My main reason for being absent for so long is the depressing reappearance of last year's knee injury. Although posting about it would have provided a potentially engaging tragi-narrative, the idea of penning some darkly frustrated diatribe about the perils of overpronation and over-training, filled me with gloom. What happened was this: after feeling a number of twinges here and there on recent outings, I decided to stop short while out on a run a few weeks weeks ago due to an intense pain in my knee. Much to the despair of my grumbling but loyal housemate, this premature halt came about 2 miles from home. I was forced to hobble back to my abode in the chilly wind, lamenting my problematic joints and my propensity for over-training.
Aware that the Half itself was approaching, I declared a halt to my regular runs and decided to 'rest up' for an indefinite amount of time. I wanted to keep up my regular routine using my bike which i'd recently re-acquired from my parents' home in the south. Although this at first seemed to offer an effective alternative, I discovered that I had very few moments of daylight to take to the roads.
So, in all honesty, my cardiovascular exercise has been decidedly lacking of late. It's worrying how quickly the addictiveness of exercise dissipates and the routine of lounging around becomes the norm. In truth, i've missed the natural high of getting back from a run and have worried about the inevitable decline in my performance as a result of this hiatus, but it's been a little 'too easy' just to stop it all.
So, last Thursday I decided to take the plunge and went out for my first run in 3 weeks. Running a course of laps around a couple of local parks (mainly so I wasn't too far from home in case the injury once again erupted) I set my iPod to shuffle and went for it as best I could. I was unsure how far I was going to run, but I wanted to test myself over a fairly long distance so as to make sure my knee would at least be bearable on the day itself. I ended up running 12 miles and my knee remained fine throughout. My general performance was also far better than I expected, aside from the crippling cramp I suffered in the last couple of miles and the general sense of fatigue I felt at the end.
Still, I'm now confident that I can at least complete the Half without having to engage in some heartbreaking scene of foulmouthed bailout at the side of the road. It's amazing what some rest can do.
