Day 63

Week  9,  Sunday 16th September

 

Today's long run was for 12 miles and, despite having had some health problems last week, I still foolishly mapped a tough one.

 

We started off at Morrisons on Festival Park. From there we ran to Bashford and up the bank to Newcastle and along Barracks Road.  We went down the subway to avoid the roundabout and continued up Clayton Road and then down Clayton Lane.  By this time it felt like we had run for loads of miles yet actually we'd only done about 6k.

 

We ran on the A34 to Keelings Drive and then to London Road. From there we did a little detour along All Saint's Road, Fletcher Road, Boothen Road, Fleming Road and back to London Road.   Apparently, unless you approach Penkhull New Road from this direction; it won't get recognised as a Category 5 hill.  Since the hill itself won't be any different whichever way you approach it, I wasn't going to be cheated of its significance.

 

Although we didn't actually manage it all the way up this week either; we did get quite a bit further than last week and almost made it to the top.  I found myself leaning forward too much going uphill and the pain that I've had since the last long run got somewhat worse.  Nevertheless, we still carried on down Honeywall, along Church Street, Kingsway and Glebe Street to reach Leek Road.

 

As we were approaching Cromer road I was getting increasingly worried about my pain.  I didn't know if I could just ignore the pain or if I had done an injury which could jeopardise the rest of the training for Congleton half.  Half-way up Cromer the decision was taken out of my hand as I really couldn't face running anymore in fact just even walking was almost unbearable.  We had ran for just over 10 miles but we still walked the rest of the course back to Festival Park.

 

I felt very disappointed and guilty that I'd made Kath having to cut her run short too but she reminded me that, not only had we already done lots of hills today, we had run up Cromer and Keelings Road dozens and dozens of time before, so we didn't need that bit.

 

Next day, I was still ill and had to stay off work.  The pain was so bad that it made me nauseous and sick.  I had never experienced anything like it.  I managed to see the doctor and she told me that I haven't got an injury and I'm OK to continue training but I need to go on a course of pain killers and anti-inflammatories because I'm very bruised inside.  What a relief! We are still on track for Congleton.