The late morning massage was, as expected, very satisfying, but intensely painful. The sore spots included, but was not limited to: the right groin, hip, thigh and upper hamstring (Was expected); left lower hamstring – well spotted by Mr McKee as that only began to hurt yesterday; the left soleus and plantar on the foot – an excellent call there as I’ve had the odd twinge but forgot about it; and the left shoulder which was “really very tight”. The walking of kids to school using a buggy board and a ruddy big hill is to blame for that.
An hour and ten minutes of body pummelling agony later and I was free to go, feeling conversely somewhat freer and less stiff than I was before I left. Good massage that.
The evening run was to be a similar affair to previous Thursday evenings. Before joining the club run it is around 4.5 miles alone. The legs felt less tired than yesterday but the right groin was still a little troubling – this though was to be expected after some heavy massage on this and the hip.
The club run began as a very sedate affair as we headed on the A607 towards Denton. Out in the country the viciously cold headwind began to bite and for a mile or two it wasn’t much fun. I began to feel hungry, something that has been a bit of an issue in recent days. I think I may be needing to get a couple more hundred calories in me, especially in the form of some late afternoon snack.
Once off the main road there was the only real climb of the night, which felt easier in the dark than it would have been were it light (Still cannot work that one out). Once we made it onto the road to Sproxton I decided to stretch the legs a little and ease away from the group. At around 06:50 miling it was hardly sprinting but it was enough to get the legs working.
This continued on the main road into town, with Gerry easing up onto my shoulder and so ramping up the pace to an extent that before we knew it we were hurtling down the hill at something like five minute miling. We soon put that nonsense to bed as we jogged towards base – I said my farewells and ran onto home – tired but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. With around 16:25 miles covered in just over two hours it was another useful run.