Hills again

After the intervals on Tuesday, I considered doing a normal run this evening, but I’ve grown quite fond of Dumb Woman Lane and since today included one of those work situations which isn’t good for the career (liars lying and mis-quoting conversations to create trouble and grief to promote their own pathetic situation) and I will now, for several months, be wondering if I have a long-term job/career to engage me and thus if I’ll be near the hill to run up it, I decided I must run it no matter what.

So off I set with my trusty colleague (until I get sacked) in tow, very slowly (he had shin splints from runs on Saturday and Tuesday) towards the hill before I left him at the top to pursue my two repeats while he intended ambling down and back up just the once (also, he was off to football training again afterwards and wanted something left for that).

I stopped my laps timer very accurately this time to allow checks on performance and the distances weren’t exact to last week but since the hill is steady each time, the comparison this week is on pace. And the first repeat was fractionally quicker (2 seconds a mile), the downhill jog was slightly quicker but the second uphill (despite feeling much slower than either the first repeat or last week) was only 6 seconds slower than the first repeat (identical distance between laps) and a whopping 1 minute 15 faster (pace comparison, not actually 75 seconds. That would mean crawling last week!) than last week’s second attempt.

Cor blimey guv’nor. Or something. Either I’m improving, one of the weeks was an error of Garmin proportions or I really don’t know what’s going on. Maybe two sets of repeats isn’t enough (I may well try 3 next week) or maybe I respond well to two sets of intervals a week.

One other oddity is my foot.

Yesterday had me in so much pain I was wondering what to do. After work, I was uncomfortable to say the least in my gardening trainers. Later in the evening, sock off, I detected a little swelling at the bottom of the shin area/top of the foot arch bit if that makes any sense (which, with an ankle in the way, probably doesn’t). I massaged all the surrounding soft tissue as hard as I could without letting out little sounds of distress in the hopes I’d actually tweak a bit that made so much pain I could identify it for a professional to tell me what an idiot I am. And that must mean it had been bad, knowing my reluctance to see people who know what they’re  on about for such things. Instead, I’ve been completely pain free all day. And I mean genuinely pain free. I awoke and put it gently on the floor, such was my immediate anxiety about it. And there was nothing there.

It’s a miracle. The run today was perfectly wince free and as I sit here with the foot on my chair edge, curling toes and making the big toe joint crack with flexing, no pain is emanating from anywhere.

Apart from the little bit of my soul that wants to pay the mortgage which I wont be able to do if I get sacked, of course.

But that goes without saying.

251.97 miles to go.