FAIL

After five weeks, it's happen.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it came around last night.

I couldn't finish my run.


After having sore shins for a couple of weeks and not having the energy I had in the first couple of weeks of running I went to the library and took out a couple of books on running. The obligatory "Running for Dummies" and a few proper books too. The Charlie Brown coloured crib notes told me not to be too ambitious, and every website I've had a look at says not to be impatient. So running 10km on a Monday night five weeks after starting for the first time is impatient now is it?

Apparently.

Last night I started out on my regular Darling to Bridge run and didn't feel right from the start. My left leg was 'a bit funny' and I felt like I had a head cold. The first few minutes were really hard, noticeably as I past the aquarium, though once I reached the bridge I wasn't out of breath. I think I was keeping the same pace as I normally do, possibly 100m off pace, but aerobically I felt pretty darn good.

I turned on my heels, but something was definitely wrong. I didn't see a man carrying a DOOR down the street - nearly hitting him, and by the time I got to Hickson St I was in trouble. My legs were aching and I was panting like a dog in an oven at an icecream shop.

I probably could have finished the run, say if it was in Seattle I'd have forced myself, but after reading about injury and the soft American attitudes of 'hey man take a break' I succumbed to walking after just five minutes of the second session.

I was gutted. I can do better. I have done better every night for the last month. I was heartbroken, really disappointed and down. Angry almost.

Hitting the books again I read more about over training in the early stages of running. Apparently it is very common; "You can suddenly run two miles without feeling rough? Why not do twenty?" It's exactly how I've felt, so maybe it's time to stick rigidly to the schedule and not get ahead of myself.

Needless to say the books inform me not to take on a marathon until I've been running a year already, and can comfortably cover 60 miles a week, also that I should enter many shorter races as part of my training, plus something called 'fartlek'. Balls to all that. All the other schedules are wildly different to mine (and each other) but I'm sticking with the first one I randomly found online - so wild that I can't even find the original source.

So say I did 4 km last night, that's 2.5 miles, which technically takes me to 50.15 miles overall.

Doesn't feel like a victory right now. The lows after such great highs on Monday are pretty deep.

Here's to Saturday, I'll try for two 15min bursts, and I'll sort out my diet so I've some energy to do it. It was possibly Henry's Spag Bol, my beers and Cara's company that helped on Monday.

Maybe not.

No Snickering!