My training plan said run for 1hr 30 minutes today. It probably said a lot of other things about tempo and heart rate but hey I'm coming out of an infection so the time itself was enough to remember.
I trotted out initially with Jon in the cold. My foot hurt a bit from last night; I'd done a little more running recently to compensate for dropping miles on the bike and the niggles were starting to show. We parted after three miles and I would return home and take satisfaction of a 6 mile attempt and call it a day, rather than let a swollen foot continue to move it's way across my leg - the tendon inflammation had moved from arch to knee as we said goodbyes.
I took adavantage of our parting to give the leg a quick massage but had to move home even quicker. Despite the blue sky and sunshine it was below zero and we had both commented that it was deceptively colded. I plodded home, noticing only had cold my right arm was (exacerbated by some ulna nerve damage).
As Jon can tell you, I often run home quicker than I run out, and this was no exception! By the time I neared home I dared to think "well I could actually keep going and do my whole training duration". I reached the start point 5 minutes quicker than the way out and plodded a path in a direction Jon and I don't usually take.
Suddenly it felt like everything I was doing was a bonus. I was pushing through pain and illness and running solo - something that winter nights had denied me after the idiot trying to grab me incident. I could see where I was going. I could notice that the ducks still had their beaks tucked into their wings. I could marvel at how parts of the canal were smoother than a mirror and others frozen like chocolate slabs. I felt like a runner again. I slipped through mud puddles, crunched through frozen turf, made choices between different trails, ended up on the wrong side of the canal and generally had fun. It was nice to feel like a runner again.
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