Seven Weeks To Go

I can't believe it's only seven weeks before we attempt Hadrian's wall. I had my first run this morning after injuring my knee. I kept it short - 4.78km/2.97mi. I can still feel something's there around my right hip and the side of my right knee so I will be keeping the miles low until I'm confident everything's OK.

I've had two updates from other team members.

Stewart has also had a little knee problem recently and adjusted his miles accordingly. He has been running the hills and country side of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

Graham (left) has also been keeping his runs to less than ten miles each. He has been working away quite a bit lately and finds it difficult to get the longer runs in. Overall though, both of them are training well - better than me anyway. I think they as well as me are nervous of getting an injury that will prevent us starting let alone finishing the Hadrian's Wall trek.

Graham and I were also scheduled to run the Fradley 10K in Lichfield on March 8th. Unfortunately Graham will be away again so can't make it. I'm hoping to still have something in me to at least complete it. I don't think I will be getting a new PB this year though. My PB for the course is 54:41 in 2007. It was my very first race since taking up running in 2006. It's a great, two lap PB course that's uber flat most of the way around. I couldn't get the time off last year to run it and would hate to miss it again this year.

I also need to keep in mind that the following Sunday I'll be running the Stafford 25th Anniversary Half Marathon. I remember the first time I ran it in 2007. It was my first HM and I ran it with ITB Syndrome in my left knee. My time was 02:09:10. The week before I was hoping for a sub 2hr but with my knee problem, it just wasn't going to happen. It was also the first time I met Nigel from the Running From The Reaper Podcast http://runningfromthereaper.blogspot.com/ I think he grew a beard waiting for me to come in. He's a much faster runner than me. We also met at the Stafford HM last year where I also didn't do as well as I planned. My problem that time was a lack of sleep through work. I had just three hours sleep Friday night and four on the Saturday. I was shattered. My finishing time in 2008 was 02:11:32! Longer than when I ran with a knee injury!

I hope to be running regularly from now on so will have inspiration to keep the blog updated each week.