Week 7 – London Marathon Training Review

Well it was a good week because I was given the go ahead to start piling in some miles, but then bad because I started feeling poorly on Sunday and went downhill from there ending up at the doctors with a chest infection and a course of antibiotics. Panic has most definitely set in – half way point in the training and my longest run so far is 8 miles – not good…

Monday – nothing (ill)

Tuesday – physio/nothing (ill)

Wednesday – nothing (ill)

Thursday – nothing (ill)

Friday – nothing (ill)

Saturday – nothing (ill)

Sunday – nothing (ill)

Miles for the week – 0 miles – oops!

Week 6 – London Marathon Training Review

Started to get some miles in this week. I made my first appearance at a club run for over a month for the early lap. These can be notoriously quick, which is normally great and is one of the reasons I was firing on all cylinders before Christmas, but for me it was more about getting some miles in. So while the others all raced off I settled into a nice easy pace, slow enough to ensure I’d be back for the next session. The route is well lit, but not the type of route you want to run on your own, so luckily for me with marathon season about there were a few others running a similar pace to me so I hung off the back of them – perhaps running a little quicker than I planned but was a good test. After three miles my achilles was a little tight but ok so I eased off a bit. For the second session I opted to run with the DLRR Step Up group which is a small group who run about three miles at a gentle pace – this was just right as gave me a chance to natter with a friend!

Swim training on Wednesday with GreenlightPT was great. I can really feel myself improving in the pool now and whereas a few weeks ago I wasn’t getting much rest at the end of each rep (to be honest I was hanging on for dear life!), I’m now getting some which off the same times is great news.

Thursday was one of my most promising runs so far this year. Again, I used the early lap with DLRR to get some miles in but ended up running 8:50 pace with no real pain so I was really pleased with that. As I was only supposed to be doing 7 miles that night, I ran the next 4 mile session at a very easy pace – I figured four fast, four slow was the same as a steady seven…? 😉

Saturday was 8 miles and a really good run averaging at just over 9 minute pace. I stopped a few times to stretch my achilles – I’m still quite conscious of it, but I don’t think it’s actually hurting, I think I’m just sensitive to any twitch or niggle. There was no pain after which is always a good sign but I iced anyway – just to be on the safe side!

I never made it onto the turbo on Sunday – you’ll see why in my next post…

Monday – 7 miles (4 miles steady/3 easy)

Tuesday – Matt Roberts Core DVD

Wednesday – swim session with GreenlightPT

Thursday – 8 miles (4 steady/4 easy)

Friday – rest

Saturday – 8 miles easy/steady

Sunday – nothing…

Miles for the week – 23 miles

Week 5 – London Marathon Training Review

After my downbeat review last week I am pleased to say this week has been much more positive. Following an easy 4 miles on Monday, I had a visit to the physio on Tuesday. He was really pleased as the stiffness in the achilles and calf from the previous weeks had virtually disappeared and the lump on the achilles had just about gone too! I came away with instructions to carry on the stretching and icing, although the heel drops have now been increased and the go ahead to add a mile every other run. This means I should be up to about 8 miles by the time I go back to see him in two weeks.

I ran two six milers at the back end of the week. The first on Thursday was rather slow, but as it was further than I’d run for nearly a month I was very cautious. The second on Saturday was a little quicker (averaged about 9:45) which isn’t that quick in the scheme of things, but as with the distance the quickest I’ve run in a month. Things are now starting to slot back into place…

Assuming the gradual increase in mileage goes ok, I can then add 2 miles per run on following my next physio visit. It’s not the most practical way to increase mileage but is helping with my overall mileage, so although I’m not running vast distances at any one time, I am still putting some miles in which can only be good. I was quite heartened by looking at my mileage from last year and although my long runs are a bit shorter, my overall weekly mileage is very similar so all is not lost and we are well on the road to recovery!

Monday – slow 4 miles

Tuesday – physio then Matt Roberts Core DVD

Wednesday – swim session with GreenlightPT

Thursday – 6 miles easy

Friday – rest

Saturday – 6 miles easy

Sunday – 35 mins turbo

Miles for the week – 16 miles

Week 4 – London Marathon Training Review

Week 4 and still injured, but on the road to recovery – I think! Another week off the plan, which is pretty certain to be thrown out of the window soon.  I’m facing facts now and although I think I will still make it to London, realistically I think I will be on a ‘get you round’ schedule. There’s still 12 weeks of running left so it’s not impossible, but I really don’t think there is the time to get in the number of long runs I need in order to meet the goal I had set myself. Perhaps once I get running properly again I might be able to re-evaluate it but I’m under no illusion the plan is to make it to the start line, anything else will be a bonus.

I’m running in no pain, which is great considering where I was a week or so ago, but I’m still jogging rather than running but it’s still better than walking. It’s so hard seeing the guys from DLRR talking about their long run every Sunday – I’ve missed three of the last four so far and the group I tend to run with put down around 15-16 miles each this week – I managed 5 this weekend.

I’ve got another physio appointment on Tuesday and I’ve stuck religiously to the stretches and icing plan he set me and also not exceeded my 5 mile limit or run any days back to back so I’m hoping that he will see an improvement in my achilles. I can still feel the lump but it’s not painful to touch any more and has felt generally better.

I think this best explains how I feel at the moment…

A bit frustrated and sad at the realisation this is probably not going to be the year of a great marathon…

Monday – planned to do the Matt Roberts core DVD, except I’ve lost it, so nothing done!

Tuesday – 3.1 miles slow in the snow

Wednesday – swim session with GreenlightPT

Thursday – slow 4.1 miles in the snow that is quickly becoming ice

Friday – rest

Saturday – 5 miles slow

Sunday – 30 mins on the turbo

Miles for the week – 12 miles (over double last week!)

Week 3 – London Marathon Training Review

Week 3 and still injured. I decided that it was time see the professionals and popped to see the physio on Friday. My soleus is very tight, hence why my achilles is sore and I have a lump of scar tissue on it. After some massage and pinching it is now a lot looser and I left armed with instructions to ice, stretch and pinch and return in 10 days time. The good thing is I’m still allowed to run as long as there’s no pain and it’s no more than 5 miles – not much, but better than nothing.

It has made me realise I do need to ramp up the cross training as all my hard work before the New Year will be undone – the odd mile here and there really wont cut it, if I need to run 26 miles in 13 weeks time – there’s still time but goal times are going to have to go soon. I think from next week I’ll add another swim session, wont do the summer triathlon season any harm and will also help with a swimathon I have in mind for the end of April that will be a bit of a challenge. The bike will also have to come back out a little earlier than planned, albeit on the turbo (I don’t do bad weather cycling – and my collar bone agrees!).

Another reason for the low mileage this week as well as my injury is a bit of a cold (lesson learned from last year – better to miss some training now and get rid of it than run through it) and the snowfall we have had since Friday – it’s still coming down now. I love running in the snow and will probably give it a go tomorrow as my cold has now eased a bit.

So a bit of a non-week again but hopefully on the road to recovery and I don’t think I’m that far behind where I was this time last year, and I didn’t have winter training behind me then so still hopeful…

Monday – slow 2 miles in the snow, plus Matt Roberts core DVD

Tuesday – rest

Wednesday – swim session with GreenlightPT

Thursday – slowish 3 miles in the snow

Friday – physio visit

Saturday – rest

Sunday – rest

Miles for the week – 5 miles

Week 2 – London Marathon Training Review

Week 2 is over – I’m still not following my plan as I still don’t feel my achilles has healed enough to push it. So I’ve gone for the little and often route, along with some cross training. That way,  I get a fair few miles in and still keep my fitness up.

The swim training was great. It was the first proper swim session I’ve been to for years – it hurt like hell, but I can’t wait to go again next week. During the sessions the sets added up to 2350m so getting some mileage in in the pool wont do any harm, plus will also help with another challenge I have in mind! 😉

The actual running this week has been a bit quicker than the previous week. I’m still working hard to keep it quite slow, but it’s harder than you think! After keeping it relatively slow on the weekdays I did run a bit quicker on Saturday morning – averaged about 9:19 a mile which is quick in comparison with the rest of the last two weeks. I had no reaction to this and nearly carried on for another couple of miles but resisted the temptation and came home. This gave me the confidence to go on the DLRR club run today.

The run route was 10 miles although with loopbacks the quicker guys probably got 14/15 miles. The route crosses the top of Campbell Park near CMK which meant the chance to bail out at 7 miles and cut through the park back to DL. Campbell Park is a lovely park and one of the highest points in MK. From the belvedere the park snakes downhill towards the canal and today in the freezing temperatures it looked awesome with views across Willen Lake and out towards Bedfordshire and beyond.

I only really wanted to run 8 miles as I felt 10 would be a bit too far so this presented the ideal opportunity to cut the run short. As it was I managed to run 8.2 miles at 9:45 min pace – I was planning between 9:30 and 10 to be on the safe side and that was spot on. I did feel my achilles aching a bit between 6 and 7 miles but that coincided with along uphill drag. It was hard been out with the group seeing most of my running mates running away from me, it would have been so easy to up a few gears and go with them, but probably would have set me back at least a few weeks and at this stage  I could do without that. I’m not panicking yet, still 14 weeks to go…

Monday – slow 3.1 miles

Tuesday – rest

Wednesday – swim session with GreenlightPT

Thursday – slowish 3.5 miles

Friday – rest

Saturday – 4 mile

Sunday – long slow run 8.2 miles

Miles for the week – 18.8 miles

Time is ticking…and we lose an hour!

The countdown widget says it all, 29 days to go….less than a month, just over four weeks left. The panic hasn’t quite set in yet – despite the extended downtime with various coughs and colds I think I’ve just about got enough miles in the tank to get round in one piece!

If you had asked me at the end of December if I would be happy to be at this point in this state, I’d have bitten your hand off as I never thought I’d still be walking let alone running and running quite well (for me anyway!). I was still receiving treatment for plantar fasciitis and had really accepted that a get you round result was the best outcome I could hope for. But I think the mixture of injury and illness early on has actually helped me out as it’s forced me to keep the mileage low in the first few weeks and enforced rest. I’m a bit old school when it comes to training. If you’re not on your knees at the end of a session you’ve not got anything out of it but I’m now firmly in the ‘less is more’ camp.

To be honest apart from the PF the only issue I’ve had so far is a sore quad muscle and that only started once the miles started to rack up. Bit of ice and ibuprofen gel and think that’s just about licked!

Official logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With just 8 days of hard training left, long run tomorrow (must remember to get up an hour earlier else I’m miss it!) and the Oakley 20 next Sunday it’s then time to taper.

But to more pressing things – tomorrow many will be running the Sport Relief mile throughout the UK and a fellow blogger Jules who will be competing in her first ever event. So good luck Jules – you’ll breeze through it! May it be the first of many!

Review of Week 11

Mixed week this week. Started OK with some stretching on Monday but by Tuesday was starting to get a bit worried about a sore thigh I’ve had since the MK Half. It was started during the MK half, but then disappeared and I didn’t notice it again until the 16 miler last weekend, but only after 10 miles or so, so had just put it down to the longer mileage. But during the run on Tuesday it was troubling me from the start and during the fast sections was even worse. I ran again on Wednesday, just very slowly but after 5 and 1/2 miles called it a day.

After some googling, established that I’d probably not done anything too serious, slight tear at worse but most likely a result of overtraining. Although I’ve not trained huge volumes of miles, this last week or so is probably the most volume I’d done after my everlasting cold so I probably had upped the mileage a bit quicker than I should have. Decided to not run Thursday and rest until the long run on Sunday. I was going out on the bike with my father in law and brother in law on Saturday but the weather was awful when I woke up and as someone who tends to take the odd tumble on the bike decided that it was safer to stay at home. With London only five weeks away (is that all?) really can’t afford any broken bones! I went for a short jog instead to see how my leg felt and was pleased to see the rest had worked (that and the ice and ibuprofen gel).

Sunday was due to be an 18 miler – the longest run yet (in my life, not just this training plan) and after some gentle persuasion from a work colleague decided to run with the DLRR group. Their plan was 14 miles which sounded good to me as I could always go for a few more afterwards. I was a bit nervous (for various reasons – see yesterdays post) but needn’t have been. They were all lovely and made me feel very welcome and part of the group. This was a big group of a wide range of abilities, but with loop backs, the group is kept together (the faster runners loop back towards the back of the group). I really enjoyed the run and it was great to be among like-minded souls after weeks of running the streets in isolation. Although it was  14 mile route today, with loop backs I’d actually completed 16.5 miles by the time we finished so afterwards I ran another mile and a half to get to the magic 18. I did run out of path on the way back so ended up running a couple of loops of the (rather small) car park – much to the amusement of several dog walkers returning to their vehicles!

So, bit of a dodgy start to the week but it finished well and I think DLRR will probably be getting a new member very soon…watch this space!

 

Training for Week 11

Going to try to get some good mileage in this week. Feeling ok after the long 16 miler today so will try some faster stuff earlier in the week building up to 18 miles on Sunday.

Monday – stretching

Tuesday -7 mile (1m jog, 3 x 1.5m fast with 400m rec, 1m jog)

Wednesday – 8 mile slow

Thursday  – 5 mile (1m jog, 3m brisk, 1m jog)

Friday – stretching

Saturday – cross training (bike)

Sunday – 18 miles slow (with 3-4 miles at race pace towards the end)

Training for Week 10

Here’s the plan for the week. My legs still feel like lead from the MK Half so am going to ease into the week easily and see how I feel, but build up to the 16 miler that has been on the table for nearly a month – its psychological now – I just need to do it!

Monday – gentle stretching – legs – ouch!

Tuesday -10 x 90 sec uphill, jog back recovery

Wednesday – 6 mile slow

Thursday  – 7 mile tempo

Friday – stretching

Saturday – cross training (bike)

Sunday – 16 miles one way or another!