New Year - Old problems

What enthusiasm! Meeting at 8.30 on New Years morning to go running. Wasn't that about the time we used to get home at New Year?

A couple of months ago I wrote on the blog(slightly tongue in cheek) that my running objectives were no longer to increase the speed and length of my runs but to increase the duration between injuries, and my target was to get to the end of the year without any further mishap. On New Years Eve morn I woke up with a cold and went for a run in the late afternoon to try to sweat it out. About 20 minutes into the run my knee gave way and trying to run it off just spread the problem through the thigh to the hip. So I finished up hobbling home. I missed my target by about 7 hours. It reminds me of the London Marathon when my time was 1min 38 secs outside that required to give me automatic entry for life. The Nearly Man.

The run was a double whammy because far from sweating the cold out, it seems to have sweated it in. My body's night-time default setting of; Sleep with minor interruptions, has changed to; Cough with minor interruptions. I've barked so much that people have been asking if we've got a new dog. "No", replies Christina, "Just an old one". I don't wish to over-exaggerate but I now drink my water from a bowl, have a staple diet of Pedigree Chum, and have been entered for Crufts. In an attempt to find a cure I've bought a book called "A Permanent Solution to Throat Problems" by Ivor Sharpacks. Apparently his methods are extreme but he guarantees success. Now that's what I call, "Putting your head on the block". Speaking of dogs there used to be a guy at work called Fido. Don. You couldn't get much closer to Dog Fido could you? Fido drove a Rover. We had site at Barking and thought he should apply to become a supervisor there. On his internal and inter-company correspondence he could then have signed himself; D. Fido, Barking Supervisor.

Seriously, I was intending to do the Garstang 10k, knowing that EtU and YJ would probably be taking part. It would have been an opportunity to see how close I was to Saturday morning standards. However whilst my canine impersonations are declining the knee is still swollen and quite tender. It seems a wimpish word, tender, used in the context of running. A pink-coloured word. Blancmangy in substance.

Good luck to those who are racing this weekend . Is TF trying to establish a reputation for racing or for being racy?

You all keep on running and I'll keep on getting injured.