A few niggles have settled in despite gentle but regular moving. I'm borrowing the concept of 'moving' from Emily Forsberg as I'm definitely not training, just using short easy runs, walks and strength work to keep mobile, promote blood flow and stop me going mad. Unusually for me it was 4 weeks before I got a post-race massage. The massage was as unpleasant as I expected and although it helped, there is still something not right about my left ankle/base of Achilles. My back is bothering me more than usual too but I suspect that might be down to doing more, and more varied, strength work so hamstrings and glutes are working harder than they've needed to for a while. Hopefully things will settle down over the next few weeks.
Mentally I'm a bit all over the place. It sounds silly maybe, but running 100 miles has given me a quiet confidence that even when at work people are rude or belittle me or show no respect, I just think to myself that I ran 100 miles and they never could dream of attempting it, and it makes me feel better about myself. On the other hand for some reason it's been really hard remembering what day it is and when I have to go to work. It must be a remnant of that wonderful timeless bubble running the 100, where nothing existed other than movement. Work isn't easy at the moment either and it feels jarring to be stuck inside stinky classrooms all day. It's odd too not having that drive of having to get the miles in and I actually miss those stupid o'clock journeys to Goring for recce runs! But I think my mind is recovering more quickly than my body though as this week the idea of running a bit longer than 5 or 6 miles and for more than an hour feels like something I want to do. My body isn't so sure however, and still seems to want to stop after about 60 minutes.
With time on my hands I've been thinking about next year's running and wondering what to do. I know I want to run more 100 milers but the last couple of weeks have made me wary of running more than 1 in a year although I suppose the more I do the better my body will get at recovering. So far the plan is to return to A100 and aim for a decent sub-24 hour time and also go for a much improved 100k time. Having said all that though, I don't want to do loads of races as what I did this year seemed to work very well in terms of fitness and getting 100 mile ready.
Next year may also have a couple of surprises- one is dependent on ridiculous odds in a ballot, the other is a step into a new venture (or possibly steps into two new ventures). More on those if and when...
I am beginning to realise that nothing is will be the same after running 100 miles. It has been a genuinely life-changing experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment