Will I never learn?

I woke up early yesterday morning, after a jetlag-impaired sleep, determined to get out running again. I wanted to do at least a marathon to prove to myself that my time in the UK hadn’t eroded my endurance base too much. Given all the recent rain I decided to give the Waitakeres a wide berth and instead headed for Woodhill where the sand-based mountain bike tracks and forestry roads stay relatively mud-free all year round. It means running in exotic plantation forest rather than native bush, but the trails make for great running nevertheless. For the first hour all seemed fine but then the tell-tale signs of a long plane trip began to show…. a slight breathlessness, elevated heart rate and nagging sciatic pain. I ignored these things as best I could, but by the 20k mark I was already thinking of a shorter run; and by 22k the wheels had totally fallen off. Now feeling dizzy and nauseous I abandoned all efforts at heroics and started walking back to the car…. 4 dispiriting kms away. Looking back now it seems obvious that the whole idea of doing a marathon just 15 hours after stepping off a long-haul flight was ridiculous. But that’s what happens when your body gets home two days before your mind arrives to keep it company. Lesson learnt? I hope so….

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under 2009 Blogs, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.