On Tired Legs

Today it was lovely weather at 6:30am. It was also a Bank Holiday so bed was rather too comfortable.

The Weather didn’t last long unfortunately, and by the time I was ready to run a few hours later, after breakfast with Liz and the children, it was like déjà vu with the clouds and the drizzle from yesterday.

The North Downs from Puttenham

My normal MO with regards to training for ultras is to do another long run, of about 2/3 distance the day after, so I extend my endurance capability, but also train my body to become familiar with running on tired legs. So it was this morning that I stepped out for my second long run, aiming to do 15 miles or so.

As it was to be a ‘quick’ run I fancied extending the run I had done to Puttenham the other day, although the memories of my muddy wall of death down the narrow channels carved by the water flowing off the downs was still fresh in my memory, so the trail option was neglected at this point.

I have run so many times to Puttenham along this route and only rarely taken things further with a loop round the common to the west of the village, but never taken the back roads to Seale, which is 2/3 of the distance to Farnham – I’m sure there is a North Downs run as well, but I’ll save that for a drier day.

Fisiocrem

No cyclists today. In fact for a couple of hours I saw virtually no other human souls, save a few ramblers, who seemed to be out in force today. Still, the route was very pleasant and after a while I even forgot about the drizzle and just enjoyed the wonderful lush green English countryside. So much so, in fact, that when I had 4 or 5 miles still to go, I suddenly realised that I actually had quite a bit of an ache in my left ankle and right knee. With only a couple of hills to go, and 34 miles over the last 24 hours behind me, I plodded on and was soon home.

My limbs were indeed aching after the exertion of the last couple of days, but to be honest, I was pretty pleased that everything had hung together as well as it did; sure my limbs were tired, but after a dowsing with ice water, a couple of ibuprofen and some ‘Fisiocrem’ massaged in, everything was fine. Fisiocrem we use quite often as it is a mixture of arnica (a natural anti-inflammatory) along with other things to sooth aching joints. I often think that just the act of massage has more effect than anything else, but either way it seems to aid recovery.

This is the end of my 4 week cycle of training, so I have a rest week now; probably a good thing, but then, soon enough I’ll be back in the saddle, and looking for other routes to explore.