Weekly Results 27th August – Ducks in a Row?

Refuse to be ill. Never tell people you are ill; never own it to yourself. Illness is one of those things which a man should resist on principle.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873)

The last few hundred metres, approaching the last kink of the last lake, the cafes and the tunnel under the road to go home. I had run a steady lap of all lakes, and with the wind behind me for the last 3k, was building to a strong but controlled finish.

The last kink. Under 300m to go, I usually count the steps from here. About 85 double paces that take me along the final straight. The crowds go wild.

15 steps into it, a sharp twang in the left leg. B****r! I slow down instantly and it disappears – it only came for one step, a reminder that perhaps I am still having ‘waterfowl alignment issues’ - maybe all my ducks are not yet in the row they should be.

I run home slowly. No pain at home, or the next morning, just a slight stiffness in the left leg. Is that the injury or is it just stiff from running 54k over the course of a week – 5 runs in total?

It is the DHL 5 x 5km relay on Thursday, and I am running in 2 teams – 1^st in one team and 4^th in another. My company has 50 teams participating – I have challenged a guy who works in the same firm but I have never met, to race the first lap if he is also running first in his team. He came in 13 seconds behind me in the Havneløbet and has a reputation as a fast runner. There are 3000 teams on each of Monday – Thursday; our company teams are starting in the first wave on Thursday – they start 250 at once, a minute apart. So if it goes to plan, I and this ‘colleague’ will be among the first to complete a lap.

So time to do a bit of rowing and no running before Thursday and hope that one step was that. There is also the Christianshavnermilen next Monday, and a 6k race around Kastellet the Thursday after. If I get away with the DHL run, I will do those 2 events but no other running for 2 weeks. If not then it will be rowing only for a few weeks and hope it gets better soon.

The rest of the week’s runs were good. A fast 6.1k on Monday – just the first 3 lakes and back home again, in 23 minutes and something. The Injury Run on Tuesday; on Thursday a 17.6 km circuit in 1 hour 11 minutes, based on the Injury Run but incorporating the dog leg along the Langeliniekaj where the cruise ships moor. From Kastellet, I headed north along the elevated walkway, up to the ice cream shop at the end and a small lighthouse. Approaching the ice cream shop, several thousand Americans were on the roadway below, having just been disgorged from one of the larger ships. I overtook and rounded the lighthouse, only to head straight back at the crowd. Fortunately they were well behaved to stick in something resembling a line, which I cut back across and back to the elevated section.

Then the injury run on Saturday and a lap of the lakes on Sunday. 53.8km total, my first week over 50k since before the last marathon. But it looks like it is time to re-incorporate other sports into the schedule – after all if I’m not fit I’m not going to run any more marathons at all, let alone any under 3 hours. The 20km of rowing I did this week as a warm up / warm down exercise (2k before and after each run), and the 40-odd km of casual cycling to work and around town are just not the same thing as a ‘proper’ row or cycle.

Distance run this week: 53.8km

Distance run to date: 301.8km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 139km

Distance rowed this week: 0km

Distance rowed to date: 55.3km