Over the years I’ve had my fair share of injuries. To those who know me well this will sound like the understatement of the decade and, if I was being entirely honest, I’ve probably taken a share for quite a few other people too.
I’ll regale you with some cracking sports injury stories later on but, for the time being and especially given my track record, my primary objective for this marathon crusade is to turn up at the start line a) injury free and b) having done the required training.
Taken as a statement on its own, this sounds so obvious that it should barely warrant a mention. Of course you want to be injury free. And of course you want to do the training. Unfortunately though for vast periods of a training schedule these two things are in direct opposition to each other, and that’s where the trouble starts…
To do all of the training – five days a week for at least sixteen weeks - it stands to reason that you need to be prepared to run when your body is aching and you’re not feeling 100%. For example, I’ve spent the first three weeks of my schedule running on sore calves, primarily because of my Cotswold jaunt at Christmas. I’ve managed to keep up with the plan though, as I’ve deemed calf pain as ‘manageable’. i.e. it hurts, but it doesn’t hurt to the point of making me stop - in fact, it’s probably good for a bit of mental toughness.
This logic doesn’t work for everything though and unfortunately this conundrum has reared its ugly head for me a bit over the past week. For the first time ever I’ve been suffering with a bit of knee pain. It doesn’t feel like anything too serious, but at the same time it feels like it has the potential to be quite bad. It’s sore below the joint and is clicking quite a bit when it shouldn’t. It’s more irritating than anything else, but I’m conscious of it and it does hurt a bit.
Having not experienced this type of pain before, I don’t know whether I should try to man up and run through it or not. And when you’ve got something you’re not sure about, it leads to quite a few thoughts going through your mind about what you should do. Thoughts that I’d liken to Homer Simpson’s devil & angel sketch, with one character in his left ear telling him one thing, and another in the right telling him the exact opposite.
On the left I have the devil voice telling me I must do the training, that I’m missing key sessions, that it doesn’t really that hurt much, and that quite frankly, I’m sacrificing any chance of a good time by being such a wimp.
On the right, I’ve got the angel aka Captain Sensible. El Capitano is representing ‘turning up to the start line injury-free’ and telling me that running on the injury isn’t worth it and that a few days off will be much better in the long run.
So which one do you listen to? At the moment I’ve erred on the side of caution and decided to rest up for a few days – primarily because if I don’t and it gets worse, the prospect of having to put myself through 14 weeks of pain and hell just to get to the start line isn’t exactly appetising.
At the moment it’s all very noble taking the long-term view and I know that the voice of the devil will get stronger the closer we get to the race. But this does mean that in the short-term I’ll need to sacrifice a decent time in the Watford half-marathon in three weeks and take another beating by my brother for good measure. To be fair, the second part ought not to make any difference as I’ve had a good few of those down the years… hey ho.
Just in case you think I’m being far too sensible I’ll sign off by telling you that I haven’t ignored my inner devil completely. We went to our friends Sarah and James’ house for Sunday lunch and, rather than turn up ravenous after a 15 mile run, I went having done the square root of naff all instead. But rather than stay in training mode I thought I’d cheer myself up by taking full advantage of a massive and delicious Sunday roast, a huge portion of apple crumble cake and custard for pudding, and decided to wash it down with the best part of a bottle of red for good measure.
Not ideal for the training, but it was a great way to take my mind off of the pain in my knee…
And I’m telling you this because…
I’m running the 2012 London Marathon for the Hertfordshire Community Foundation (HCF).
I’m running the 2012 London Marathon for the Hertfordshire Community Foundation (HCF).
If you feel inclined to sponsor me to help the Hertfordshire Community Foundation continue their great work, you can do so here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BenWood2
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