Rob's Running Blog

10.5k Long Run, aborted 7 miles due to niggle – 1 hr 10 mins

Lovely late afternoon sunshine was the setting for a planned 7 mile long run to get some distance in my legs, though I was a bit concerned as I had been experiencing shooting pains at rest in my left knee, which was odd as there was no pain running. As my mum always used to say, probably a bit of arthritis or something…

In any case I set off at a sedate pace and straight away started to wonder if I would be able to last for 7 miles, but kept the pace slow and steady. At about 2k I got the pain in my knee again and slowed, almost calling the run off, but just decided to keep going slowly. Ran all the way out to Debdale Park, then through the park and up past the reservoirs, before turning back and going back through the park again. I was feeling strong in a cardiovascualar sense, but as I left the park and started to think I might reach 7 miles after all, the knee started to complain and I still had a way to get home. It was either carry on or abort and get the bus. I slowed considerably, and started to flag in every way, but set myself a target of 5 miles, and when I crossed that set 10k, and finally, as I was really flagging and my knee was really protesting, I just did another half a k for good measure, and ended up at home feeling very tired and depleted, and needed to eat half a packet of biscuits to replenish energy…

Update: thankfully over the weekend there was no comeback knee-wise from the run, so it may just be the joint working to strengthen itself as i increase the mileage, but am not going to go too hard on it with the first race in a year only 2 weeks away…