The pain subsides

31st July 2008

The black eye is looking less like the aftermath of an afternoon of fun down at Millwall and more like a bit of tiredness. The bruising on my face, knees and hands has turned into the golden glow normally associated with a tanning session but with slightly longer results than you get from the average bottle and the pain in my left knee has dulled from excruciating to hardly noticeable. I’m back :)

For my birthday, my young lady bought me a gym membership and for the last couple of days I have been doing non impact exercise as I have not managed to run for more than a mile and a half in the mornings without collapsing in a heap. It’s a great little gym with a swimming pool and the couple of times that I have been there after work; I’ve almost had it to myself. I’d tell you where it is except you might join and crowd me out :) It even has bikes that I can take out on the various trails in the area which should allow me some cross training. The only negative aspect of joining the gym is that I have an assessment next week and I’m going to have the humiliation of listening to how unfit I am. I was chatting to Mark, who will be doing my assessment and he asked what my goals were, the conversation went something like this:

Me: I have an 85 mile race that I want to do next year.
Mark: Oh, you’ll need a bike then
Me: No, I’ll be running it
Mark: Do you run Ultra’s then
Me: No, but I’ve run 6 miles though
Mark: (walks off tapping the side of his head muttering)

This morning I ran 3 miles with the dog before work and I’ve not seen her look so relieved for some time. She’s been a bit miffed with me recently, not only did I climb Snowdon without her but I came back a wreck. Without the runs that she has come to expect, she’s been a bundle of energy the last couple of days.