Friday 29 July 2011

Disease ridden and banging the Devil

Best laid plans and all that! Those that know me will be aware that I am *slightly* prone to changing my mind about races and all things running. The amount of times I've signed up to a race/run/plan and then backed out is a bit of a running joke. After starting my high mileage plan in March I decided to abandon all ultramarathons and concentrate on racing shorter distances. This has paid off by getting under 40mins for 10K and under 90mins for HM.

The next stage was to carry on with Hadd training and try to achieve a sub 3hr marathon. I was hoping that would have been at Loch Ness this year.

But (and there was always going to be a but!) my psoriasis came back. It has slowly started to get worse since I resumed eating dairy in May. However it got really bad when I was on holiday in Ireland and to my horror it had returned to my foot :(

No need to panic though - I have gone back to a fully vegan diet in the last week and seen significant improvement. I have also returned to the creams and potions supplied by the NHS specialist. Things are looking better and I've only needed to superglue my foot together once :-)

Here's the rub though. I've realised that I may not be a consistent runner forever. God knows whats round the corner and maybe this time next month I'll be on the injury bench for months until the pox dies down a bit. So while I still have the chance, do I really want to remember my running as a means to an end - regimented training and a struggle to hit a self imposed timed goal? When I thought about my mates running on the West Highland Way next weekend having a whale of a time with fantastic scenery I was simply jealous. That is what I'd like to remember if it all goes pear shaped.

So change of plan. I'm running/jogging/bimbling the Devil O The Highlands Ultra next weekend (well, I'm on the reserve list) and also Speyside Ultra at the end of August. I have no time in mind and am running it with Mrs_Shanksi - I want to take it easy, enjoy myself and have a whale of a time with mates. I'll continue with the Hadd training because I really enjoy it and it is superb for my fitness. Long may it continue :-)