Author: Administrator

A very good run last night with Vane. Here’s the feed from his Garmin. I jumped in & out from my home for the loop into Keskuspuisto and back. It was like a race for me, the first time since Midnight Run I was going sub 4 mins per km pace. The good news is the knee seems to have healed over the past two months. Last Sunday I did an extra long 1.50 effort, must have been over 25K, to Iivisniemi and back. Only the achilles felt worn out the next day.

Have recovered from Midnight Run pretty much okay. Achilles and hip are more or less under control. Today had a good 20K morning run. This was the first longer for a very long time. Must have been months and the truth is I’ve done less than five 20K+ runs in the whole year. Really. Had to keep the pace really slow because of the left knee, which hasn’t healed. Later at night though to jog to my son’s soccer workout but had to stop running after just a few hundred meters. The pain was overwhelming. Looking back I’ve had pretty much the same thing going on with the right knee a year ago or so and it took months to heal. Let’s hope this time there is some shortcut. As a first aid I’m doing ice.

I’m okay with the result which proves I’m pretty much in 35 mins shape. Somehow feels like fall 2011 again. Couldn’t run basically anything during the week because of numerous leg problems. On top of it all woke up Sat morning with a huge cramp in left calf. “This was it!” I thought. Could however make it to the starting line and the opening strides felt better. No major pains. I wanted to give it a shot for 35 mins.

Gunned out, the fastest guys left me in dust. Settled for the approx 3.30/km pace which felt surprisingly fast. I just couldn’t imagine going any faster. Was leading a pack at 4K point when I got sticky pain in left knee and had to limp a few steps and settle to cruise behind the leaders. Luckily it faded away over the next km. But then after 6km or so started to feel the hip, calf and overall fitness. Also the knee “came alive” once in a while. Anyway at 9km had 3.18 left to finish in 35 sharp. I felt pretty confident I could make it. Upped the pace, went to lead a pack again feeling strong. I think I even developed some gap. But then like 300m from the finishing line my legs and shape just gave away. Four or five guys passed by and I kinda gave mentally up. It was my slowest km of the day in 3.37 and 15 secs past the target. (The pack leader clocked in 35.03).

Limping to the metro station to see Finland — USA basketball game it was clear to me it was max effort tonight.