I’m very quickly stating to learning that with additional strength, comes additional risk. Before I started taking my training a bit more seriously i would just go out and run, without so much as a second thought. Yes i’d be pretty slow, but i’d also be pretty injury free. However, now i’m training harder and running faster, I’m picking up injuries far more easily and far more frequently. In the about 10 weeks i’ll have lost about 5 weeks to hamstring injuries (1 on either leg). I’m have to think harder about warming up and cooling down and having to learn how to feel an injury coming on, so that i can ease off and avoid it.

The week leading up to the injury was going pretty well with a new personal best for a 7 mile run around the river, and a quite fast run into the office 2 days later, but then disaster struck on a slow jog home from work. Fortunately now that i know what a hamstring stain feels like, I stopped straight away and walk the rest of the way home, and it doesn’t feel as bad as last time, so with some luck i’ll have recovered in time for the Borrowdale fell race, my big test of how i’m handling hills before heading to India.