Monday 9 March 2009

I was tricked.



I was tricked into doing a long run today. My thought processes (if you can call it thinking) went something like this. "I feel tired, maybe I'm overdoing it. I should just have an easy week." So I decided that I'd do about 12 miles and maybe a short one tomorrow and then club on Wednesday and something on Thursday and let this be a low mileage week and let my heel and myself recover.

Once I was out I felt better than I thought I would so I thought I'd do about 15 miles; 8 miles up the Water of Leith and then back through town via the canal. This adds up to about 15.5 miles. Once I'd come off the canal I told myself it would be a pity to have a long run for the week which was less than 17 miles as I read somewhere once that technically long runs begun at 17 miles. In order to make my run up to 17 miles I did a complete round of the Meadows. As I came off the Meadows I saw that I'd done just over 14 miles so I knew as long as I went round the back of Arthur's Seat I'd have run 18 miles for the day.

You'd think that would do. What happened to resting my heel and having a low mileage week? Half way round Arthur's Seat the thought occurred to me that I should really be extending my long run each week and that I should take another turn around Arthur's Seat. No! Up the hill? Into the wind! Why? Why me? Because otherwise it won't be a proper run. In the grip of this evil logic I set off back up the hill instead of heading home at the Palace. I could hardly move my feeble legs and I knew the people in the cars driving down the road were deriding and mocking me. At the top of the hill things got a bit better again and it wasn't too bad. It wasn't really too bad all the way home, just painful dodging the people who had been released from their work and were trying to make their way home. They weren't getting in my way on purpose so I kept my feelings to myself.
So anyway now I'm totally knackered. I hope that my weird heel doesn't diversify any further. My friend Jim has a bunion so lavish that it has its own name (Bob) and a quite distinct personality. Mind you, I wish I could run like him.
Total distance; 21.63miles in 3hrs 19 mins, av. pace 9.12 min/miles av. HR 148

1 comment:

Billy said...

Yak,

Like the blog. I think I'd have called it a day at 15 1/2 miles!

Thanks for the mapping links - they both look pretty good.

Billy

P.S The hills are bigger in the East Pentlands, so I suppose that balances things out.