On Friday I got up... dammit... still there. Again, I spent the day doing everything from a first aid basis that I could, only this time reducing the ice and applying more heat. I felt quite down about the fact my long run was due on the Saturday and it was looking highly unlikely I'd be able to do it. I had planned a route that would take me about 2 hours 45 minutes and was around 15 miles. I had been looking forward to it.
Saturday morning I got out of bed... nothing... no pain at all. I tried to recreate the pain... nothing. Fantastic, I thought... but I had to make sure I wasn't going to bugger things up and so took the most cautious approach I could think of... TREADMILL! By using a treadmill, I was reducing the risk of up and downhills causing any agro (as they can do in the early days when you have this potential injury) and I was allowing myself the luxury of bailing if I needed to. I'd do as much of the 2 hours 45 that I could at a slower pace than I normally would... I'd be careful!
I immediately felt great and the first hour absolutely flew by. I had no pain or aches or anything and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, despite Graemes' look of horror at the prospect of me having to stare at a wall for that long. "Hey... ya gotta do what ya gotta do", I explained. He was going on a 14 mile run and was taking the dog (14 miles being the longest Graeme has run for over a year and it would be the longest run Lincoln has ever done). Graeme was worried too... he's gone from training to do a sub 4 at Cayman to downgrading it to finishing without injury, as his groin continues to set him back.
As I ran on the treadmill I found myself smiling a lot. There was genuinely no pain and I wasn't in the slightest bit tired at all during any of it. I had eaten steamed veg and mashed potato for tea the night before, marmite on toast for breakfast and I was using Expresso Love Coffee GU gels during the run with plain water. I really did feel full of energy and made the connection to what I'd been eating and thought how I'd replicate that in future weeks and see if that energetic feeling continues.
I got to my 2 hours and 45 minutes having reached 15.18 miles and was ecstatic. I'll be honest and say I could have easily ran for another hour. During my time on the run I periodically counted my cadence and it was always between 186 and 190 steps per minute, so I think that's probably pretty good. I think the faster cadence and lighter landing is helping with my bad foot. It annoys me however that I'm coming on leaps and bounds but all of the tendons in my bad foot are coming on much slower than the rest of me. It's like they have tendon-apathy!!! I keep reminding myself though that after so long off training, I can't really expect much else.
Today I spent a good hour in the heat at the spa and did my weights session this afternoon. I felt shaky by the end, so I must have worked hard! I'm not even aching from yesterday which is great!
When I was at my mams house this morning, she suddenly announced to my dad she wanted to do the Vegan pledge for 30 days. I would say I was shocked, but I'm not really. She has hinted she would like to do it because of her weight on numerous occassions. I would also like to say I think she'll do it, but unfortunately I don't think she has the willpower. My dad has agreed (reluctantly) to do it with her, and I hope I'm wrong and they complete the challenge and lose some weight and feel better quickly. I don't think my dad will give up milk in his coffee however and I don't think my mam will give up a lot of the sweet dairy items she has. I'll help when I can though, in fact we are giving them 3 meals each which Graeme is cooking today for the freezer. I hope they can do it and I'd be very proud of them if they stepped up to the plate! (The vegan plate, that is!)
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