If marathons were easy...

Yesterday I was not in a happy place.

My 17 mile long run became a six mile wake up call as my left knee decided it was its turn to give me some flak.

Three miles in and it started to send a sharp pain through my body every time my left foot hit the floor. As you can imagine, during a run that happens a lot. So there were lots of sharp pains.

I stretched, I walked, I even tried to shift my weight while running, but it kept hurting so I had to bail.

To say I was miffed would be under stating the obvious.

I think this is payback for last weeks 20 miler in trainers that should have been binned.

Last year, a similar thing happened two weeks before the big day. It was much worse - I mean utter agony - but I have no intentions of trying to run like that again.

To get over my mood I took a course of therapy that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone - I took an axe to a bit pile of wood that needed chopping.

I really went to town on it too!

There were bits flying everywhere and I got a real sweat on.

It felt ace.

Having vented, I could then approach the problem from a bit better perspective.

My knees are struggling.

I need to get them stronger so from now on I'm doing stretches etc. every day, and making sure I do a proper warm up - something I normally don't bother with as I start slowly.

Job number one - work out some stretches!

I need to resist the urge to panic and try to catch up by adding more miles to the training. I'll only do myself more damage, then get into some kind of panic/more damage spiral which will undoubtedly lead to my head exploding.

Job number two - chill, trust the training and concentrate on getting the best out of what's left.

Today, my calves are still sore from trying to run and not put weight on my right foot - and I only did six miles.

Job number three - I need to reconstruct my under-desk elevation platform to keep them raised and rested.

The first stages of my comback plan are underway!