KNEE DEEP IN PRE-RACE UNCERTAINTY
Next race up is the Tour of Pendle. Just shy of seventeen miles and taking in just about every conceivable climb on Pendle Hill's range. I've got the climbs in the bag, I've done a couple of long runs up there last month, I feel strong enough and fit enough to run it to a standard I can be reasonably satisfied with. The question is whether or not the old knees will take it?
In all honesty, they've been aching since the beginning of summer. Initially I put it down to the hardness of continually dry ground, but even since a bit of wet returned to put some give back, tendonitis is getting noticably worse and there is no point pretending anymore that it's going to magically fade away. Note the self diagnosis there and selective pretending - I'm way too ignorant to be prepared to investigate the possibility of loose cartilage, the onset of arthritis or anything else on the more severe side just yet - or at least not until after this race.
Something which certainly went under the radar of these pages at least, which are generally running specific, was that Sara and I were married at the end of last month. Chris Barnes predicted that would be it for my running, but on the contrary, my new wife is always happy for me to pop out and do a few miles! I ran on each of our full three days on Minimoon - start as you mean to go on. We had a fantastic time to follow a fantastic wedding day.
On the Amalfi Coast, there's nowhere to hide from steps. One of the routes I did a couple of times up to Le Torre dello Ziro takes in a climb of at least 1500 steps - and the rest. (I counted to 1200 once on the way back down, but then got bored) It was a tough slog, but I loved it. In hindsight though, I wonder if I've made my knees even worse climbing and descending the hard surface and unnatural repetition of all those steps? Only out for up to forty minutes at a time, I beasted myself on all three occasions to 'make it count'. I should never underestimate my own naivety, but who knows if I'll ever be there again so I wanted to enjoy it
These niggly knees are fine over shorter and middle distances. But once I get to the nine or ten mile mark on a proper up and down fell run back home, an aching stiffness slows me down significantly. The normal service of running becomes complicated, steep descents become juddery, awkward and painful. These two weeks leading up to the Pendle Tour are going to be key now, balancing keeping going whilst giving my knees some relief to recover. That's a bit like waiting for paint to dry in the rain.
But I've entered the race, I'm going to have a crack and this always was just an experiment to see if the Yorkshire Three Peaks Race is a realistic possibility. If I'm not convinced this old dog's bodywork can hack the major mileage these days, no doubt the jury (in this case, my knees) will decide for sure at about mile twelve on November 17th!