Long, Hard Slog

Today's run: 12 km / 7.46 miles in 1:25:41.
Injury check: Pain. All of me. 
Running buddy: Robert.
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This was a hard run. 

The world was not kind today. Yes, there were hills in the route - and they were nasty in places. There was one around 8km that I would have stopped and walked up if I'd been on my own (thank you, Robert). 

But it was the wind that sapped my strength today. Bitterly cold on exposed fingers for the first couple of kilometres, and occasionally gusting with the kind of power that you have to lean into when you're walking against it. Running against it was not fun at all. 

And then there was the pain. Not actually from the bad knee - although it did twinge a couple of times towards the end. Mostly it was the other leg: twinges in my ankle, pain in my 'good' knee, aches in my thigh and hip. Since it was essentially all of my good leg that was complaining by the end, I think I can put most of this down to the fact that unless I'm really concentrating I still seem to favour my bad (left) leg in an uneven stride. And I also have poor enough posture that my lower back aches after long runs. 

Basically the last 4km were simply an exercise in not stopping - it was a very slow "run" by that point. 

Afterwards I briefly considered sitting in a cold bath to numb my various aches and pains. And then I decided not to and had a hot bath instead. Much nicer. 

Prediction: I will ache tomorrow.