Bouncing back

What a difference a day's rest makes! On Thursday I had a knee pain that made me stop in the middle of run. I spent yesterday nursing my right knee, but even so I wasn't sure if I was going to able to run today. So I started timidly, but I felt surprisingly good. So I decided to pick up the pace after 10 minutes, and to my delight I could maintain that fast pace for 20 miles.

I was determined before I started the run that when I feel any sign of pain in my knee, even the slightest one, I would stop. And I did have a trace of pain in the same spot as I had on Thursday just after I hit the 20-mile mark. So I stopped immediately. I would have liked to put up a few more miles, but that will be too greedy. The most important achievement today was that I could run pain-free again.

Today: 20 miles
This week: 71 miles

Oh no, knee pain again

I was aiming for a 16-mile run this morning, but I was slow leaving home so by the time I started running I had to cut it to 13 miles. In reality, however, I had to walk the last 3 miles because, alas, the knee pain came back. The pain was more acute than that I had last week, and this time I could not keep on running. Hopefully this is just a reaction to the four consecutive days of hard work. I will take tomorrow off, and I am still hoping that I will be able to go for a long run on Saturday.

Today: 10 miles
This week: 51 miles

Unknown friends

I was running today when suddenly a runner coming from the opposite nodded to me. So I nodded back at him, not remembering who he was. Afterwards I thought hard and long, but I still don't know who it was! My theory is:
1) He was my old acquaintance but I completely forgot him
2) He mistook me for somebody else
or (I think most likely)
3) We have never met properly, but he has seem me running often enough to recognise me.

I go out for a run on the same route almost at the same time every weekday. So assuming other runners follows the same routines as I do, we must be meeting on a daily basis. Which means I may have made many unknown friends over the last year!

Today: 13 miles
This week: 41 miles

No pain, no gain

After a quite strenuous workout yesterday, at first I was inclined to have an easy day today. Then I remembered that this was going to be the last of hard training week. So I thought what the hell, I would do a long run today. Naturally I was a little anxious as I had the knee pain with less workload last week. And there was a trace of pain in my legs, but overall I completed the run for just over two hours without pain. I was relieved.

Today: 16 miles
This week: 28 miles

Dog ate my water

There are only three weeks left in my training diary for the Loch Ness Marathon. Fresh from the rest on Sunday, I headed for the Victoria Park this morning to do the interval run. This was going to be the hardest of VO2 Max - I was supposed to run 1200 metres at the 5k race pace, jog two minutes in between, then repeat the fast run six times.

Like every runner I run with a bottle of water, but I put it on the grass today as I was doing the tempo run. I know you are not supposed to break the rhythm during the interval runs, but this was going to be a long session so after the second run I stopped to have water. I could not find my bottle where I left it, however, and after looking around for a while I finally discovered the crushed plastic which barely resembled the water bottle. Then I remembered a big dog walking by while I was running. It seemed that my water bottle fell victim to this dog.

Clearly there was no point in being cross with the dog. But, please dog owners, if you see a bottle of water on the ground don't let your dog eat it, especially when you see a runner on the scene. It really breaks the runner's heart when they cannot drink water when they need it...

Today: 12 miles
This week: 12 miles