Frozen white grass, a white haze in between the trees. The forest is looking mystical this morning, when I suddenly come to an abrupt stand still, and can only point in the distance. When I look around, I see Sara pointing as well, but in another direction. I follow the line of her arm and see it; a deer. Another one then I just saw. They are jumping over the fallen trees. We just stare and watch. When they are out of sight, we continue this morning’s run.
However, we haven’t run another ten meter or we see a third deer running away from us, his big white butt jumping up and down. I smile, as Sara sighs: “Their butts are so fluffy”.
Spotting deer
Seeing deer here in the forest in Bergeijk is rare. Sometimes I spot one or two on my early morning runs, but most of the time we can’t find them. Sadly enough, because they have something majestically. Then again, it always makes it special when we do see them.
Slowly we continue our way. We’re out for an easy run. For Sara to test her left knee, for me to loosen up my legs for the Run Forest Run 43 kilometers race of the coming weekend. My legs feel fine. Sara’s knee is holding on, with the kinesiology tape I’ve put on it this morning.
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Knee injury
Well, it is for the first 3 kilometers, then her knee starts to flare up again. Just a little, but enough to let the alarm bells go off. It was to be expected, as I haven’t massaged her Tibialis Anterior – the bad guy in her case – often enough. She tried to rest it first. As that didn’t help, we started to treat it, but that is only recently.
It does mean no 10k for Sara this weekend. My right Achilles tendon feels fine. My left knee feels okay. That’s a good sign. My legs almost feel like a fresh pair of legs. That’s the idea of this easy week. So I think I am ready for my Run Forest Run mid-winter trail marathon.
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Mixed feelings
With Sara being injured, I do have mixed feelings. I know we wouldn’t be running together, but at least we would have been running at the same event. So yes, happy with the deer we’ve seen on this morning’s run, happy with my legs, sad for Sara.
We decide to walk a little, not to make her knee worse. After a few hundred meter, she feels fine again and we run our favorite, little path. As we do, she feels her knee again and we walk the rest of the trail home, where a morning of filming hip mobility classes for our La Scimmia Yoga platform is awaiting Sara. Hopefully her knee allows her to do that.
