Ice Outside, Ice Inside

I felt a bit tired on Wednesday, probably a hangover from the evaluation, so I took it nice and easy. The temperatures were as cold as Monday, -7C, but two thin layers on top and running tights had me almost too warm. I like my cold, apparently.

I felt a tad better on Thursday and extended the run by a couple of miles to 12. Since it had been dry all week here in Kerry (very much in contrast to just about the entire rest of the country) the roads have improved day by day. There were still a few icy patches but I knew where they were and could slalom around them even in the dark. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I did.

Things changed overnight though. Westerly winds took over again, bringing rain clouds from the Atlantic, pushing the dry, cold air away. It was raining a good bit at night and the rain froze on the roads, covering them with a layer of very thin but extremely slippery ice.

I got up just after 6 and felt a little twinge in my right knee. I compared the knees to see if it was swollen but could not decide, which probably means that it was swollen. Twinges like that come and go and I did not think much about it. Running outside was challenging. Read, it was a really stupid thing to do. Virtually every step felt like my foot was slipping in the ice for a couple of inches and how I managed to stay upright for the entire run is beyond me. The road really was one gigantic ice rink, something that became much more apparent once it became lighter and I could actually see where I was going. However, I made it home without any incidents, but my knee started hurting a bit more once I was finished. I still did not think much about it, got to work (which was difficult but I made it) and within one hour I was in pure agony. When I checked the knee again it was definitely swollen, red, throbbing and warm, and putting weight on it was almost impossible. I made it to 3 o'clock but then went home because I could not stand it any longer (not a problem. It’s the evening of the office Christmas party and most of my colleagues were already in the pubs by then).

Right now I'm hoping Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation will do the trick, but no luck so far. Just yesterday I was thinking how much I appreciated being fit and uninjured. I’m supposed to run the last race of the Killarney 5k series tomorrow, but I cannot possibly see me making that. Looking at the weather forecast, it is quite likely to be cancelled anyway. After running all the other races, including one 2 days before the Dublin marathon, it would be incredibly annoying to miss out on the last one, even though I ran all of them with the brakes on and never raced outright.

1 Dec

10 miles, 1:16:51, 7:41 pace, HR 142

2 Dec

12 miles, 1:30:37, 7:33 pace, HR 144

3 Dec

10 miles, 1:18:24, 7:50 pace, HR 143