Am I finally starting to learn?  It might have taken a good many years, but this week I think I have started to put in to practice what I probably already knew, but never wanted to do.  As I made reference to in my training log, I didn't have a care in the world when I was doing my usual Monday morning run.  By the end of my evening 10 miler with Joe Bailey I was wondering what the eck I had done to my left quad!  It was more than sore, it was causing me significant pain and I was getting a little concerned.  By the time I had drove home from Sports City, Manchester I was thinking what the hell I have done to my leg.  It was getting sore on the ten mile run but as soon as I stopped at the car I could not run another step.  Once home I got the ice pack out of the freezer which lives in there and iced my leg while lying on the bed.  I told myself I wouldn't run in the morning no matter how the leg felt but would see how it was during the day before I decided to do the planned track session.
During the day I was telling myself that few missed days would not make the slightest difference so rang my coach and had a discussion with him about the leg and how long to rest it for.  We decided there and then to take two full days off before trying it out.  Usually I would argue my case of maybe trying a little run Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, but told myself two missed days is just two days, if I make my leg worse it would result in two missed weeks, two missed months and even a missed London Marathon.  This I don't want to happen so was happy to miss the two days.
If a niggle can land well this one sure did.  It meant I had a bit more time to spend with my students after school working on their projects as their deadline is fast approaching and Wednesday was going to be a busy day with me having a late meeting at school that night.  I kept the leg rested and didn't run a step for 48 hours.  When we decided to run again on Thursday we opted for a 6 -7 mile run to start with and if the leg was fine push on to do a steady 10 mile run.  I ended up doing ten mile and the leg was pain free.  So the rest seems to have done the trick (Hopefully anyway!)  My run went well and I was looking forward to running again on Friday morning to see how the leg responded.  Everything went well but Bob and I decided just to stick to the one run on Friday and stick on the side of caution and to make sure I am ready to run a good session on Saturday.
My session Saturday was a repeat of last week's session, 6 x 1mile.  Session went well and my times were quicker than last weeks, which wasn't a surprise considering I had fewer miles in my legs this week with having Tuesday and Wednesday off.
So, after many years of not listening to my legs or listening to my body when coming down with an illness, this time I listened and it seems to have worked, fingers crossed. 
If all fails and my legs drop off I can always run off and join the circus.
On Sunday Donna, Kadi and I went to the circus in Wythenshawe Park where I ended up having to get involved with the act, much to Donna's and Kadi's delight!  I think I will stick to running, even though I was rather good at making people laugh, but that was more to do with getting it wrong than right.