A long run

I've been having problems getting a long run in.  I usually feel fine up to 9 or 10km, but then things start to ache and fearing an injury, I cut my run short.

This morning my knee did not feel great.  It was not feeling bad, just sort of OK, which seems to be becoming the norm.  The knee doesn't hurt when I walk around, but I can feel it a little going up and down the stairs and I can usually find a sore spot where the tendon attaches to the shin if I poke around.  I have had the occasional day when it feels great, but they seem to be getting very rare now that I've upped the training load.  I also get occasional days when it feels bad, painful to walk up stairs and very easy to find sore spots anywhere on the knee.

From the very beginning of the run I could feel my knee, but I was determined to finish my planned long run of 14km.  After a kilometre or so my knee came good and I fell into a comfortable rhythm.  Frustratingly my watch ran out of battery at about the 8km mark - another temptation to finish early, but I continued on.  Luckily I knew where I had to run to complete 14km.  As usual, I started to feel the knee again at the 10km mark.  At first it wasn't bad, but it slowly progressed to mild pain.  During the last 2km, my knee was more sore than any previous run because I would have usually stopped, but not today.

Once I stopped running, all signs of pain disappeared and I could not feel anything when I walked back home.  Even going up the stairs didn't cause any problems.  This was a big relief, but the real test will be how it feels tomorrow morning.  I'm coaching the club training session tomorrow morning, so I may turn it into a rest day for me.

I still don't run with a camera, but yesterday a Blue Tongue lizard made an appearance on the path right near our house.  So I went back inside to get my phone and took the following pictures.  The lizard has a nasty gash on its ear, probably by a dog, and it was covered in ants who were climbing into the wound - appearing to eat the lizard alive from the inside.  It was still mildly active, but sadly I don't think it is long for this world.  I now suspect the other lizard probably suffered the same fate - a lot of people walk their dogs along this path. I didn't really get a good photo of it and when I tried to put my hand near it to help give you an idea of size, it scuttled away into the bush.