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Day 60–Run Done Before Another Storm

I was keen to get out this morning to test the leg before making a decision on whether to race on Sunday. The rain just began to fall as I was heading out – mercifully it was light and was nothing compared to the storm that blew in literally minutes after I finished the run.

From the off things felt reasonable, I was running easily and mostly without discomfort. In the final mile or so I put in a concerted effort to run at around the sort of pace I would like to run Sunday. There was a little tightness in the right leg, but nothing out of the ordinary, and actually feeling pretty good considering the battering they received during massage the day before.

So finished the run with the intention of racing Sunday, subject to not picking up the sickness bug my eldest daughter has been off sick with today and that the pains running down my right leg can be easily relieved with a little massage and stretching to be carried out shortly.

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Day 59–At Times I Wonder Why I Do This

I had a timely sports massage booked for the afternoon so I opted to put in a banker run in the morning in case I came out off the massage table in no fit state to run.

With no ill effects from yesterday’s run I set off to do the regular 6.15 mile run out to Dysart Park and back. Pleasingly it was an unspectacular run with very little in the way of discomfort – a few aches on the right quad early on and some tingling on the inner thigh near – otherwise nothing. I was putting in very little effort which made it quite pleasing I averaged 6:56 per mile, the second half significantly quicker thanks to a tasty tail wind – albeit no where near as strong as the gales that battered us and the rest of the country through the afternoon yesterday and into the night.

The run over, it was just a couple of hours and I was with David, my massage therapist. After five minutes of detailing my physical breakdown over the past couple of weeks, he set about putting things to rights. It was, at times, hellishly painful: when you have a thumb stuck deep into an already tender groin, you do wonder why on earth I do what I do to leave myself in a position where this treatment is necessary.

After 50 minutes or so the session was over. We’d found evidence of previous pulls (Presumably when I slipped on the club Christmas Eve run) halfway down the inner thigh, in the groin and tightening of the Psoas. David warned me I would be quite tender for a day or so and suggested ice when I got home. We also went through some stretches I can do  to help the Psoas.

As he predicted the area was soon sore so any thoughts of running again in the evening was put to one side: be thankful that I was at least able to run in the morning and that he thought I should be okay to race on Sunday – although he advised against racing too hard and to think of the bigger picture.

He is, of course right. It is too tempting to ignore the fact I have been and am injured and to resume full training as if nothing happened. What I need to do is to build the mileage and intensity up slowly, assured in the knowledge that the past months of solid training should hold me in good stead come April.

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Day 43–Well That Was Quite Quick…

The day was long covering the opening day of F1 Testing at Jerez, at the computer for 6:30am and not able to leave until exactly 12 hours later. I put on my running gear in double quick time and headed out with barely a stretch to try and catch the, club, who were set to leave for their intervals session in around 6 minutes, when it normally takes me 11 to get to HQ…. As it was I just caught them leaving, I needed to visit the bathroom so I said I’d meet them in a minute. It took a 6:10 mile, after a 6:27 to catch them just as they stopped outside the pub.

The session hadn’t been finalised but it was decided to do 6 x 1 mile with a 2-3 minute recovery. I let the others have a 40 second or so head start for the first interval, I needed to stretch. The first mile felt really quick as I caught and passed all my club mates. Normally the mile in this direction is a fair bit slower than the return leg as it climbs 10 or so metres, but when I finished the mile the Garmin clocked 5:25, nigh on as fast as anything I’d done in the other direction and around 30 seconds quicker than normal. I felt though like I’d over-exerted myself somewhat, although I quickly recovered.

Then I turned around and realised why the mile was so quick. There was quite a stiff wind blowing, in the opposite direction to the usual prevailing wind, which had aided us significantly on the upward stretch and would hinder us on our return. And so it proved on the second rep, which turned out to be the equal slowest of the night at 5:30. Reps three and four were hard work clocking 5:30 and 5:29 respectively. At the end of the fourth rep I even felt a little nauseous, as well as feeling the right abductor.

Knowing that I had only two reps left I put aside any tired thoughts and worked hard on the fifth rep, clawing back time after a sluggish opening 800 meters to clock 5:27. The same happened on the sixth rep – I was averaging 5:38 at the halfway point before I put in a sustained effort to finish with a 5:29 rep. On this rep the right abductor and possibly right hamstring began to tighten significantly. Once everyone came back from their final rep and we began to jog back I decided to say my goodbyes, one because I still had a little work to do at home, and secondly because I felt the abductor was sorer if I ran slower.

I came home with at an average of 6:45, finishing the 10.5 mile run in a barely believable 5:59 per mile average. I don’t think I’ve ever run a training session that quickly. Hopefully the right leg will respond to a little massage and stretching, and another day in front of the computer tomorrow.

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Project Sub 2:45 – Day One

The first day of sub-2:45 marathon training was something of a damp squib with little in the way of fanfare – which I may have possibly expected given my new found local notoriety thanks to a 2/3s page article in the local paper proclaiming the form of my life that I have (admittedly) been enjoying in recent weeks. Sadly no autograph hunters or photographers chasing me on the run – just one comment from a wannabe coach telling me to ‘forget looking at my watch, run how you feel.’

If I ran how I was feeling I probably wouldn’t have made it out of the door. Not long after the 1:17:01 Half Marathon at Keyworth where I felt the first signs of a cold coming on (Including a swollen eye courtesy of a well-aimed cough in my face by my eldest daughter) the man-flu came on in full earnest midweek, rendering me incapable of pretty much anything and certainly not up for running (Which is very much a rarity – I normally have to be chained to something to stop me from heading out for a run – no matter how foolhardy that may be).

The main reason for this lack of concern for having, in total, six consecutive non running days, was that after a heavy period of six races in eight weeks, the week gone was marked in the diary as an easy week before preparations for Project Sub 2:45. The only damage done to the extended lay-off would be seeing my mileage target on Fetcheveryone.com stretch back out to a 30 mile deficit having spent the entire year trying to be on target – only to go down sick the day after I managed to be hitting it.

I could handle taking many days off in an easy week. The thought of time off in long mileage week 1 – the first of four planned such weeks over Christmas and New Year with the focus on as many miles as possible with little emphasis on pace – was too hard to handle and with the hastily arranged (And with little scientific or practical thought) training plan indicating eight easy miles I looked to head out. My voice croaking and nose blocked, my better half suggested maybe I should start the marathon training in the New Year. I just gave her one of those looks and she knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Eventually I managed just 6.2 miles – the now familiar run down to the park that runs through the back of town to the Queen Elizabeth Park through to Dysart Park and back again – complete with unnecessarily dramatic loop of tiny bandstand (which makes it feel much more like an official route rather than a simple out and back run). Already 1.8 miles down on target but happy to be out and running, seemingly suffering no ill effects (Other than some harsh coughing post run). If you add the four or so miles walking covered on the double school run and Xmas shopping (this I believe is called training Japanese style) then not a bad day one.

Distance: 6.22 miles. Time: 47:12. Pace 7:35.