BIG BREAK
Actually, there seems very little to be gained in some sort of ceremonious signing off at the Blencathra and Tebay races. I haven't run at all since Fairfield, which suggests I'm already two weeks in to the resting and healing process. There seems little point in blowing this accrued recovery time on two tough races that will be even tougher on a fortnight of runlessness.
It's not so much a case of listening to the body, but more a case of being told by it - and in no uncertain terms.
Fanciful ambitions and best intentions count for nothing without the basic ability to go out and run properly. After thirteen and a half years of running, it's time to take a proper break from it and see if I can get my crocked bits and pieces fully revived. There's no plan for when to try again exactly, not even in the furthest reaches of my mind's eye. Simply when it feels right to, I suppose.
With Ben at work deep in to his training as a sports injury therapist, he's used me as a subject to get some case study hours in and had a good look at my knees last week. It turns out my right knee is turned out. This would explain all sorts of aches and pains with the right hand side of my running mechanics. Top that with a back that rarely feels fully flexible and has been giving me grief again lately, with what I thought was a bruised heel but is plantar fasciitis and all those things combined with a far from perfect left knee either... it would seem ridiculous to carry on.
The paranoia of losing fitness altogether was eased yesterday when I finally got the bike out for an hour, blew some cobwebs away and really enjoyed it. I think I can finally make a habit of cycling now, particularly as I feel I really have to.
At the beginning of next week I've got a session booked on the bowling green. Yes, that's right, the bowling green. It was never tongue-in-cheek you know, I said it might come to this.
In a very timely, even incredulous coincidence, one of my good pals Leroy (Lee Dalton) has got in to crown green bowling recently. If the crossover from fell running to bowling may sound a stark contrast, Leroy's most recent sporting accolade is a Second Dan in karate.
Dalton and I used to roll up together all the time (he knows what I mean), but now we're going to roll a few 'ends' together and see what happens. The seeds of a new sporting passion to be sewn? Who knows? Certainly something to fill the gap whilst waiting for the green shoots of running recovery.