Disconnect

I made the leap in perspective years ago to running ultramarathons. Long before I actually ran my first (and so far, only) ultra in August 2005, a 65km family affair we dubbed the Inaugural Waskesiu Fun Run, I started to convince myself that the runs I then considered long were short, just the beginning. This was a gradual and logical realization for me, just the next step, as it had been a decade earlier when I ran 30 minutes for the first time, then 60, then 90, then two hours, then three.

Traditionally, after running a marathon, I've taken time off, telling myself my body needed time to recover and rebuild. This has also traditionally been the time when I would let my prodigious love of food, especially anything fried or sweet, run amok - ridiculous really, as despite the occasional attempt at virtue when I would swear myself off the skag for an umpteenth time, it was never as though I had foregone any junky whims in the lead-up to a marathon. I've rested, and ate, and rested more until I could eat again. Maybe not so good for finding the Middle Way, but definitely enjoyable and certainly a routine that has worked for me.

The Seoul Marathon was five weekends ago. Since then, I have done at least a 50km run three of the last four weekends. Last Saturday I did over 60km. I've also been upping the minutes of my weekday runs. Perhaps inevitably then, this weekend, about four hours into a five hour run, my left knee, not yet on the same page as my ambition, decided that enough was enough. I walked/shuffled/grimaced my way to the end, and look now to take four or five days off to ice and rest the knee. And I've learned some lessons about moderation for the future.