sinj's running foolishness 2007

Hullo there

this entry is almost an apology - I cropped up many weeks ago to report that I was in midst of training for the London Marathon again. Unfortunately I havent had the time to maintain this blog (which I enjoyed doing last year) - I'm working and studying too at the moment so something had to give!

Anyway - suffice to say my training has gone well - I think I'm in a slightly better position than last year - 5mins up on my 1/2 marathon time at the same point last year (1:46) and have avoided illness since Jan. I completed my last LONG LONG run on Saturday and am now officially "tapering" - although that still means 35 miles this week :)

If the weather is kind this year then hopefully I can get a lot nearer to 4 hours than I did last year (4:37) - the heat was crippling - and I was really not well before I started - couldnt tell if it was nerves/viral/whatever but I felt BAD for the whole week beforehand.

Only 18 days to go and those nerves are starting to jangle again - I guess I'll prove to myself if it was nerves-induced sickness. The difference this year is that i KNOW I can do it - even in bad conditions...

Wouldn't you just know it. Having gone through 16 weeks of training with no injury worries - with two weeks to go before the big race I start to get a real niggle in my left calf.

I can run on it - and it subsides after 10-15 minutes, but afterwards it stiffens badly. Any advice? I've never really had muscular problems before. I don't remember straining it at all - I think when I pushed hard (for me) at the 1/2 mara last week I must have tweaked it a little

I'm banking on it clearing up in the last week of taper before the race on 13th...

run was 6 miles around Hampton Court Palace in the snow and hail. erm...lovely.

last year this time I had a glorious tan from the warmest spring on record - this year I feel like Scott of the Antarctic some days...

A gentle 5 round Richmond Park. This calf is still niggling but again subsides after 15 minutes or so (or perhaps all my other pains catch up).

Should I: ice it? massage it? strap it? leave it? I've never had this kind of problem. I'm also using my old running shoes when I run from work in the week, and i think this might be exacerbated by their lack of cushion (they have done 600m+)

still hoping it will ease of its own accord, but have 4 & 12 to do over the weekend so we will see.

OK - so how can you run 20 miles one week in driving wind and rain and it be OK, and then the following week, 4 miles feels like a lifetime. A real miserable slog today. I guess some days you just DONT feel like it.

12 tomorrow. That'd better be easier!

didn't have time to measure the route, so went on time rather than distance.

Did 11 (was meant to be 12) but they were comfortable, enjoyable, etc and the calf niggle is a lot better.

Mile load in the coming week is low now i'm tapering so hoping it will be plain sailing from here.

4/5/4/3/8 this week

3/4/2 next week

before the big day, so my legs now in theory should just get stronger and stronger as the last 16 weeks of training repairs itself...

is this really the case? Last year I was too ill in the last 10 days to really see a difference (probably shouldnt have run on race day).