Day 442 - Sunday 11th March 2012

No exercise Saturday (this is always my day off).  I did however exercise my stomach by taking on a massive plate of Chinese food for dinner!  Probably not the greatest idea in the world as although I love Chinese it has been a while since I’ve had it and it’s not great in quantity for my chrones; also its not the best preparation for a long run the following day.

Sunday morning turned up at about 6am with the twins joining us (which meant we have a night free from them – yey) and then Asher joined about 6.30am.  The sun was already shining and it looked like a glorious one.  A bowl of rice crispies later and I was on the road at 8am for my run.  I ended up doing the lonhest one I’ve ever done in terms of miles and time; 3 hrs 9 minutes, 20.01 miles.  All was fine until about mile 16 when my right knee became so painful that I had to walk for about a mile; really annoyed about that.  After the mile it still really hurt, but I got going again and made it home.  I will not run now anyway for another week and will take that time to get some treatment and rest from running; I want to do it again next Sunday if possible, so need to have the knee sorted by then.  I think it was just an “I T band” issue, so stretching and foam roller, however painful it will be, should do the job.  Another thing that would help me if to take some drink and food/gels with me; as usual  am probable the only fool no eating or drinking on a 20 mile run!

The run itself was great though (apart from the pain).  I went dyke road to seven dials, down new England to fire station, along London road to pier, along coast road into marina, out marina onto undercliff road, along undercliff past Rottingdean to the wall as far as you can get, then turned and back to marina, up steep hill to top road , down road to pier, passed palace pier to west pier, turn back to palace pier, then around back to London road past pavilion, all the way along London road passed preston park, turn left up to Withdean stadium, then tediously slow up valley driver, then down dyke road and home.  When I was heading towards rottingdean I bumped into Fiona going the other way which was lovely.  Then when I was back on dyke road heading home I bumped into Little Bob and finished my run with him.  It was like Brighton Swimming Club running section! 

After getting home and having a 30 minute lye in the spa pool to rest the legs it was back up on em and back to the seafront with the kids on their scooters.  The rest of the day, although glorious weather and wonderful kids, was somewhat painful on the knee.  Hopefully tomorrow in the sea will help that (freeze away the pain!)