Sunday, June 29, 2014
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges...
...Ooo! But balloons...
Running Diary - 4
As a runner there are many, many conceivable ways to injury yourself while running - and quite a few more when you are not...
Let's see - I've slipped on wet leaves twisting ankles and knees, tripped over uneven paving stones jarring my back, stacked it down a kerb (knees, ankles and back combined), been smacked in the face by a tree branch (while being preoccupied trying to get the lid of my water bottle...), torn a groin muscle kicking a football back to some little oiks in the park, and, on one memorable occasion, whilst trying to beat my time for a particular course, I ran smack into the garage door (in my defence I was looking at my watch so I could stop it as soon as I'd finished; which I suppose was when I hit the bloody door...) Oh, and of course there's been many a dog/dog lead incident over the years, but you know that already don't you? :-)
I'm pretty certain other runners have myriad different stories (a friend of mine once ran into a tree when he got his Buff stuck over his face...) but the way I succeeded in injuring myself this week has to be pretty unique. Believe it or not, for someone who currently runs 30K a week, does hundreds of sit up and swims 2-3K, I only managed to go and injure myself by going for a walk...
It is, of course, less straight forward than that.
You see, I had an interview course on Tuesday, and it came with those two words you just hate to hear together because, seriously what the fuck do they mean? Smart Casual. Like Military Intelligence and Almost Exactly it's an oxymora designed to confuse. So I end up simply wearing a suit and shirt with no tie. Neither smart (You'd need the tie) or casual (which would be swimsuit, flip flops and shades). Of course I also wear a pair of work shoes, something I haven't been doing of late, due to the fact that when on the employment scrapheap, training shoes are de riguer.
Anyway, I walk to the station, from Cannon Street to the venue in Minories, bit of a walk round at lunch time and then home again. As I'm walking up Elmstead Lane I've got a bit of a trot on as I can just make the begining of the footer if I'm quick, and half way up I notice the most devilish type of pain running down the front of my shins. After many years without them, the curse of my early running years has returned. I've only gone and got shin splints again. Bollocks. Not only are they extremely painful, the only solution is to not running until they have gone. In fact not walk at all if you can avoid it. I can only assume that with my feet being used to the complete support that proper running shoes give you, the work shoes, with their heel and little arch support, just put a strain on my "weak spot". At this rate me and Caitlin will be involved in a three legged race!
So, the bad news is I can't run for a bit, the good news is I have enough miles under the belt to give a good showing of myself one the big day arrives - which is less than three weeks now! (Gulp!) All, the vests, numbers, balloons and badges have arrived, along with a detailed map of the course and all that is left now is to remain injury free (oops) and arranged where all the supporters are going to gather on the big day, we hope to see some of you there!
More soon, and if you haven't given yet, you know what to do!
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
The best laid plans of Mice and Men...
...often go awry
Running diary - part three
Well, this is a difficult one to write. Those of you who follow my blog will probably
have been expecting several running updates by now, detailing progress toward
the goal of running the British 10K on July 13th, in support of The Brain
Tumour Charity...
But unless you want to read about me running
30,000 metres a week and having the odd swim, there is nothing much to
report...
You see my partner in crime’s knee turned out to be more badly hurt than we thought and running
has been out of the question for her.
Visits to her GP, pleading with them that it’s not just some growing pains thing, has led to a referral to a specialist, so we’re currently awaiting the outcome of that. In the meantime she has been walking the hard
yards wearing a calliper on her leg much like a Victorian orphan, which in this
fashion conscious world is dedication to the cause par excellence as, training
in the local park, some of her friends may see her…
So to balance the scene out, here is a picture
of me following my last outing running for Children with Leukaemia and featuring
rather heavily my buggered knee…
I don't know when the next training blog will
be, but rest assured we will be on the start line and ready to go at 9.35
wearing the blood-red vest of the charity - all in memory of Shaun of
course. I hope you are still all
encouraged enough to spare us a few quid if you haven't been able to do so
yet. I'll be pounding the treadmill and
swimming the lengths until then, and we'll see what comes of it all. Hopefully there will be some movement between
now and then worthy of your attention and I'll be letting you know straight
away when there's news to report.
Until then, thanks to everyone for the support
received, it really does make it easier to put the running shoes on and push
through the pain barrier in support of this great charity.
That's all for now.
