Spoke too soon!

On Monday I did just over 10 miles of running, split into two short runs. After the second run, my shin was sore, in a bad-dose-of-toothache-in-my-tibia sort of way, for fully half an hour.

On Tuesday, Leon and I went to Sutton Park to take some photographs of ourselves for the Brathay website and for the Centurion Running Club newsletter.

Yes, I know about the Q-angle and the K-bend and the femoral anteversion and the gruesome overpronation and the hairbrush-dodging, but ... does my bum look big in this?

;o)

After our photoshoot, we put on lots of clothes and went for a little off-road run. It proved to be even littler than we'd expected. We ran on the grass for about three-quarters of a mile, then set off down a rough, damp, stony path. F-lite 230s are excellent shoes for road-running, but they don't perform well when the underfoot conditions are more than slightly knobbly. I tensed up. My shin hurt. My left calf cramped. I had pain in my right buttock and thigh. Slowing down to walking-pace seemed the safest strategy.

I resolved then to stop running until I could walk without any shin pain.

Yesterday, I was climbing the walls. No, really. Leon and I are both partial to a bit of verticality, and for the first time in many months we dusted off our harnesses and climbing boots and went down to the Redpoint Climbing Centre to play.

Climbing is great fun, but it doesn't really help maintain running fitness. Now, I hate cross-training. I'm not an athlete, and I'm not the sort of person who exercises for the sheer joy of exercising. I'm a recreational runner. I don't want to do aqua-jogging, or spin on a stationary bike like a hamster on a wheel. I hate swimming. I'm too sound-sensitive to do "classes" at the gym (apart from yoga, and life's too short to waste on yoga).

I can't afford to lose fitness or training momentum, though. Leon has kindly offered to set up the turbo-trainer for me, and Kim has offered to lend me her aqua-jogging belt. Meanwhile, I'll do plenty of purposeful walking. I went to the local pool this afternoon and the experience wasn't as dire as I recalled, although my swimming is as scruffy as ever. Hopefully it won't be long before I'm back pounding the pavements.

Meanwhile, my priority is to make sure Leon doesn't forget to go out running :o)