WHWR OCD!

17:04 9 miles 1:22:46

1 9:39 2 9:27 3 9:27 4 9:19 5 9:23 6 9:40 7 9:33 8 9:26 9 6:53  Average 9:12 min/miles

This afternoon I joined Mrs pacepusher for her long run. She’s away (again, Orkney this time) this weekend, and will be unable to run, so wanted to get a run in today, especially as the Edinburgh Marathon is now only just over three weeks away. I haven’t decided what I’ll do on race day (I might just run around with Mrs p, it’s only 4 weeks before the WHWR and one week after my two day run on the WHW), but today I was running at her pace (well almost). I let her do the first couple of miles herself though, meeting her in Pollock Park as I didn’t want to be running for too long with my 52 mile run on Monday. I’m going to have a lot of rest, and eat pasta for lunch, and dinner this weekend to make sure I’m fully prepared for the challenge. I’ll also make the most of my new Skins over the weekend and during Monday’s run.

It was a glorious evening for a run, spoilt only slightly by the huge amount of flies around the route. I stayed with Mrs pacepusher who was running well (especially as this was only her second run since London) and used the run as pace training for the WHWR. However with a couple of miles to go, we left the main roads and headed uphill through a bit of trail, my eyes lit up and I was off. The West Highland Way was suddenly under my feet and I got a buzz at the thought of Monday. I ran back for Mrs p, then ran away again putting in a sub 7 min/mile over the last mile which felt relatively easy.

The reason for the quick blast over the final  mile was not only to get away from the flies, but also to give my legs a chance to stride out after I had twice felt a strange jarring in my left knee. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, it’s fine now, but was a concern at the time. I think it was just the repetition of the slow, short stride as I tried to maintain pace with Mrs pacepusher.   

I’m finding myself consumed more and more with thoughts of running the West Highland Way Race now. It’s like I imagine having an OCD would be, it never seems to be out of my head. Am I doing enough training? Am I doing too much? Can I actually run 95 miles? Which support runner do I want at each stage? What will I eat? When will I eat it? What if I get injured? What will I wear? What will I carry, and when? etc. It’s the first thing that comes into my head on a morning and the last thing that’s in my head when I fall asleep. There is no escape!  

I’m not sure why I’m thinking about it so much. It’s just another race. Just another 10k, half, or full marathon perhaps? Actually no. It’s all three, twice, with a five mile cool-down! That’s why I’m thinking about it a lot!