Today was an interesting day, a learning day, a good day for day 3 ...

I slept well last night, and since I’m on holiday, I didn’t get out of bed until I was good and ready.

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Disclaimer: still not me running

My legs hurt… a lot. But I knew they would. You don’t do a 10km run straight off the bat without it coming back to bite you.

And it did bite me, in the legs, in the butt, in the calves, pretty much everywhere.

But I felt good. I knew the solution was to do some stretching, so I did. It seemed to work a little. I did some foam rolling but that was just excruciating, so I stopped that.

Then I spent the day writing again, which was good. Every hour or so I got up and stretched some more. Since it was raining again outside, running was off the menu for today.

I did some research on my knee problems and found out it was caused by the IT band, or more correctly by the muscles connected to the IT band. Stretching those muscles should fix the problem apparently.

So I tried it and my legs did seem to feel a bit better.

About 6pm the sun came out and my feet started getting twitchy.

Ok, I said to myself, I’ll do a short run, just until my knee starts to hurt and then I’ll come back home.

So I got changed and fired up Runkeeper. I didn’t question my desire to go running this time, it just raised an eyebrow as if to say, Well don’t come crying to me when this all turns to crap. It huffed off and started the timer.

The first part of the run this time was uphill as I was heading for the south coast. So I walked that bit and then kicked in the running gear once I was over the top. My knee complained instantly. It whined, it cried, it stomped its feet, but I carried on, waiting for the tantrum to work its way out. Eventually it calmed down and sulked, promising retribution later on.

I was fine with that, so I carried on running down the long hill that led to the sea. The rest of me felt quite good, a bit stiff and sore but that gradually sorted itself out and I could run mostly comfortably.

I made it to the end of the road and stopped in a park near the shore. It was filled with families and small kids. It’s a park that I quite like going to. You rarely hear English spoken there. It’s usually a mix of Indian, Russian, Polish and possibly Greek. It’s quite cool to see the different nationalities all sharing the park together and seeing their kids playing together.

I stopped and stretched out my quads and took on some water. Stretching my quads seemed to have a good effect, so I decided to run along the waterfront for a bit before turning back.

It was quite pleasant running along the coast with pretty much no traffic or people to worry about. The next thing I knew I came around a bend and I could see where I had taken some photos previously. It seemed a good spot to aim for and then turn around and head back.

My left leg was sulking a bit harder now and throwing the occasional huff to remind me that it was not happy.

I stopped and stretched again and took on some more water and a One Square Meal Bite (muesli bar). Then it was time to head for home. I checked Runkeeper and I was exactly 5kms from home.

The run back was a bit harder, once again running into the wind. By the time I got back to the park I had had enough and was ready to call it quits and walk back, happy with where I had got to.

Some more stretching and a bit more water later I walked through the park and crossed the road.

Before me stretched a nice straight flat road, that just begged me to run.

Ok, I said, I’ll run to the start of the hill and then walk the rest of the way home. That’s a good effort for today.

So I pushed on, stopping a couple of times to stretch and take on some more water.

At the bottom of the hill I stopped running and walked up the first bit. There was then a flat bit and another bigger hill that led to my place.

Ok, run the flat bit and walk the next hill. Fair enough.

I plodded along the flat until I got to the intersection at the bottom of the hill.

I looked at the hill stretching up before me and thought, bugger. Do I really have to go up that?

The answer was no.

If I turned right another road would take me close to my house and while it was uphill, it was a gentler slope, one that I could run. So I turned right and continued on.

About 100 meters away from the bus stop that marked the side road that would take me to my house, Runkeeper sparked up informing me that I had travelled 10km.

The distance between me and my house was about the same distance that I had walked up the hill.

If I ran all the way home that would mean I had run a full 10km today. But that also meant running up the really steep street that I hadn’t run up yesterday. I’ve never run up this street before because doing so is stupid.

So what was I to do?

If you have been following me for a while there is one thing you will know about me by now – I’m stupid.

So I ran up the street and all the way home, and you know what that means huh?

That’s right, 10kms run today!!

Super happy with that!

I’m going to pay for this I know, but that’s ok. Tomorrow is a strength training day at the gym, so no running required. I’ll do a bunch of stretching and by the time a running day comes around I should be good to go.

I’m looking forward to it already.