When the going gets tough

From a running perspective the first week of a new job, more miles in the car than I usually do in a month, a night away and a dodgy knee seemed like a recipe for a poor week's training leading up to my longest ever race, the Ashby 20. As it happened I managed to get four runs logged (not quite my hoped for five), none of which were as long as I would normally manage but I ticked over the week whilst mostly focussing on the new job and wondering if I'd ever get used to sitting in the car for two hours at a time with only Radio 4 for company.

Monday's run was a leg stretch and an explore around my new base for a couple of days each week in Nottinghamshire. I managed to catch the last of the light, unfortunately the wind turbines, which look majestic in the distance on my run, appear quite unimpressive on the photo I took on my run. 

The nights are definitely getting lighter and with the clocks changing this weekend I'm looking forward to exploring the area and perhaps joining a club in the vicinity as a "second claim" to Bournville Harriers.

Back in Brum I managed a second run on Wednesday of a similar distance, with the knee still irritating me for the first mile or two but feeling more comfortable as time progressed. I listened to the parkrun show podcast during the run - it is coming to an end shortly and I'm already missing it. So many of my runs have been accompanied by "King" Danny Norman and Nicola "she who must not be named" Forwood and the other various characters that inhabit my other running community - the virtual world that brings together parkrunners from around the globe. I have mostly laughed along, occasionally cried (Episode 122 - For Zoe) and learnt a few fascinating facts through parkrunpedia. If you've never listened to it you have 180 ish episodes to enjoy.

I made it home just in time for the club reps session on Thursday but I didn't really try in the efforts and my knee was really starting to hurt. I decided that as I was volunteering rather than running at Saturday's parkrun I would try to completely rest my legs and hope that it would be better come Sunday's race. I knew this would leave me short of the 100% I was aiming for in the March section of Jantastic, even if I did get the target time 

I had ambitiously set for Ashby, but I really felt it was the sensible thing to do with Manchester just over four weeks away and the bulk of the training in the bag. So many of my running friends were suffering with various injuries and illnesses - I don't think I was alone in feeling a bit broken.