17th-23rd February Run notes

Tuesday

It's a chilly morning but today's three sets of five thirty-second sprints will keep the cold at bay. I wanted to do this on the trail but felt like for an activity where I wanted to work on form I'd rather do it on the road. I settle for a trip to a particular stretch of the Rothwell Greenway along Robin Hood where it'll be quiet and there's plenty of space. I really enjoy drills like this, working to a high intensity whilst also focusing super hard to keep your form and watch for where you start to drop. Once I'm done I slow it right down and find the easy pace to climb the hill back to home. It's my first serious speed work in a while and it feels good. Little was I to know...

Sunday

The day after my sprints my right knee was sore. Up and down the stairs, single leg squats are all sore, is this the dreaded runners knee? About a year ago I also had trouble with the same knee, I rested and did some serious stretching and foam rolling and it made all the difference (particularly working on my adductors). That particular incident was certainly brought on by over-training, I did an extra run on the Sunday, took it very fast, and on the Monday did a long easy run. That felt like classic runners knee, this thing I was less sure but certainly it seemed to have been triggered by increasing my load too quickly. Watching scheduled run days flick by knowing you can't run is a bummer, I try not to get too into a doom-laden headspace, but I know that once this clears up I really have to embed some strength work into my routine.

Sunday is not as lovely a day as Saturday but with the discomfort improving I chance a brief run. Initially, I worry I've made a mistake, it's quite uncomfortable with every step. I make it to my kilometre marker and turn around thinking I'll call it a day at 10 minutes that's progress, lets not go backwards. But as I come off the pavement and onto the track around the Plantation the discomfort eases. It's still there but a lot more tolerable, I go for the loop and there are stretches where I can focus on the run not the knee. I get almost two laps and about half an hour on my feet and decide to call that a victory. The real question is how it all feels tomorrow, the rest of the day has been good and I don't feel like I've regressed. Not the week I was hoping for but onwards to a better one.