A Week of Ups and Downs, and Rain

After last week's cold I've managed to get back on track with the training this weekend, but with varying levels of success. It was a slow start to the week due to a trip to see the GP and a course of antibiotics to try and clear my sinuses, which were still giving me quite a bit of trouble. Fortunately within a couple of days they had done their job and I finally started to feel back to normal.

The first run of the week, on Thursday evening, was a bit of a disaster. I'd decided to head out for a steady 20km loop, the downside of which is that the first third of the roue is directly away from home. Unfortunately after about 6km I started to get a stitch, initially not a huge problem, but as soon as I stopped I got a twinge in my left knee and spent the next few minutes limping along. Some of you will know that I've had trouble with my knees in the past and at first I wasn't sure whether this was just a niggle or an actual injury. I opted to start heading towards home and tried taking a shortcut, which turned into getting lost! After finally finding my way back to the main road my knee was feeling better (I could walk normally without it hurting) but it had then started to rain heavily. I set off on a jog again to try to keep warm but the stitch came back. Eventually I made it home, cold and wet, after walking most of the way back. Not my greatest run ever!

By Saturday I was in Torquay for the weekend with the Old Hill and Wordsley bell ringers on our annual outing. The last couple of years the closest Parkrun to Torquay was about 20 miles away at a National Trust property called Parke (so, it's Parke Parkrun!). However, a few months ago a new event started in Paignton, so I decided to test my knee out there. It's an unusual course - two laps around a sausage-shaped cycle track and then a lap around a playing field, right through a set of football pitches which were full of children playing matches! Although my knee felt a bit tight, it wasn't hurting and I was quite pleased with my time of 21:35.

Since the knee issue seemed to be just a minor niggle, and the cold had finally cleared, I decided to go ahead with my planned long run on Sunday, despite the fact that the weather on the English Riviera was not exactly clement...

The route was straightforward - follow the coast path from Torquay to Brixham, via Paignton, Goodrington, Broadsands and Churston, dodging bikers and pirates on the way (BMAD Festival and Brixham Pirate Festival), meet my friend Felicity there for a refuelling stop, and then retrace my steps back to Torquay.

When I set off it was absolutely chucking it down and within a few minutes I was soaked through, it did ease off after a few miles and I'd pretty much dried out by the time I reached the outskirts of Brixham, but then another downpour drenched me again, and the planned sandwiches on the seafront ended up switching to huddling in the car. The jaunt back to Torquay was better, not too much rain by that time and a slight tailwind most of the way, although the last mile or so was at walking pace as I was getting a bit tired and had some rubbing from the shoulder straps of my bag.

Overall a successful weekend, I'm very relieved that my knee seems back to normal now, even after a 20 mile run yesterday, and also that I haven't had significant aches or pains whilst walking around today, so it seems I can tackle 20 miles at a steady pace without adverse effects - a good platform to build on over the next few months!

This week I'll be aiming to fit in a couple of weekday evening runs and then tackling the Wings for Life World Run on Sunday, a full account of what that entails will follow in due course. I've had my first donations on my sponsorship page this week - thanks to Robert and to Mum & Rob for their generous contribution, if anybody else wants to follow suit the link is just to the right of this post.

Thanks!

Stephen