It’s been a week. I did parkrun on Saturday and managed to give myself ridiculous injury #1 of the weekend. Getting in the car to drive home, I misjudged the size of my door (despite having had the car for eight years) and smashed it into my backside. Absolutely massive, painful bruise on my derrière and big dent in my pride. Sunday was ridiculous injury #2. As some background, I can deadlift more than my own body weight from the floor. On Sunday morning, as I picked up a mug, and not even a full mug, off the floor I tweaked something. Pain all down my hip and upper thigh. What a wazzock. I must have bent awkwardly. For the rest of the day, it hurt. Monday it ached. Tuesday, a very occasional twinge. This is not what you want the weekend before you’re due to run a 10k race. 🤦♀️
The lead up to this event has been a bit of a challenge. It’s been a real struggle to pick up after Covid and I’m nowhere near in as good shape as when I’ve done this sort of event before. The last time I did a run longer than 5k was a good chunk of time ago. I’ve been back and forth on whether to leave it, but I really want to stand on the start line and just give it a go. I’ve made peace with it being slow, and I’m definitely run walking. I thought there needed to be a bit of a test to see how the hip was doing since it seemed to be ok. I wouldn’t normally have chosen a speed run but I’ve done the “Speed Run b4 the Half” before and I know it’s a really great one for before a race. I decided to give it a go and take it super easy, potentially just keeping at a steady pace.
So…time to get going before I was due to meet a roofer at lunchtime. The first notable thing about the run was the need to wear sunglasses. Who’d have thought that would be a thing after all this rain?! Five minutes brisk walk and time to load up Coach B. The run starts with five minutes warm up, stop and stretch and then time to go. One minute at 5k pace, two minutes at 10k pace, five minutes at half marathon pace. two minutes at 10k pace, and one minute of 5k pace to finish, with sixty seconds recovery between each. I absolutely loved it. The hip was totally fine. I felt fit and bouncy. The intervals passed quickly. Five minutes at HM pace felt easy. This was just the best confidence boost for Sunday. Coach B was in great form. The best bit was being reminded the hard part isn’t the race, it’s getting to the race. My app tells me I’ve totally over 200km on my latest training plan. It hasn’t been as I’ve wanted but those miles aren’t nothing. In a warm and fuzzy post run glow, I started walking home. That was when the run took an unexpected turn.
The phone started ringing and the roofer has arrived at my house. This was not the plan! He was willing to wait and instead of a gentle cool down, I finished with a ten minute tempo run! Sometimes needs must. It’s fair to say I looked a little, er, dishevelled when I made it back but it was worth it. The change of plan meant I could make it to yoga for a really good cool down stretch and there’s now a plan to fix a chimney. So all in all, a great result.
Bring on Sunday’s race! I genuinely don’t care about the time. Having made it to the start will be the best achievement. Now to not pick up any more ridiculous injuries before them…
10K in the bag! 
New 5k PB (and race bling!!!)
Run my first 10k..and frightened the dog.
