Last week was quite an eventful week for my running and a steep learning curve too. On Tuesday I decided to test myself and see fi I could run for three days continuous. Tuesday I decided to do a repeat of the Thursday night club run and see if I could do it on my own. It was a nice, sunny day after the previous day which had rained most of the day and I love running trails when it’s like this. The route was on familiar roads so I didn’t have a problem remembering it. I also lengthened it too so I could do more distance and hill work.
Later on in the week this would prove to be a bad mistake but at the time it seemed like a good idea. To finish off I went up the now familiar Station Road climb again walking up most of it. One day I will run up it! However it was not to be this day and I got home tired but satisfied with my run.
Wednesday my legs felt tired but I decided to go out anyway. I went down some country lanes around me. It’s really good running country as it’s very quiet and car free. This means you can concentrate on your running rather than worrying about traffic and other obstacles that seem to appear in today’s world.
I didn’t have a route planned out in my mind although I have a very good knowledge of the area. I just went out to run and see where my legs took me! I had a little hill in mind to finish off with but getting there I could go anywhere. As I was running along thinking of a route I remembered a hill called Howes Lane and decided to give it a go. This turned out to be a good idea as while I didn’t run up the whole of the hill I did manage half way and then walked up the rest at pace.
The best thing was I felt good and I had plenty left at the top to carry on running to the little hill and attempt that. But here I may have made an error of judgement as I went for a longer route when a shorter one would have made more sense. This became apparent when I got to the little hill which is steep and bends round to the right at the top continuing to rise until flattening out at the top towards the main road.
Unfortunately I had nothing left at this point and had to walk up the hill which was disappointing. But I managed a steady 6.2 miles and felt good when I got home. And then it was Thursday and the club run. We set off from our new home at the local golf club and went down familiar lanes but in a different direction to how I normally run them.
And today was when I felt it. I felt the tiredness in my legs and although I should have been able to run the route no problem I suffered for my earlier runs and I felt very tired and not up to running. This taught me that I should listen to my body and not do too much too soon. Although I did it my pace suffered and my legs did too on the club run. Lesson learned for the future. Don’t do too much and listen to your body or you will suffer!
The Autistic FellRunner 