It's all Pat's fault....

... she's broken me... well, nearly! I've measured out this running route, she says, managed to get it down to around 14km, she says .... yeah right! Oh, but it's got a section of really steep ascent in it, which will be good practise for the trail race in 6 weeks time, won't it, she says! Hmmmm. So it started off well enough, even though I was decidedly lacking in energy this morning. A nice trot from Pissou to Pat's at Espies (no more than a km) then down the hill to Massat, following paths and chemins that I had not previously discovered. All very pleasant. Then turn left and.... oh, we're going up there are we?! Ahhhh, right. It turned out to be 410m of ascent over a distance of just under 3kms up to 'Peyregude', which is a hill that we can see from Pissou. Nice! But I soon forgave her, as we then had a very pleasant trot along a path/track which contoured the hillside, with great views down to the Massatois Valley. The descent was enjoyable, but I knew more ascent was ahead, as the route was to take us back up the Col de Caougnous before the final trot back down the hill to Pissou. I was starting to get muscular discomfort in my right leg, running from my deep buttock climbing muscles, all the way down to my ankles. .... as usual, no such discomfort in my left leg. It's official, I am loppy! Anyway, some stretching en route alleviated the symptoms somewhat, but I knew the last few kilometers would be 'interesting'. We opted to walk a fair bit of the last leg as we were both struggling ... at this point Pat uttered those words 'I think this run may actually have been a little bit further than 14kms'. No shit sherlock! Good old Memory Map, in conjunction with my garmin Forerunner did indeed confirm later that we had covered just over 19km, with 600m of ascent in around 2 hrs 40 mins. No wonder I felt like my body was collapsing! But I had to forgive Pat, as she gave me a sports massage this evening. She quickly identified a number of interesting muscular imbalances and worked on knots and tight areas that had been the cause of much of my discomfort. I am now ready for more running/biking action - bring it on!