Sunday, May 30, 2010

River run.


Today was supposed to be a long bike ride, however the meteorologist last night stated that the rain which had been bestowed upon was not going to relent over the weekend. So, I sent my brother in law a text message cancelling our bike ride for the second Sunday in a row. However, when I woke up this morning I woke up to blue skies and not a single cloud anywhere. What are the weather forecasters trying to do to me? It was too late to try and re-organise the bike ride as we like to set off early, so I was left with only one thing to do. RUN.

The river run was looking set to be the destination of choice and I was excited to try out my knee. I have been diligent with my stretching and strengthening and was hoping that it would be working wonders on an open road run. On the treadmill it felt fine but that is a nice flat surface, uneven surfaces would highlight any issues. And it did.

I noticed that when the road or surface inclined to the left and my left side was on it I started to get a bit of knee pain, nothing major but I felt it. I noticed that I would roll my foot during striking the pavement more to the outer part of my foot causing my leg to bow at the knee. Even when I focused on foot strike and leg positioning my knee still felt a bit odd, however as soon as the road even up I felt fine - no knee pain.

At the 4km mark my lower leg started to go a bit numb again. I was inclined to stop and stretch my calf but it doesn't seem to help so I just slowed down and continued on my merry way. The remainder of the run was uneventful - the numbness didn't go away but it didn't get worse either, that's a bonus. I tried to finish strong as I always do and tried to up the momentum at every telegraph pole till I got to my car. When I finally reached my car I think I was running at a 4:30kpm pace. Boy, was I glad to see my baby Jeep Patriot.

Now that's it night and reviewing how my body feels, I can safely say that my legs hurt - muscular wise that is. I have lost that conditioning in my lower limbs of running every second day due to my knee. I need to ask the physio if I can get back into running on a regular basis without fear of doing further damage.

So I ran my 7km in 39min and felt happy with that. It's 3 minutes slower than my usual pace but I need to look after that knee. There is plenty of time to get back to my 36 minutes and better. I am not at all concerned.

Your hard work will be rewarded.

"The path to a dream is paved with sacrifices and lined with determination. And though it has many stumbling blocks along the way, and may go in more than one direction, it is travelled by belief and courage and conquered with a willingness to face challenges and take chances" Barbara Cage