Our hero steps off the treadmill, panting, and hobbles toward the fountain.
Over 2 hours before, he set out to run "long": a slow, endurance run. Today there would be no swim, no racing against others on nearby treads.
Now, he stands at a crossroad. On the one hand, he has just completed mile 11, tying a personal best for indoor distance. He has tied this record several times, but has never been able to surpass it. On the other hand, all is not well: strange knee cramps at mile 8 were the first symptom in a serious decline of running enjoyment. While other exercisers happily chatted, our hero descended into his own personal hell, running a mile at a time, then stopping to drink and stretch. With each additional mile, the onset of pain began ever sooner.
He bites his lip as he debates the situation. "Injury is completely unacceptable, but where is the line between sore and injured? And yet things gets are getting pretty freaky on that thing.", he muses.
Finally, he steps back on the treadmill and revs up the speed. His thighs feel like jelly, and now the dreaded "chills" have come to visit.
He grimaces and through gritted teeth, mutters, "well, it'll make a good blog entry".
Result: 12 miles and new indoor PR for distance.
3 comments:
I, too, attempted a PR-breaking feat this weekend but was disappointed to only tie (yet again) a previous PR. I ate an entire box of Tagalongs in one sitting.
Hm. Well...let's see how you're feeling TOMORROW on that knee. If you injure yourself, you'll be eating tagalongs with googly bear, you hear? (not that that sounds like a bad idea to me, frankly. I LIKE tagalongs!!)
Ha ha... Monday pm, I swam 750 m. Though truth be told, my knees excused themselves and sat on the pooldeck eating tagalongs.
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