Seasons End

It has been a weird season this year, starting really well and ending really well with despair in the middle. I put together a really good winter block aiming for a marathon somewhere around 3:25, and the sessions were going so well I started to believe the number on the plan might be real. In the middle of a progressive long run in mid-March I suffered a nasty calf tear and that was the end of it.Of course I tried to run a few times, far too soon, desperate to get back on track, but every time I made it worse and set myself back further. Every injured runner knows that loop, the itch to test it, the small bit of hope, and the walk home knowing you have undone the healing. It led to weeks off my feet completely, and a marathon OPB went from a target to something I would have to come back to another year.In the end it was that frustration that got me somewhere. I pulled out the dusty smart trainer, repaired my road bike and got on it, mostly to have something I could actually do. It…