Painful

It has been a fairly painful 24 hours here. But an encouraging 24 hours too.

The pain started with a run last night. About 16km. That bit actually wasn't too painful. In fact it was reasonably good. Perhaps a little too good, because, if anything I went to hard.

The hard bit came this morning when I had to get up and back it up with another 16km run. That bit was painful. The run consisted of a number of 3km efforts and the last two efforts are the most I have hurt for a while. Just not a lot left in the legs by that stage.

Still, getting through the two sessions, backing up the session last night with another solid one this morning, is great progress. Running really is feeling the best it has for ages. For for the first time in what feels like close to a year I am not gently nursing my body from session to session. Well I am, but it is a precautionary way, rather than a simply surviving way. Still being very careful, since as I found last week, injury is never far away, but for now I am enjoying be able to run again. The body is ticking along quite nicely for once.

After my run the pain wasn't quite over for the day because I still had one more stop this afternoon. This time it was a good sort of pain (I guess) with a visit to master masseuse Amy at Sportreat. The visit had been planned from a couple of weeks ago, but it was a very opportune visit all the same, after the heavy running load of the last couple of days a massage was just what was needed. A bit sore now, but off the back of the massage I am confident of pulling up well.

It might have been a painful 24 hours, but I suspect it has been worth it.