"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt



Sunday 13 May 2012

Speed, strength, endurance… Animals!



I feel a bit rude... I didn't  really introduce myself in my first blog; my name is David, I'm a Senior Intelligence Analyst working for the NHS, from Liverpool... The job title may sound pretty cool and Mi5-esque, but it's not! Ok, so formal introductions done, I can carry on where I left off!

In my last blog I said that I was working my way back to full fitness. I’ve been back running now ‘properly’ for about 6 weeks, though I’ve been running in some form for just under 3 months. The time has flown by, and it’s crazy to think I wasn’t running for 6 long, horrible months!

My focus has been on 5km and 10km distances as I’m running the Bupa Manchester 10k a week tomorrow (Sunday 20th), and a lesser known Knowsley 5k the Wednesday after (23rd). Dreaded speed sessions as well as increasing the distance of my weekly long slow runs are par for the course at the moment.

This work has reduced my 5km time down to sub 20min for the first time since before injury, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to manage a sub 40min 10km for Manchester just yet!

Today I managed my furthest long run this year; a 10 mile jaunt covering a bit of the Liverpool-Leeds canal and the local roads. All was going great until just after 2.5 miles when I tried my best at completing a full on face plant as I went over on my ankle. Fortunately I didn't hit the deck and after a couple of seconds to make sure I was alright off I trotted again. That was the only bit of trouble I had, but the real test will be overnight; I'll be crossing everything when going to bed tonight hoping that my knee doesn't flare up!
I should probably mention, not to make you jealous or anything, that I’ve got the week off work next week. Unfortunately I’m not venturing to some far off sun kissed land, or for a brief city break – as much as I’d like to! My dad was 60 on Friday, so he and my mum have gone on a cruise; hence I’ve taken the week off to look after the animals…

…Animals? Now is a good time to tell you that my mum and dad live on a small holding. A small holding (in case you didn’t know) is a house with a small plot of land; in this instance, just over 3 acres. There are quite a few animals – 4 horses, 7 chickens, 4 dogs and 3 cats, suffice to say I’ll be shovelling $hit pretty much non-stop, joy! I don't mind - I lived there for the best part of 14 years and it gave me some of the most funny, heart-warming, and heart breaking times (I'm getting all mushy!!).
If I've done this right, there should be a photo below from the window of my old room showing the... Back garden!
The land runs all the way down the left of the picture, to the trees at the back, and over to the right ending at the hedge.

I'll update after the Manchester 10k, good or bad race...
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2 comments:

  1. I Am Leg End ;)16 May 2012 at 01:07

    Hope the knee is fine - the Manchester 10k will be really cool! Enjoy! ;)

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  2. dk_know16 May 2012 at 12:51

    Thanks Taff! I did the Manchester 10k last year - my first ever race and that's what made me catch the bug... Knee *seems* fine... There was an iffy moment today and yesterday, but I've just played 5 a side football and it was ok. I think a lot of it is in my head, I'm very scared about it re-occuring!

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