Bad News !!!
Sometimes, regardless of how sensible and methodical you try to be, shit just happens. There is no reason running should be any different and I have sometimes said in the past that, like anyone else, I may at any time be just one run away from my next injury.
On Friday, I did a tempo run of just under five miles with no issues whatsoever. My plan yesterday was a moderate-paced longer run followed in the next five or six days by a couple of shorter efforts before a final week of rest.
To yesterday then. I was at about seven miles of a nice comfortable run, on flat surface on the Riverside here in Dundee, when my left calf decided to betray me. There was no niggle or precursor discomfort and within a very short distance it was clear that this was not just one of those fleeting running pains but an injury. I stopped briefly to see if it would rectify itself, but a re-start very quickly confirmed otherwise. I was forced to walk the remaining two miles back home.
It should of course go without saying that this occurrence put a very different complexion on my day, given my planned departure for Arizona on 10 April. I think I exhausted my expansive vocabulary of sweary words and vulgar language on the walk home.
From experience, I know that the injury is fairly minor. Could it recover in the following 13 days if I stopped running and rested it completely? Possibly, but that is all the time I could give it with my Grand Canyon run only that number of days away.
Maybe there are times for blind optimism, however that is an affliction I do not suffer from so I wouldn’t know. Lessons learned from previous injuries have taught me that there is no substitute for a measured and realistic approach, however inconvenient the injury or however disappointing the consequences. This is certainly one of those times.
The fact is that possibly just isn’t good enough. I would need as close to 100% confidence as I could achieve in order to get onto that plane. The only way to achieve anything close to that level of confidence would be to run hard, without issue, at least once before I leave. Given the short period of time we are talking about, that would just be stupid and I believe that the result would be fairly predictable.
In case there is any doubt or confusion, I was not going to the USA for a holiday with a couple of runs thrown in for my amusement. I was going to run, with everything else being filler in between. The trip would have no merit or value for me without the key running events, particularly given the expense involved.
But hang on, you say! Why not just change your flights and push the trip back a little?
Not an option this year. One of the running events, the Zane Grey 50, won’t be postponed because Graeme Murdoch can’t make it. Unreasonable, I know.
Secondly, the trip was also timed around the optimum weather window at the Grand Canyon and everything else I now have planned in the months following it.
The reality of course is that by not going, I do lose money. Quite a lot actually, but an amount less than 50% of what I would have spent in total if I went. I certainly won’t bore you with the detail of any of that.
I suppose I have been trying to explain in sentences and paragraphs what I can sum up very succinctly. The trip is cancelled.
Perhaps I can re-visit it again in the future. The Grand Canyon has been there for millions of years apparently so it should be around for a couple more, provided they keep Donald Trump away from it. Just too early to say though but, rightly or wrongly, the whole enterprise is now somewhat tainted in my mind. There is rarely any coming back from that as I can go off ideas as quickly as I can go off people.
Meantime, stiff upper lip, onwards and upwards and all that. Seriously though, no point getting all maudlin about it. I have done that before with injuries and it is self-defeating. I’ll recover and be back running in a handful of weeks then hit the reset button with eyes on the next goal on the list.
