It hurts when I stop

A book I had some years ago about health & fitness, headlined by Ruby Wax and Dr Alan Maryon-Davis, made the great comment about exercise "Think how great it feels when you stop", to which Ruby replied "It does! I must stop more often..."

I'm finding the opposite. Felt great when running, but crocked now.

A run with Kim this evening down the road through Easton village, exactly 1.5 miles each way, in the dusk, the rain and the wind... not as safe a run as we thought, as only the first half of it has pavements. The rest is verges and grass banks. All that hopping on and off different levels to avoid the cars - despite our luminous yellow tops - was tough going.

Each half of the run - 1.5 miles - timed out at 15:15 or thereabouts, with a 4 minute break at the halfway mark (so this gave me a much improved mile pace of 10:10). For about 75% of the run, I actually felt pretty comfortable, too. However, by the last bit, the omnipresent pull on the left lower thigh/hamstring was overtaken by a greater pain in the upper right front thigh/hip. By the time I'd driven home, it really was feeling very painful, and still is now - despite some frozen-pea treatment.

I am very proud of the fact that I've done 3 x 1.75, 1 x 1.95, and 1 x 3 miles within the last 7 days - just over 10 miles. Given that my average weekly mileage has been around the 5 mile mark for months, this is quite an achievement. But if I want to get to a comfortable 4 miles by the end of October, 5 end November and 6 end December, that pace might have to slacken off just a little; or at least, make sure there's a bit less hopping about to jar the muscles that were, just eight months ago, used for nothing more than driving to the supermarket and back...