Addiction

I set off for a run this morning, garmin on, heart monitor strapped in. I was instructed for a steady 40 minutes. Actually, I was instructed for this yesterday, today was a rest, but owing to being ready to drop after a long team meeting yesterday, I decided to prioritise an early night, which I had, and enjoyed. I'm taking it a little easier with the training this week, owing to the wimping out last week having alerted Sal to the ongoing pain thing. We spoke yesterday, and she asked me to point out where the pain was. Now this is exciting. It seems probable that owing to wearing trousers last time, and perhaps being a bit vague, I may have pointed in the wrong place, because it's NOT my peroneal tendon that has a problem. So, after learning that new word and all, and overusing both it and perennial, it turns out that it's problem free. Actually, it looks like I may have torn or strained or have microtears in a much harder to say muscle in the calf, which is called the gastrocnemius. I'm just glad this is a blog, and not radio.

Happily, this is also not a serious injury, but, similarly, one that would be good if it got better. The good news is I get an extra swimming day instead of hills! Result! Anyway, off I went, and the leg was letting me know how unhappy it was. At about 17 minutes, I thought it might have stopped hurting, but perhaps "lessened" would be a better way to describe it. Around then, I actually had a moment of epiphany! I thought, I'm quite enjoying this! No, honestly, I really did! I contemplated, once again, the question posed to me by my friend Emma (I often clarify that she is my friend Emma, rather than being me, to avoid confusion/accusations of schizophrenia), will I continue to run after the race? Generally, I think, no I wouldn't, but today, for the first time, I thought, maybe... I'd miss this... and would want to do this more.

This was worrying. It meant all the people who have threatened me with addiction to running may be correct. But then it suddenly hit me, I just liked the song I was listening to. I realised that doing steady runs by myself is the main time I actually listen to music. But actually there's no reason why I shouldn't listen to Sweet Dreams, cover version by the Magnets, at any time. Even in bed (where I am now, listening to it). So actually, I'm probably not yet addicted.