This is, officially, the first week of tapering. In my battle with fatigue, injury and a horrendous cold I've once again had to abandon plans and wing it, which I hate. I've felt physically and mentally rough as a badgers back end. Despite that the week's running has finished as positively as it could, with a pain free if easy paced eleven miles in glorious spring sunshine. Look, photographic evidence of me going running in the sunshine.
The uncertainty about whether I'm going to be able to actually do the marathon has been tough to deal with this week when I'm utterly knackered and feeling crappy. Neither has my determination to accept the reduced pace I'm going to need to run at, at least for the first part, to nurse the dodgy calf and Achilles through the race without damaging myself. This is sitting extremely badly with me and I need to get over this now and deal with the disappointment of my plans falling apart somewhat; I don't want to finish my first ever marathon feeling disappointed.
I am attempting to readjust my expectations to a realistic level now, get my grump out the way early, so I can enjoy the day. I had been training towards attempting to run 3:15 and for the first two months of training this looked realistic. I think I have the fitness to run around 3:20 despite the lost training, and that's the pace I'd like to go for, but on the way it feels now I suspect my Achilles would not hold up to the job. Realistically I'm now thinking about 3:25 to 3:30, starting at the slower end, and hoping that my leg feels up to increasing the pace later on without my dodgy body breaking down. Grump grump.
I am attempting to readjust my expectations to a realistic level now, get my grump out the way early, so I can enjoy the day. I had been training towards attempting to run 3:15 and for the first two months of training this looked realistic. I think I have the fitness to run around 3:20 despite the lost training, and that's the pace I'd like to go for, but on the way it feels now I suspect my Achilles would not hold up to the job. Realistically I'm now thinking about 3:25 to 3:30, starting at the slower end, and hoping that my leg feels up to increasing the pace later on without my dodgy body breaking down. Grump grump.
I've done everything I can to be as healthy as I can this week in terms of food intake, resting where I can, and generally taking care of myself. I am now, however, treating myself to a large glass of wine with my otherwise very healthy tea. Because I'm worth it.
The calf and Achilles are still tight. The problem this gives me in terms of tapering is that some running loosens it, and it's not necessarily low paced running, short reasonably paced runs tend to help, plodding doesn't, and it's very much a take it day by day and judge whether a little run will help.
Tuesday a run would have been helpful, but I was so full of cold I didn't feel up to it. This is really unusual for me, I would normally just run through a cold, but my breathing was utterly shot. I did a little on the cross trainer which was good in terms of loosening the leg up, but bad because the cross trainer leans more towards strength than cardio for what I want to be doing right now. I decided to combine this with my last weights session before the marathon and just get it all done. That's that box ticked, no more leg strength work until after I've done it.
Thursday I still felt dreadful but did feel up to running. I went for a run with no goals or aims other than to see how the leg felt and get a few miles in. I just sort of fell into running around 7:30s which is encouraging. I thought my natural pace had reduced to a plod or a shuffle, and finding myself just sitting there, albeit with a lot of struggling for breath and enough snot the population of Long Eaton are probably still searching round my route for the invasion of giant snails, the actual running felt not too bad.
The calf and Achilles are still tight. The problem this gives me in terms of tapering is that some running loosens it, and it's not necessarily low paced running, short reasonably paced runs tend to help, plodding doesn't, and it's very much a take it day by day and judge whether a little run will help.
Tuesday a run would have been helpful, but I was so full of cold I didn't feel up to it. This is really unusual for me, I would normally just run through a cold, but my breathing was utterly shot. I did a little on the cross trainer which was good in terms of loosening the leg up, but bad because the cross trainer leans more towards strength than cardio for what I want to be doing right now. I decided to combine this with my last weights session before the marathon and just get it all done. That's that box ticked, no more leg strength work until after I've done it.
Thursday I still felt dreadful but did feel up to running. I went for a run with no goals or aims other than to see how the leg felt and get a few miles in. I just sort of fell into running around 7:30s which is encouraging. I thought my natural pace had reduced to a plod or a shuffle, and finding myself just sitting there, albeit with a lot of struggling for breath and enough snot the population of Long Eaton are probably still searching round my route for the invasion of giant snails, the actual running felt not too bad.
Saturday I went to do parkrun and totally mis-paced it. I did plan the pace here, just 7:30s, get the heart rate up to a working level but not a push. Running this pace lately has felt hard work on my high mileage weeks, and I was running on feel. I thought I was running 7:20s to 7:30s and was surprised at the end of the first lap to find I was actually running 6:50s. This is of absolutely no benefit at this stage and I'm just risking injuring myself so I stopped, stretched, and did the second lap on pace. I did have a little grump at the end when I realised I'd missed out on a very, very easy first lady the like of which almost never crops up at Long Eaton these days, then I had a word with myself. The word being twat. I've had lots of first lady finishes at parkrun, in far quicker times, and that is not the current goal. The goal is to get to Manchester able to run 26.2 miles without breaking myself. This is the only goal that matters for the next two weeks. Best of all, I finished with no tightness or pain, and after a good stretch and massage with my roller stick, I felt good for today's "long" run.
Sunday dawned, wait for it, sunny. Yes, sunny, and very much spring like. What is this madness? 12 miles on the menu and it's not freezing, sleeting, snowing, howling with wind, it's crazy! It was wonderful. I met Sophie at West Park this morning and was greeted by a huge smile at this change of weather fortune, before we trotted off wearing shorts on a long training run. Shorts! I did get some tightness in the second part of the run but it never went further than a mild tightness. I had breathing issues at the start and the cold is still not entirely gone, but it will be in two weeks so that's nothing to worry about. I'm still quite tired in my legs, but on the way back I suddenly found myself getting into it. I love running on days like this, I was starting to feel springier, we were getting a little quicker, and it was just a gorgeous day to be alive and outside. Coming through the park at the end of the run I know I was grinning like an idiot. This is what I love about running. After a steady start we picked it up a little on the way back and it just felt like a good run. I have some ache in my calves now, but it's kind of normal after run ache and doesn't feel like it'll still hurt tomorrow. I hope.
I also managed to eat a banana with absolutely no issues at what I expect will be around marathon pace. If I can do that while unable to breath through my nose then I can do it on race day. I'm hoping I may be able to fuel myself on banana and jelly babies for the first part of the race and delay using cliff bloks until the second half. I shan't use gels, it's a recipe for crapping myself. I do, however, in case of the worst happening, have my aptly named crap catcher shorts; double layered for extra protection. It's amusing me at the moment, but I was concerned about chafing. As a general rule you never know what chafes until you run at least 10 miles in it, so I wore them today. Barring my club vest I wore everything I intend to wear while running the marathon. No problems with attire bothering me in any way. I did not test out the other potential function of the shorts, because today my stomach was happy. Let's hope that's something I never need to think about again!
Sunday dawned, wait for it, sunny. Yes, sunny, and very much spring like. What is this madness? 12 miles on the menu and it's not freezing, sleeting, snowing, howling with wind, it's crazy! It was wonderful. I met Sophie at West Park this morning and was greeted by a huge smile at this change of weather fortune, before we trotted off wearing shorts on a long training run. Shorts! I did get some tightness in the second part of the run but it never went further than a mild tightness. I had breathing issues at the start and the cold is still not entirely gone, but it will be in two weeks so that's nothing to worry about. I'm still quite tired in my legs, but on the way back I suddenly found myself getting into it. I love running on days like this, I was starting to feel springier, we were getting a little quicker, and it was just a gorgeous day to be alive and outside. Coming through the park at the end of the run I know I was grinning like an idiot. This is what I love about running. After a steady start we picked it up a little on the way back and it just felt like a good run. I have some ache in my calves now, but it's kind of normal after run ache and doesn't feel like it'll still hurt tomorrow. I hope.
I also managed to eat a banana with absolutely no issues at what I expect will be around marathon pace. If I can do that while unable to breath through my nose then I can do it on race day. I'm hoping I may be able to fuel myself on banana and jelly babies for the first part of the race and delay using cliff bloks until the second half. I shan't use gels, it's a recipe for crapping myself. I do, however, in case of the worst happening, have my aptly named crap catcher shorts; double layered for extra protection. It's amusing me at the moment, but I was concerned about chafing. As a general rule you never know what chafes until you run at least 10 miles in it, so I wore them today. Barring my club vest I wore everything I intend to wear while running the marathon. No problems with attire bothering me in any way. I did not test out the other potential function of the shorts, because today my stomach was happy. Let's hope that's something I never need to think about again!
So finishing the week I'm feeling optimistic of at least running this marathon, and looking forward to some chilled out runs in glorious sunshine over the next week. Mostly steady, low mileage, and I'm declaring it officially spring and packing away the thermals.
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