A Sort of Longing

Just over a week has passed since I decided to take a month off to try and recover properly from my ligament injury. Things are going well in that respect in that the pain has lessened to an extent that I don’t feel it when I get out of bed or when walking around. If I turn suddenly then I still get a bit of a twinge but nothing like the pain I was experiencing a couple of weeks back.

I have finally taken possession of a new chair at work which has made a big difference as I can now sit comfortably and am not aggravating the condition. Perversely another thing that has seemed to help was crawling up a muddy stream bed on a Reserve training weekend. I had decided against partaking in any actual training due to my condition but I'm afraid that peer pressure and male ego led to me having a crack at one of the exercises. Since then there has been a noticeable difference!! Go figure!

Where I am struggling however is with knowing that there are 1100+ nutters currently running around the Sahara Desert on the 29th edition of Marathon des Sables. I have said that I will never do the race again and that statement will probably remain true. This doesn’t stop the event stirring my athletic loins and make me want to get the trainers and daysack on and get out there again, especially as the sun is high in the sky today. I must remain strong and resist!!

On the subject of MdS, I must wish good luck and continued success to Ashley Charlwood who is currently making his way around stage 3. You can read about his exploits on his own blog. Click here On the flip side of the coin big commiserations to Steph Fell who has been withdrawn from the race after stage 2. I ran with Steph in 2012 and he was very unlucky to be withdrawn on that event so to DNF a second time must be crushing for him. To all others still running / plodding / walking – “vous etes magnifique”, as Patrick Bauer would say.

As a footnote, I promised myself in my last post that I would use my enforced downtime to put my G2G menu together. That is now complete with a week’s food weighing a mere 3.6kg but dishing out just shy of 18,000 KCals. Just need to try out a selection of Mountain House freeze drieds for taste as I cannot go a full week on noodles 3 times a day again!