And recovered! Hot Diggity

Well, mainly.

It has now been more than four weeks since the surgery and there is still the dressing on my shoulder, but things are feeling pretty normal.  A very helpful and professional nurse now replaces the dressing a couple of times per week, but in myself, I feel pretty good.  And this isn't one of those "pretty good all things considered", but simply a "pretty good".

The turn around appears to have been at the weekend.  I had planned a trail marathon in Leicestershire but going into Friday a couple of my more sensible friend convinced me that this was not the way.  And like that, the Belvoir Challenge slips by for the year (DNS 3).  This wasn't the same wrench as the previous DNSs, not being part of a race series and having only been scheduled by me as a training run.  However, going through the weekend I became aware of everything feeling pretty much normal.  I turned up to parkrun and pottered around that at a moderate pace which quickly reminded me that I have not put in any speedwork for a couple of months, and this was followed up by a very easy trail run on the Sunday.

So, as I step into March, it feels like time to get back to it.  In fact, I've decided to use February's leap day as a way of jump starting my faded resolutions.  It could be that committing to 50 miles per week is a little on the stupid side when coming back from illness, but I've enough patience to keep most of that mileage at a very low effort.  I also have another scheduled race in 17 days and I don't think that toeing the line for a 42 mile race in the Brecon Beacons is a sensible idea unless I've put myself to the test a little beforehand.  I've no wish to be a liability for the other racers and the organiser.

This means I'll be at the Golden Fleece this coming weekend, and the Edale Skyline on the following.  They're both interesting to bite off in some ways, but both big enough for me to start off very easily, build up to a very easy pace and then near the finish, drop to my very easy effort, without lagging behind the field and requiring panicked acceleration into checkpoints to beat the cut offs.  I know little about the course for the Golden Fleece so I'm looking forward to exploring it, and I know more about the Edale area and I am looking forward to those views even more.  And I know they're likely to be replaced by driving rain and clag, but what can you do?

2016 apparently starts in March.