Of the three requirements I see for running a marathon [a) register, b) sufficient training, c) no injuries] I managed a) and after my 39km/24mi long run three days ago I checked of b).

The final challenge is c) and it looked really good, since the only problems I had the day after the long run were feeling stiff in the morning and another graze from the iPod Nike+ sensor on my left elbow.

Waited till today to hit the road again very carefully and everything started perfectly fine. But after the first few kilometers the “I want it all and I want it now” part of my brain kicked in. I spent half the time of the run (silently) discussing with myself that I should go for 15km, then that if I did 15km I could run half marathon distance as well, which isn’t that much further. Also I could try to get faster, since the long run on Saturday went so well, or change my running style.

Any of this was obviously stupid, even more so considering that hours ago I commented Patrick’s post about injuries by suggesting to run less than physically possibly. Here I was, doing exactly the opposite.

In the end I ran only 11km. Which is perfectly fine three days after the first time I ran 39km in my life. So I escaped insanity for today, still under the influence of possible overstrain as an aftereffect to the long run. Unfortunately I still have five weeks to go and already planed to do another long run over at least full marathon distance in two weeks.

I guess I’ll have to introduce some external limiting factor (the running nanny). Like pilots who have to file a flight plan BEFORE they start. On rainy days some of them probably would like to divert the flight to Honolulu, but in the end they stick to the flight plan for safety reasons. No more Honolulu for me, at least till late September.