Clock weekend & Final week preparation

Sprint finish!
Kingston 16 miler

Consolidating my position as a 30 something striving for the suburban family lifestyle, the clocks going back didn't mean an extra hour out drinking into the early hours. Far from it, I was just up and out on an 8 mile run and back in time for brunch!

Final week injury update...

The going is good. The achilles is a little stiff but completely bearable but the knee started to give me grief at around the 4 mile mark. I decided to push on through and the pain gradually dulled. It was a gamble but, with only days left, I wanted to make sure I could run through it on the day, so I had to trial it. It paid off. By mile 7, I could barely feel it and after the run it felt like it was back to normal. I can't explain it, but I like it!

With a cut in training, I've tried to reduce my calorie intake. Not dramatically, but I'm not feeling as hungry as I was, so I've just obeyed my hunger. I've been taking on a lot of orange juice, in an attempt to keep colds at bay, and eating plenty of pasta.

I'm really looking forward to the marathon experience and, however I do, I know that all my training has been worth it.

The Taper

I'm officially tapering right down. I went out for a 5k easy run tonight and that'll probably be it until the weekend. Part of the advice I'm working on is that, in the final two weeks, you can only over train. Well, I'm not cycling to work, fortunately a work placement in Reading has taken care of that for me.

Injury-wise, the achilles is loads better, but I can still feel it when I run. Annoyingly I've set something off in my other knee. It's much like the pain I had right at the start which I put down to mild ITB syndrome. Assuming it's similar, the cure, aside from RICE, is to work on building up the glutes, which I'll attempt to do through a few pilates floor exercises I've been taught.

Outlook is good and I'm getting fully psyched up for 10 days time!

Penultimate long run

A perfect blue sky autumn morning and an almost recovered achilles tendon, was just the nudge I needed to get back into training. I'm officially in the taper period of my schedule now, but it still means heading out for a 12 mile run on a Sunday. A slight twinge in the tendon as I set off, but nothing worth pulling up and turning back for, which is exactly what I had to do two weeks ago.

I headed down the river and up into Richmond Park. I was taking it steady, so much so that, at one point, I was overtaken by a pushchair. That said, my average pace was sub 5'30" per km and felt very comfortable. Cardio-wise, my stamina for long distance, is probably ready for the 26 miles. The danger's always going to be with the tendons or my muscles turning to lead, as they felt following the Kingston 16 miler. Time will tell.

Easing back in and hopefully waving goodbye to another injury

It's been two weeks since I first pulled up on a training run with a pain in my achilles tendon. Since then, the only exercise I've been getting is my regular cycle to work and the Kingston 16 mile race. Other than that, I've been resting it and massaging around the injury and the calf muscle above it, which had completely tensed up, as well as icing and elevating it whenever I can at home.

I went for a gentle 3 mile jog this morning and noted that someone has turned off the heating since I last went for an early morning run! Genuine signs of a frost. As for the achilles, well I could feel it, but it was a definite improvement on Sunday. I didn't want to risk damaging it further, having almost nursed it back to health, so 3 miles was my limit. I'm not feeling any more pain now than when I set out, so it's given me the confidence that I can go for another run on Saturday and a 10-12 miler on Sunday.

The Kingston 16 mile race

Avoiding every temptation to go down to the pub to watch the rugby on the Saturday (what a result!), I kept myself firmly sat on the sofa, drank some water and enjoyed the game. While getting up before 7 is bad enough any day of the week, there's something particularly nasty about doing this on a Sunday. I'd better get used to it, as the marathon day will be no different, in fact, slightly worse.

The 16 mile race takes in two circuits of the Hampton Court-Kingston river loop, which I've run on several occasions during my training, but never twice! I felt prepared for it though. A week of rest had helped, but not cured, my achilles and the new aerodynamic marathon hair cut was bound to help. But I hadn't banked on my running watch/heart rate monitor running out of batteries on the morning of the event! Fortunately, I had a backup one on my bike, so I carried that round with me (not the bike).

We started at 8:30am and I was aiming to cross the finish line at 11am, I went off with the pack and a couple of miles in realised we were pacing it. I'd read about this sort of thing, going off early and suffering the consequences later. I checked my pulse and I was only in the 150s, so I decided to stick with it. I'd set off near the front, by fluke, and was now being passed by people who looked like proper runners. I didn't mind and I stuck with the 5min to 5min 30sec kilometre pace we were travelling at.

One lap and 8.5 miles in, I felt strong enough to pick up my pace closer to 5min pace and begin slowly overtaking some folk along the stretch back to Hampton Court. I think I was on a bit of a high after running through the town with the crowds as my strength began to dissolve rapidly around the 12 mile mark. This is where I had to dig really deep. When you start feeling like that, every pain and niggle prompts your brain to think whether you should stop, start walking or even sit down for a while. Admittedly, I hope not to reach this point so early in the full marathon, but I'll be ready for it. I'd not run at such a pace for such a distance before and it took all my mental strength to take me through to the final couple of miles.

Strength in style!

With two miles to go, you know you're going to make it. And to help me along some uplifting tunes popped onto my ipod. I'd created the playlist so that I'd get a lift at about this point. Problem was, my body reacted by picking up my pace further still! With 1.5 miles to go, I was starting to stride past people who'd passed me earlier in the race. It would have been too embarrassing to admit I'd gone off too early and see them pass me back, so I stuck with it until the finish. A real mental dig.

I finished in 2hrs 12mins. I was very pleased with this time, given I thought I'd be closer to the 2:30 mark. However, I do not expect to set this pace for the marathon as there's no way I could have slogged out another 10 miles!

Still resting up

Unfortunately, the niggle in my achilles has failed to disappear and, since a little 5k on Sunday, I've not dared venture out. I'm going to try and give it a run out at lunchtime today but if it's still given me grief, I've decided the only option is to join the local gym and get myself on the cross-trainer. Cycling is ok, but it's not great, the cross-trainer is as close as you can get to running without the impact.

I'm told that if I concentrate on getting my 16 mile race completed on Sunday, then there is no real need for me to run in the two weeks leading up to the big one. But of course, I need to maintain my fitness, hence access to a cross-trainer and a swimming pool would be ideal. Fingers crossed I can get out along the river at lunchtime without any bother.

Run home from work / Achilles trouble

From the start of the training schedule, I'd always known that the longest mid-week run would be last week's 10 miler. In fact, last week was pretty tough all round, 20 miles on Sunday, followed by 4, 7 and 10 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I ran the 4 and 7 miles at lunchtimes at work, but there's no way I could have fitted in 10, so I chose to run home.

I cycled my wife's bike into work and she came and met me to cycle alongside me on my run home, which is pretty much bang on 10 miles. About 1.5 miles in, I could feel my achilles tendon starting to play up. I stopped, stetched it out and continued on to finish the 10 miles. One thing I've been grateful for in my training is that I've not yet hit an injury to completely put me out of action, but I've had my fair share of niggles. In fact, if you listed off the top 5 running injuries, I've had a taster for them all.

I'm conscious that many, preparing for their first marathon, injure themselves out of the race, or have to walk it. So I'm probably just a little paranoid, especially when you hear how long achilles tendinitis can put you out of action. So I'm resting it. Not entirely, but for the first time in my training, I pulled out of my long Sunday run and jogged a gentle 5k instead. I can still feel the tendon, so I'm going to let the inflammation subside and start out on it again on Tuesday.

Autumn Training

I take my hat off to all those who train for the London Marathon, or any springtime marathon in the northern hemisphere. The gentle run along the towpath on a pleasant summer's evening, is a now just a distant memory. It's not really cold but the endless drizzle is not exactly inviting either. That said, once you're out in it, it's totally fine and, once you're back, you feel that bit more smug for having braved it.

I did a 6k flat tempo run this evening and managed to clock my fastest training 5k, in the process. Just a little over 23 mins for 5k, averaging 4m 38s per km for the whole thing. It's not astonishingly quick, nor is it much faster than I could do previously, but I wasn't puffing at the end and I have to remember that my training's been focusing on distance, not speed.