Winter is coming

Well, that was an interesting run. I went the club 45s tonight and it turned out to be a night of highs and lows.

To start with, it was buckin’ freezin’ out. I went out with two layers on all over – well, apart from my pants and socks, but you don’t really want to know about that! Two hats (one woolly, one running cap), a base layer, my t-shirt, tights, shorts and a jacket … and I needed every last bit of it.

I even slapped a not inconsiderable amount of Deep Heat on my legs, partly for warmth and partly because I knew I’d need it.

My legs – particularly the left one – have been feeling dodgy for the past few days but I thought today I was good to go. I hadn’t experienced any niggles or twinges so I reckoned not having run since Thursday morning had done the trick.

However, as I approached the Leisure Centre, I felt the left calf really tighten up and lock. Then, as I went over the footbridge, it buckled below me. This wasn’t good.

I stood for a minute or so to see if it’d settle, which it did, so I walked on and it felt ok again. Crisis over hopefully. It also felt ok as we waited to go off on tonight’s run and, about a quarter of the way in, all was going well. The pace was quite brisk but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t cope with.

Then we stopped at the crossing to regroup, and when we set off again I maybe got 100 yards and I could feel it begin to twinge. I slowed down to see if that’d help but by the time I got to the bottom of the road I couldn’t go on any further, so stopped to do some stretches. It felt as if the calf had locked again, but by stretching I was unable to unlock it.

That was fine, I set off again, built my pace back up and ran up the Fry’s Road, a steady rise and a steady pace. I was pleased to get there in one piece, only for the leg to go again.

More stretching, more running, more niggles …. and repeat for the rest of the run. I think I stopped twice more just to reset my leg and off I went again. I was cautious, however, and slowed it right down in places before ever so gradually increasing my speed again.

I guess my fairly intensive schedule recently hasn’t helped, not to mention the change in terrain given the focus on trail running, so perhaps a couple of days resting, icing and stretching are in order.

It wasn’t painful as such, but I knew it didn’t feel right. It was strange one. The pace felt reasonable … in fact, according my Strava it was my fastest time over that exact route. Fair enough, I’ve only done that route three times but I’ll take it!

I’m not due to go out again until Thursday so hopefully all will be back in full working order again by then.