Week 17

Week 17 started with a 500 m run and a visit to a physiotherapist — first time in my life. A single day brought two important lessons:

• AI is useless when it comes to injury diagnosis (not a big surprise)
• there are completely different levels of pain once someone knows where to press (and physiotherapists definitely know all the magic spots)

But the pain was worth it.

Three days later: 5 km, just slightly slower than planned race pace. Then 10 km during the weekend — not perfect, but I stopped because of common sense, not because I had to.

Speaking of stopping — there is a big red sign somewhere around the 3rd kilometer of my route to the Utrecht campus. Over the years it became a symbol of all the doubts one might have when running a long-term project like this.

Each time I see it, I fully acknowledge its presence.

Then I pass it and move forward.