewery, Minoh Brewing. Their double IPA (9% ABV) was extremely tasty (both glasses), as was their real ale style stout. I got home at 9:30 and only Kohta was home and he was engrossed in his Play Station (Final Fantasy XII for those who are interested in such things).
"Hi Kohta!" I said. "Gomen ne, demo chotto atama ni byouki desukara, kore kara chotto hashitte dekakimasu." (sorry mate, I'm, a little bit sick in the head, so now I am going to go out for a little run." -- apologies to those who speak proper Japanese)
I thought that my 3.3 km loop would be enough to satisfy the "run day" requirement. But I moved well, the evening was extremely pleasant, I had a nice little buzz on from the Minoh beer, the leg wasn't too uncomfortable as long as I kept to an easy pace, so I added on a lap of Rinshi no Mori (forest park) to come up with 5.3 km at 5:18/km, HRavg 125.
It was definitely as much as I could hope for, especially considering I had tried so hard to reconcile myself to taking a day off, and I would like to think it did not set back the sore bit too much. At times I also had the thought that, well, you know, this is what I enjoy, this is what I get off on. Just the sheer pleasure of moving along, breathing easy, feeling alive. Kind of like 2P's happy place. So what if I endanger my marathon? Just as Naoko Takahashi said that running is about more than the Olympics, so too can I say that running is about more than a sub 2:55 Ohtwara. So I just enjoyed the run, sore leg be buggered.
Well, I know I am a SFI, but I promise that I am going to keep things very easy and next week really concentrate on cross training, just as some of you suggested in the comments, e.g., Toshihiko Seko. Sure I can get away with these little gentle runs, but if I am going to get to the start line in better shape, I have to give the leg a real chance to of coming good so I can fit in a couple more quality weeks down the line a bit.
Thank you for understanding this poor, sick, addicted runaholic.
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9 comments:
Re the previous post ... :-(
Re this post ... :-)
Yes, you have a problem with your addiction. I can totally understand. In 2003 I started out on New Years Day and than ran every day for weeks and weeks. And bragged about it. I didn't brag about the injury that saw me not running for two months.
Take care.
Ha! Glad to read you don't follow you're own advice :) I've been doing the same thing. Little jogs down the work corridor. You've just convinced me to go for a little jog today.
beware ;-)
well, i should have known you better. of course you went for a run...
hope you could still listen to your body despite having had some beer (but i guess your used to that)
You certainly seem addicted Steve no less than a strung out junkie or gambler.
And although us running bloggers will all give you "good" advice, like Rachel and Tesso said we often can't take it ourselves.
I'm afraid you're just going to have to play it by ear doing enough to keep you under sated.It is indeed a "knife-edge."
Those that are able to hit a balance with this are the ones that run great races and PB. The rest, like most of us, keep battling on, striving to get it right.
I sincerely wish/believe you have what it takes to achieve the balance. Still you will need our support ;)
Just as well - I was just about to write on my blog how wussy I thought you were being :)))))
It certainly is a great achievement to run every day of the month - the improtant bit is you are listening to your body - when it said "don't run" you planned not to, when reneged and said "ok then, go for a trot" you did. I prefer this method to religiously sticking to a plan.
There but for the grace of god go I.
Which runner would not relate to your situation. I have started my speed phase and writing this with ice on my achilles! That's also why i only go to see Sports doctors who are also runners...!
Take it easy. I suggest you do some hard interval on the elyptical if possible (did that when i was injured in Jan and turned out well - boring though!)
Arnaud
I'd call you an SFI if it was a diagnosed stress fracture, but maybe this is one of those things you can jog out over a few days. Keeping the blood (and beer) flowing might even be beneficial!
A suggestion on the addiction to the improved numbers of the 5k time trial... why not run it at "late in the marathon" goal heart-rate? This would give improved numbers month by month, feedback on marathon pace and be less risky for injury.
Regarding Ohtwara, can you "train through" this one and leave all the speedwork/peaking for one in January? November is not that far away.
From my recent experience: First we tend to ignore the fact that we might be injured. The moment we write on our blogs about it the injury is very likely already fully blown because of the lag between occurence and acknowledgement.
Question: What would it mean to you if you could never again run the way you just did in September?
Sounds drastic but sometimes helps making the right choices. If I could go back in time, I would not only train differently, I'd also plan my recovery much better.
Harry Hindsight is probably the fastest guy on the planet - but hey, your recovery is ahead of you. Don't mess that up ;-)
Good luck mate!
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